Ronnie James Dio, the diminutive Italian heavy metal legend with a voice of thunder, lost his six-month battle with stomach cancer today, May 16th, at the age of 67. One of the longest-performing musicians in the heavy metal and rock music genres, Dio was the legendary voice of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, his own band (Dio), and the Black Sabbath offshoot Heaven & Hell. Still at the top of his game when he was diagnosed with cancer, and with more tours and albums planned, Dio's death leaves a void in heavy metal that will possibly remain unfilled forever.

Dio (born Ronald James Padavona in New Hampshire, 1942) possessed one of the most recognizable and distinctive voices in heavy metal, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that everything he touched turned to gold. After leaving Rainbow, he fronted Black Sabbath from 1980 to 1982 (releasing Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules), and briefly returned in 1992 for Dehumanizer, providing the seminal heavy band with its relatively few years of musical consistency and strength. In the meantime, he led his own band, Dio, which made it's debut with 1982 classic Holy Diver. Dio released ten more albums, culminating in 2004's Master of the Moon. To promote the Black Sabbath: The Dio Years compilation CD, Ronnie reunited with the lineup of his Black Sabbath years - Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and Vinnie Appice on drums - to form Heaven & Hell, was the first time in fourteen years that the Dio-led lineup appeared on stage together. First playing only music from that era (Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and Dehumanizer), the band felt the energy was high enough to release what would be their only studio album, 2009's The Devil You Know. Iommi's doomy riffs and Dio's soaring vocals proved far more than a nostalgia act, and showed that Heaven & Hell had life beyond performing Black Sabbath songs. The band toured for two months in 2009 before Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Typically of Dio, he still had plans, even as he received biweekly chemotherapy treatments. He had planned to continue the story started in Dio's Magica album (2000), which would have resulted in two further releases. Another Heaven & Hell album was also on the cards, and the band would have opened for Iron Maiden on two European dates in the fall of 2010. Sadly for everyone involved, none of this was to be, as Dio passed away peacefully in the early morning of May 16th, surrounded by his wife, family and friends.

While Judas Priest gave us the leather and studs,  and Iron Maiden gave us the ripped jeans, it was Dio who contributed the metal horns, which soon spread far beyond the heavy metal subculture. Such was Dio's legacy and influence that he collaborated with Jack Black for the Tenacious D CD and film, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. In 2006, Dio provided the vocals of Dr. X, the villain of Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime II, and performed the song "The Chase" live with the band. Swedish power metal band Dream Evil took their name from Dio's 1987 album Dream Evil, and the German power metal band Mob Rules took their name from his Black Sabbath album. Dio's fantasy-themed lyrics and imagery in his solo career inspired whole subgenres of heavy metal, let alone individual bands. He was to heavy metal what Alfred Hitchcock was to filmmaking.

The tributes that have poured in for Dio - from members of Metallica, Kiss, Judas Priest, Metal Church, Dream Theater, Obituary, Anthrax, Lacuna Coil, Megadeth and Twisted Sister among dozens others, and from solo artists like Slash, Ritchie Blackmore and Sebastian Bach - tell only part of the story. In addition to his status as one of the elders of heavy metal, Dio was loved for his friendliness, kindness, charity work, and his connection with his peers, the legions of musicians he influenced, and the masses of fans who followed him from his early days in Elf, to his higher profile in Rainbow, before climbing the mountain with Black Sabbath, making his own mountain with Dio, and, proving the timeless nature of heavy metal, performing Black Sabbath songs with Heaven & Hell, songs older than some of the fans in attendance.

Dio's loss will be long felt among the fans and musicians of the heavy metal community, and his will be one of the few statures that is not inflated by his passing. He really was - and will continue to be - simply that legendary and iconic. His memory, music and voice will cherished by all those who knew him, or knew of him.