| Ronnie James Dio | vocals, keyboards |
| Vivian Campbell | guitars |
| Jimmy Bain | bass, keyboards |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
Right after Dio and Appice had quit Black Sabbath, they formed their own band, titled Dio already from the beginning. Despite the name, the band was not meant to be Ronnie James Dio's solo project, but a whole band.
They travelled together to England to search guitarist and bassist for the band. After three days of wandering around the clubs, Dio remembered Jimmy Bain from his Rainbow days, got in touch with him and asked him to join Dio. Bain agreed to join and the band kept on searching a guitar player. Dio wanted a British guitarist and Bain recommended two to Dio; namely John Sykes, ex Tygers Of Pan Tang and Vivian Campbell. Dio listened some tracks recorded by those guitarists and became interested in Campbell. They arranged a rehearsal room at a place called John Henry's and recorded Holy Diver and Don't Talk To Strangers with Campbell. Dio and Appice took the tape, listened it through, and invited Vivian Campbell the next day to the band.
The band started to work on their debut album. Before starting to work on the album, Ronnie James Dio supposedly spent a week in a small town called Plint in Cornwall, UK, and visited several times an old castle there inspirating himself to the athmosphere which Holy Diver eventually had.
The album was recorded at the Sound City studios in Los Angeles. Before touring for the album, the band wanted to get a keyboard player and started to search for one - on the album keyboards were played by both Ronnie James Dio and Jimmy Bain.
Of the songs on the Holy Diver, apparently the song Don't Talk To Strangers was originally made by Sweet Savage with a different name and different lyrics. The album was named as Holy Diver, and it sold platinum in the USA.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Vivian Campbell | guitars |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Claude Schnell | keyboards |
Dio originally hired their keyboardist only for the Holy Diver tour, but in the end he stayed as a permanent member in the band. He played off-stage on both Holy Diver and The Last In Line tours, but was let to appear on stage on Sacred Heart tour.
After the Holy Diver tour was completed, Dio returned back to studios to record a new album. It was titled as The Last In Line and after its release in July 1984, it has sold platinum in the USA.
Dio's tours always featured big stage shows. On Holy Diver tour they had mountains from Holy Diver album cover on stage, as well as a tunnel in the middle. On The Last In Line tour they had Egyptian theme on the stage, as well as had pyrotechnics. Sacred Heart tour featured a huge castle and a 18-foot tall fire-breathing dragon called Denzil - he was first called Dean - as well as two 8-foot tall armored knights battling with laser swords. This stage set was one of the biggest tour stage sets ever, apparently only Pink Floyd had had a bigger stage set on their tour. The stage show costed supposedly US$250 000 to build and transfer around.
In March 1986, two months after completing the North American leg of the Sacred Heart tour and one month before the European leg started, Vivian Campbell left the band. He was fired because of the musical disagreements. In various interviews, various Dio members have also said Campbell assumed that Dio's popularity was only because of him, but this has not been confirmed.
Dio was invited to play again at the Top Of The Pops show in British TV - the previous time was with Black Sabbath in 1980 - because Rock 'N' Roll Children song did so well. However, Dio refused to play there because they didn't consider themselves as a Top Of The Pops type band.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Claude Schnell | keyboards |
Shortly after Vivian Campbell left the band, new guitarist was chosen. The band started the Sacred Heart European tour soon after that.
Dio wanted to release a double live album from the Sacred Heart tour but it was rejected by the record company, which thought that the double album wouldn't sell well enough. Eventually Dio managed to get permission to do a live minialbum with one new studio track on it. Ronnie James Dio was so disappointed with it that he wanted it to be called Intermission.
Ronnie James Dio started to work on Dream Evil album with Craig Goldie in December 1986. The whole band started training in January 1987 and went to record the album in Village Recorder studios in Los Angeles around March 1987. The album was finished in May 1987.
The Dream Evil world tour began in Irvine, California with a Children Of The Night charity concert. The band then moved to Europe, where their tour began with an accident before the very first concert. When the roadies were unloading the band stuff from the aeroplane at Helsinki Airport before Dio show in Hameenlinna, Finland, they dropped a US$100 000 synthesizer to the ground and broke it. The band played a secret rehearsal concert at the House of Culture in Helsinki a day before the actual concert - apparently there was no audience in the show.
