Wendy Dio, widow and longtime manager of Ronnie James Dio, has revealed details about the upcoming career-spanning documentary on the life and times of the legendary rock icon. As yet untitled, the film is the first documentary to be fully authorized by the artist’s estate.
“It’s coming out [later this] year,” she said in an interview with Argentinian journalist Lucas Gordon. “I [recently] saw the first cut of it. It was very emotional. It’s very different from [Dio’s autobiography]. ‘Cause the book finishes in 1986, with Ronnie playing Madison Square Garden. But the documentary goes all the way through his life till the end. And it was very emotional. We all cried. It was very emotional.
But it’s really interesting and really good. Rob Halford is great in it, talking about stories. Lita Ford [and] Jack Black [are also in it]. Eddie Trunk [SiriusXM radio personality] and Mick Wall [author of Dio’s autobiography] both kind of narrated it and everything. I’m very pleased with it. I don’t know exactly when it’s gonna come out [this] year, but it’ll be out [this] year.”
Last August, Wendy Dio 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 band members 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. He 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, Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography, was released last July via Permuted Press.
Listen to the best of Dio on Apple Music and Spotify.