Ronnie James Dio (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

As much as I’ve enjoyed making fun of Mr. Dio for his biblical-babble fantasy lyrics; it was homage.  No one sits down to craft careful parody for someone irrelevant or insignificant.  Dio inspired me.  I was an instant fan upon the release of 1983’s Holy Diver.  While there were no secrets of the universe to be learned from his words, he had ten feet of voice in his five feet of body, and he wrote some truly great music.