The Dream Evil tour's first European leg met other accidents too, for example when the band was on their way to Nurnberg Monsters Of Rock show, their truck broke on the highway in Germany. After the driver had left it to get help, 7 cars smashed into it and caused considerable damage to the instruments and backline - they had to borrow even drum sticks from Helloween to play the Nurnberg show.
Dio's Dream Evil tour's second European leg (first leg consisted only of outdoor shows) as well as the US tour featured even bigger stage show than Sacred Heart, which had won "Show Of The Year" rewards both in 1985 and 1986. This time there were big stainless steel spider, knights and big pyrotechnics on stage. Some shows might also have featured a firebreathing dragon. Between the two European tours Dio apparently played in China with Yngwie Malmsteen, George Duke and James Brown with a couple of Russian bands, on a project called Shanghai-Aid. The goal of the project was to raise funds for victims of nature phenomenons.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rowan Robertson | guitars |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Claude Schnell | keyboards |
Dio searched for a new guitarist for a long time and received approximately 5000 demo tapes. After listening through them they auditioned about 20 people - 10 from Los Angeles - and Rowan Robertson was considered clearly best one of those. However, Dio was uncertain about Robertson because of his age. In the end they decided to take him though.
As both Bain and Schnell quit the band, Dio started to search for a new bassist and keyboardist.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rowan Robertson | guitars |
| Teddy Cook | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Jens Johansson | keyboards |
Jens Johansson and Teddy Cook replaced old Dio members in August-September, 1989 and Dio continued working on the new material and prepared for the studios. On December 28th, Vinny Appice left the band and Dio started to look for a new drummer.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rowan Robertson | guitars |
| Teddy Cook | bass |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Jens Johansson | keyboards |
Around January 20th, 1990, the band went to record the forthcoming album to Granny's House studios in Reno, Nevada, USA with producer Tony Platt (previously worked for example with Ac/Dc). After recordings the album was mixed at Battery Studios in London, UK.
The album was originally scheduled to be released in mid May, 1990, but it's release date was changed to about week earlier, i.e. to May 7th. According to various interviews in metal magazines in the spring of 1990, the band recorded 12 songs for the album, but one of them was eventually not included on it. The remaining one was called Hell Wouldn't Take Her. They also had a song called There's A River Between Us, but it was dropped already in rehearsals.
They released also guitar transcriptions with notes and tablature for the Lock Up The Wolves album (Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, HL00660175, USA, 1990).
After releasing the Lock Up The Wolves album, Dio started their European tour as the warming up act for Metallica. There were two other bands, Bonham and Warrior Soul, playing at least at some of the dates, too. Dio warmed up Metallica in Central Europe and had their own tour in UK after that with Trouble as the warming-up band for them. This tour featured a small stage set, just something from the album sleeve (the bones) as well as some pyrotechnics.
On the US tour, called Throw 'em To The Wolves Tour 1990, they had much bigger pyrotechnics, as well as bit different kind of stage set too. Pyrotechnics caused some problems with safety, and on August 5th, 1990 in Providence pyros in Jens Johansson's keyboards blew on Johansson's face knocking him out for a while.
One show on Lock Up The Wolves tour became more important than the others, if the future of Dio is considered. In Minneapolis on August 28th, 1990, Geezer Butler joined Dio on stage and played Neon Knights with them.
Geezer Butler had heard that Dio will play in Minneapolis and called Wendy Dio to ask whether he could come to see the show. Ronnie James Dio told Butler that if he was going to come to the show, he must play a song on stage with Dio. So, he decided to come, but when he travelled by plane to Minneapolis, his bass got lost and he had to borrow a bass from Dio.
After the show he and Ronnie went to drink a few beers together and they both noticed that they consider Black Sabbath ended too soon in 1982. Geezer Butler had joined Black Sabbath just a little time before and they decided to call Tony Iommi and ask whether he would be interested in the reunion. Iommi was interested in the idea right away and Ronnie James Dio decided to try it with Black Sabbath once more.
In late 1990 some metal magazines stated that although there are some Black Sabbath reunion plans, Ronnie James Dio is nevertheless currently writing material with Rowan Robertson and Jens Johansson for the next Dio album, which would be due to go into production in January or February 1991, with a tentative release date in May 1991.
