Ronnie James Dio died on this day 13 years ago, aged 67.
- Dio's actual last name was Padavona; he took his stage name from mobster Johnny Dio.
- Dio formed his first band when he was 15, called The Vegas Kings. It soon changed its name to "Ronnie and the Rumblers", "Ronnie and the Redcaps", and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets", before dropping Ronnie's name in 1967 to become "The Electric Elves", then "The Elves", and finally just "Elf" in 1972 (a total of six name changes over 15 years for those keeping count).
- After Elf disbanded in 1975, Dio and three other band members joined Rainbow; he left in 1979 to replace Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of Black Sabbath.
- Dio quit Black Sabbath in 1982 and formed a self-titled band, with his signature song being released the following year:
- In 2006, Dio would reunite with his Black Sabbath bandmembers to form Heaven & Hell- Ozzy Osbourne had returned to Black Sabbath, and this was effectively the same 1979 lineup, just under a different moniker.
- Dio Brando, the main antagonist of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga and anime, was partially named after Ronnie James Dio (the "Brando" comes from Marlon Brando).
- Dio announced he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in November of 2009 (surprised he was omitted from the 2010 list), and died six months later.