Celebrity Graveland

July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010

Ronald James Padavona, AKA Ronnie James Dio, was one of the most influential – and certainly most powerful – voices in Heavy Metal music history. He grew up around music and said he learned how to sing, not by formal education, but rather by implementing breathing techniques taken from playing brass instruments and watching singers like Mario Lanza perform. Dio eventually found his calling in a number of local bands and first started to gain notoriety in the groups Elf and Rainbow. But, it was when he was asked to replace Ozzy Osbourne in the ultra-popular Black Sabbath, that his career really took off. He took the success he found with Black Sabbath and created his own band, Dio, which existed in some form or another for more than 25 years. He is famously credited with starting the association of the “metal horns’ hand gesture with Heavy Metal music. Toward the end of his life, Ronnie was busy with many projects, including a partial reunion with some of his former Black Sabbath bandmates (billed as Heaven & Hell.) In 2009, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and died from the disease less than a year later.

Burial

Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills, CA

Specific Location

Court of Remembrance; In the third section, Ronnie’s large sarcophagus is at the back right below a painting of three children*.

*- NOTE: This is one of the plots that was speculated to be Michael Jackson’s final resting place during the media circus following his death in 2009. It’s good that someone got some use out of it less than a year later.

This entry was posted on December 17, 2013 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills with tags Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, Musicians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.