In early 1991, Dio the band was put "in ice" as the Black Sabbath reunion was announced. According to various metal magazines, the band was supposed to continue after Black Sabbath reunion had ended - at this time the Black Sabbath reunion was mentioned to last only for one album and world tour after that. Dio members went to separate directions to work on their own projects as Ronnie James Dio left to Sabbath.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
Right after Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice had left Black Sabbath, they reformed Dio and invited Jimmy Bain to the band. They placed an ad at least to Los Angeles Times where they announced that Dio is looking for a new guitarist.
However, in March 1993, Jimmy Bain was fired from the band by Ronnie James Dio and the band started to look for a new bassist.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
After firing Jimmy Bain, Dio started to look for a new bassist. He called to his friend, Jeff Pilson, to ask whether he knew any bass players who might be interested in joining Dio. Pilson said that he knew only one, namely Jeff Pilson. However, as Pilson was supposed to re-unite Dokken again, Dio was uncertain whether he should take him or not. When Pilson assured Ronnie James Dio that he will not leave Dio for Dokken after the album recordings, Pilson joined the band.
Dio continued the search for a new guitarist.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
After Tracy G joined the band, Dio went to the Rumbo Studios in Los Angeles with producer Mike Fraser, known from Coverdale/Page etc, to record Strange Highways. The album was released in different times in Europe, Japan and Northern America. The reason for this was Dio's tour plans - he originally planned to tour in Europe right after the album was released there, then in April 1994 to South America, after that to Japan and finally in North America.
The European tour went as planned, but as there was a big earthquake in Los Angeles on January 17th, 1994 at 4.30am, they had to cancel the Japan tour (no dates were scheduled yet) and postpone the North American tour. No-one from Dio was hurt in the earthquake, but Appice's and Tracy G's houses got destroyed rather badly - Ronnie James Dio's house got only little damage.
Dio originally planned Evilution to be released as a normal single and video, but in the end they released only a promo CD single of it to US radio. It is unknown why the plans of other formats didn't became reality - the video was even shot at the Hammersmith Apollo, London on December 12th, 1993. There are some rumors claiming that the Evilution video would've been shown once on US TV, but those rumors haven't yet been confirmed.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Before starting Strange Highways tour, Dio wanted to get a keyboardist to play keyboards on the tour. Wendy Dio, Dio's manager, called Jens Johansson and asked whether he would be interested, but Johansson had to say no, because he'd have had to play off-stage. In the end Dio chose Scott Warren of Warrant to play the keyboards. The band toured in Europe and North America until November 1994. During the US tour Vinny Appice did some drum clinic shows - or at least one, on September 17th, 1994 in New Britain, USA, before the Dio concert in the evening at The Sting in the same city.
From early Summer 1994 until early Autumn 1994 there were rumors about a project called Vienna, which would've featured Ronnie James Dio, Steve Vai and Cozy Powell. The project was supposed to have an album out called "The Master". Those rumors were not confirmed and nothing about the project has been mentioned ever since. Ozzy Osbourne was working with Cozy Powell at the time and press may've confused that project with Ronnie James Dio.
After the US tour ended on November 2nd, 1994, Jeff Pilson re-joined Dokken. He was supposed to return to Dio, but eventually he continued in Dokken and Dio started to look for a new bassist. Jeff offered to help Dio in studios for the next album, though.
In February 1995 there were some rumors about Dio looking for a new guitarist, too, but they proved to be unfounded as Tracy G is still in the band. In late May Dio left from Reprise record company and started to look for a new record deal. At least BMG has been interested in them, as well as some new record company owned by some Dio fan.
In the summer of 1995 Dio started to work on a new album, which is stated to be released in December 1995 or January 1996. Some tour plans have also been published, and according to them the band will start touring in October in South America, then return to finish the album and after that continue touring. Some plans have been mentioned about a possible show in Frankfurt, Germany on September 9th, 1995, but it hasn't yet been confirmed.
