Wendy Dio, widow and longtime manager of Ronnie James Dio, spoke to Canada’s The Metal Voice about the upcoming career-spanning documentary on the life and times of the legendary rock icon. It is the first documentary about Dio to be fully authorized by the artist’s estate. BMG is both financier and executive producer of the film.
“I [just saw the first cut of it],” Wendy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET. “Last week they were in town from New York, and we were going over a lot of stuff. It was amazing. They did a great job. I cried my eyes out. And the girl from BMG and my publicist, we were all crying. It was very emotional. They did a very, very good job on it. We moved a few things around, edited a few things. But I think it’s gonna be really good… It’s done really well. Mick Wall [author of Dio‘s recently released autobiography] is excellent in it — him and [SiriusXM radio personality] Eddie Trunk are excellent. They both kind of go back and forth as kind of the moderators in it, and they did an excellent, excellent job. Lita Ford does a great job. Rob Halford does an amazing job. Glenn Hughes… It’s different to the book — totally different to the book. But it’s so interesting and so touching.”
Earlier in the month, Wendy told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about what fans can expect to see in the documentary: “There’s a bunch of stuff from [old] Super 8 [tapes] and some other stuff. There’s fantastic interviews with all kinds of different people about when they were working with Ronnie or what they were doing at the time, maybe supporting Ronnie. It’s totally different to the [recently released Dio] book. And I’m very interested to see this cut. I’m excited, actually, to see it. And I think it’s gonna be great.”
In October 2019, Wendy told the WSOU radio station that the documentary “will go from Ronnie‘s childhood all the way through [to the end of his life]. I think they interviewed Jack Black, and I think they interviewed all of Ronnie‘s bandmembers and Doug Aldrich and, I think, Jeff Pilson. They were getting ready to go to Arizona to interview Rob Halford and Lita Ford. And then they were going into England to interview Tony Iommi. They already did Geezer [Butler]. So there will be very interesting stories from different people. I think it’ll be a great thing, and it’ll show people a lot of things that people have never seen before.”
Ronnie James Dio passed away of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010 at the age of 67.
Dio was renowned throughout the world as one of the greatest and most influential vocalists in heavy metal history. The singer, who was recording and touring with BLACK SABBATH offshoot HEAVEN & HELL prior to his illness, was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late 2009. He underwent chemotherapy and made what is now his final public appearance in April 2010 at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles.
Dio‘s autobiography, titled “Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography”, was released on July 27 via Permuted Press.
