Definite classics!

That's the perfect introduction to Dio. I think Ronnie would agree.

A useful reminder. Very much appreciated. And thanks for sharing your experiences hiding your D&D and Maiden paraphernalia. Those stories always delight me.

Thank you. Yes, that’s a more succinct way of putting it. Always thrilled (obviously) to talk Dio.

I’m already regretting some of what I wrote here. Rainbow didn’t refine what Sabbath did. They just brought more of their classical influences to the genre. They weren’t really metal, but they definitely helped to shape it. Ok. I’m done ranting.

But that’s just my view. And it's an oversimplification. Anyway, if you only know Dio’s solo stuff, I invite to to listen to Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell. That and Mon Rules are incredible. Dip is f*coming unstoppable on those albums.

Black Sabbath is my favorite bands. The albums they made with Dio are my favorite albums ever. You don't get there without Raibow. That band is in the DNA of the entire heavy metal movement. Sabbath birthed metal in the ‘70s. Rainbow refined it. Then Sabbath defined it.

As Martin Popoff says, metal didn’t really find itself until bands removed the blues from it. I think Rainbow (still a tad bluesy) was critical in making that happen. Then the New Wave of British Heavy Metal pushed things further, with ‘80s Sabbath, to me, perfecting it.

Ronnie brought that same energy with him when joining Black Sabbath, which transformed their sound into something much more complex and interesting in the ‘80s.