In early August there were rumors about Vinny Appice helping Black Sabbath to finish their US tour after Cozy Powell left them on August 3rd, 1995. The rumors started when Black Sabbath's singer Tony Martin had stated that Vinny Appice was listening Black Sabbath's concert at Pacific Amphitheatre, Los Angeles on August 3rd, 1995. He told about Powell's leaving at the same show, and some people interpret it that Vinny Appice will play drums until the end of the Black Sabbath's US tour. This was incorrect, however.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jerry Best | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Dio officially confirmed Jerry Best as their new bass player in mid August 1995. With the new member in the band they continue working with the forthcoming album. The band did also a five-day South American tour in late 1995.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Jeff Pilson returned back to the band for the album recordings. The band recorded the album at Total Access studios in Redondo Beach, CA, USA. After having other producers on the previous two Dio albums, Ronnie James Dio produced the 1996 album, titled as Angry Machines. Angry Machines was first estimated to be released in April, but eventually the release date was postponed to September 23rd in Europe and Japan. US release was scheduled to October 15th.
In early summer Dio fan club sent a newsletter announcing track listing for the Angry Machines album. The listing had a track "God Hates Heavy Metal" but the actual European and US releases didn't include it. However, there was one previously not mentioned track on the album, namely "Hunter Of The Heart". "God Hates Heavy Metal" appeared on the Japanese release as a bonus track.
Dio announced their new European record company in August - CBH Records and Steamhammer, a divison of SPV GmbH. US record company was announced a little bit later on in August, it is Futurist. Futurist exists on the Internet, too, at address http://www.earthlink.net/~flg/
In early September rumors about co-headlining Dio and Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow tours, with Great White or Pist-On as warming-up act emerged. Those rumors floated around and were finally confirmed by Dio's US record company and several other reputable sources. However, in late September, the co-headlining tour plans were dropped because of Ritchie Blackmore wanting to go studios to record an album with his partner Candice.
During the summer and fall of 1996, both Tracy G and Vinny Appice appeared on the Internet. Their web pages can be found from the following addresses: Vinny Appice: http://www.pacificnet.net/~viper1/ and Tracy G: http://members.aol.com/tracyg96/tracyg.html.
In mid September Ronnie James Dio did a promotion tour of his album in Europe. He appeared at least in Stockholm, Sweden on September 16th.
Dio was planned to appear at Foundations Forum/FMusicfest in Los Angeles, USA in early October. However, some magazines announced that Ronnie had some minor oral surgery and was unable to do the show. In October Dio planned to start their European tour on January 15th, possibly with Motörhead and some shows with Manowar. Eventually the European tour became two tours, one in December in Germany and Austria with Motorhead, and another in February-March, covering many different European countries.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Because Jeff Pilson was unable to tour with Dio because of his Dokken project, Dio hired a new bassist, Larry "Bones" Dennison, for the Angry Machines tour.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| James Kottak | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
After the first European tour, Dio's drummer Vinny Appice got pneumonia and was hospitalized for a little while. Because of this, the early part of the second US leg of the Angry Machines tour had to be cancelled and then rescheduled. Vinny was still recovering from the pneumonia when the rescheduled tour was about to start, and he was replaced by James Kottak for seven concerts - for the second US leg except one show.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Vinny recovered from his pneumonia by the start of the European tour and returned behind his drum kit. The band toured in Europe for a month before returning to tour in the USA.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Jeff Pilson replaced Larry Dennison for the South American leg of Angry Machines tour.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Vinny Appice | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
After the release of Inferno - The Last In Live double live album, Larry Dennison returned back to the band.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Simon Wright replaced Vinny Appice in the band, as Vinny left for Black Sabbath.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Bob Daisley | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Bob Daisley joined Dio for the Scandinavian leg of the Inferno tour, as Larry had to leave back home early from the tour.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Tracy G | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Larry returned back in the band for the 1999 Russian shows.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Larry Dennison | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Craig Goldie returned back to the band after leaving the band in 1988.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Chuck Garric | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Jimmy Bain returned back in the band in September 1999 but was not able to join the band on the tours outside the USA, so Chuck Garric helped the tours from November 9th, 1999 to November 30th, 1999 and in the year 2000 from May 3rd to June 26th. After that Jimmy was able to do the non-US tours as well.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Doug Aldrich | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
While recording the forthcoming Dio album, guitarist Craig Goldie and Dio parted ways and new guitarist, Doug Aldrich, stepped in.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jimmy Bain | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Doug Aldrich decided to join Whitesnake for their tour and possibly for an album as well. Doug started the Whitesnake tour already in early 2003, but around the end of April or early May rumors of his departure from Dio started to appear.
Warren DeMartini from Ratt announced that he will do a tour together with Dio. This was later on confirmed on Dio's official web pages. However, on May 23rd, Dio's ex-guitarist Craig Goldie was confirmed to have rejoined the band for the tour.
Around late 2003 or early 2004 Jimmy Bain decided to leave the band as they started to work on the follow-up album to Killing The Dragon. Ronnie had Rudy Sarzo already in mind, but he couldn't join the band because of his other commitments at the time. He became available later on, but for the forthcoming album Ronnie got his friend Jeff Pilson to play bass.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Jeff Pilson | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
With Jeff Pilson on the bass, Dio released Master Of The Moon album. Already in the beginning, Jeff was only asked to do the album as he had other commitments and Ronnie wanted Rudy Sarzo to join the band. Rudy was on tour when Master Of The Moon album was recorded, so he couldn't join them yet on the album.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rudy Sarzo | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
As Rudy Sarzo joined the band, they started a lenghty world tour from Russia to support their newest album, Master Of The Moon. When the tour returned back to Russia in September 2005, it had became "Holy Diver" tour as they played the whole Holy Diver album at the shows.
The tour faced a sudden problem on October 3rd, as Craig was forced to leave them because of health issues - he had problems with his wrist that prevented him from playing. However, they were able to get Doug Aldrich to help them through the remaining tour dates. He stepped in only three days later; Dio didn't have to cancel a single date on the tour.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rudy Sarzo | bass |
| Doug Aldrich | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
Doug Aldrich stepped back in to the band for the remaining of the 2005 tour dates as Craig's wrist problems prevented him from playing for the remaining tour dates. As Doug was already familiar with the Dio songs because of his previous stint in Dio in 2002-2003, they were able to continue on the tour without a single cancelled show in between Craig's leaving and Doug's rejoining.
Doug was on the tour with them until their gig in Oulu, Finland in December 2005. After that the band had a half a year break from touring and as Craig's wrist had recovered, he was able to come back to the band. Some sources claimed that there were some negotiations with Doug too, but he ended up joining Whitesnake instead.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rudy Sarzo | bass |
| Craig Goldie | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
With Craig Goldie back in the band, they continued on touring in Europe, South and Central America as well as Japan. Master Of The Moon tour, which started in July 2004, finally ended on the New Year's eve, December 31st 2006, in Kavarna, Bulgaria.
In 2007 Dio the band went on an unexpected break as Ronnie rejoined Black Sabbath, first for a best-of compilation with three new songs, followed by tour under the name Heaven And Hell. As Heaven And Hell decided to do a studio album too, the break became fairly long one.
2008 saw a short Dio come-back as they did a small European tour. After the tour was done, the band went back in ice, with each member doing their own stuff instead.
As Heaven And Hell's tour in 2009 was about to close, Dio announced an European tour for November-December 2009. This will result to another switch between Craig and Doug in the band.
| Ronnie James Dio | vocals |
| Rudy Sarzo | bass |
| Doug Aldrich | guitars |
| Simon Wright | drums |
| Scott Warren | keyboards |
As Dio announced the tour for November-December 2009, around September it was apparent that Craig cannot make it. As Ronnie had been working with Heaven And Hell, Craig had joined the classic rock band Budgie for the time being. Unfortunately the tour schedules for these two bands clashed; Craig had already a contract with Budgie to do an Australian tour at the same time when Dio was going to play in Europe.
To solve this problem, Ronnie contacted Doug Aldrich once again and asked if he'd be available to help them through the tour. Doug was indeed available and he'll fly over to Europe with Dio for 22 shows.
Although no official word has been said about the future of Dio, Craig has indicated in an interview he'd be back in Dio again after this tour is over.
This page is maintained by Tapio Keihänen,
E-mail: dio@iki.fi.
The page has been updated on 12.11.2009
Biography URL: http://www.dio.net/biography/,
the front page http://www.dio.net/.