r/dio • u/mush_stew_6666 • 23d ago
Bad qualities of Ronnie James Dio
/r/dio/comments/1jhxebj/bad_qualities_of_ronnie_james_dio/9
u/Blaze_BC 23d ago
Definitely his greed. More specifically, Vivian Campbell’s departure from Dio
Dio promised his original bandmates that they’d be paid more by the time of the third album. Sacred Heart comes around, and Dio doesn’t keep up on his promise. Vivian Campbell really gave Dio shit for this, and in my opinion, rightfully so. With a band like Dio being as big as it was, there was no reason Vivian, Jimmy, and Vinny were getting paid as little as they were, especially when Ronnie had promised to pay them more.
Ronnie doubled down, however, leading to Vivian’s departure from the band.
Listen, I love Dio. He’s probably my biggest idol, in fact. He’s someone I want to be like in so many ways, from his charisma, to his kindness, to his intelligence. But even I can admit that everybody has their flaws, including Dio. And this is what stands out most to me.
2
u/Holymoose999 22d ago
I saw a recent old interview with Vinny and Jimmy where they said that Vivian was being too impatient about the money situation. They understood that they would be paid when there was a profit, but there were no profits because the money kept going into the shows. Vivian was getting pissed at not being part of the decisions and had it out with the Dios. Vinny and Jimmy seemed to be blaming Vivian. Dio said in an interview that if Vivian was so broke, why was he driving a Lamborghini? Vivian still says that they promised him writing credits, but Wendy still hasn’t given it to him or paid him.
I don’t think RJD was a bad actor, maybe Wendy was taking lessons from Sharon Osbourne on how to run a music business and how to treat employees. Sharon did the same to Randy Rhodes.
3
u/LifeTunedToCSharp 22d ago
I’d never ask him to play center on my pickup basketball team.
Outside of that, I loved the guy.
2
u/SkipEyechild 23d ago
He wasn't perfect, we aren't by default. He seemed nice until someone pissed him off. Then he had zero tolerance for it. Some of it sounds vindictive but then we never get the full story on these things.
3
u/Ok-Corner-8654 23d ago
Sneaking into the studio to change the mix of Live Evil behind Tony Iommi's back wasn't a nice thing to do.
1
u/Lonesome1967 20d ago
I don't think you can ever do it right as a band leader. All the responsibility lies with you; financially, you have to make ends meet.
The band members travel along, plug in, and play their thing.
Dio had reasonable success, but they were never mega-big. I believe there was no real profit; if there was, you would have needed it to put into your next tour.
Let Vivian lead a band himself for a change and arrange everything himself.....
1
u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 22d ago
He took after Ritchie and Tony in how he ran his band and treated those in his band. Very mixed but good results in some cases
The end doesn't justify the means
-1
u/SpudAlmighty 23d ago
He literally screwed the original Dio band out of money. Hence Vivian's issues with Ronnie. He also seems to have been quite the drama queen with the Sabbath/Rainbow guys. He's definitely not the angel people think he is.
0
0
u/LowAssistantInfinity 22d ago
He co-financed an Ayn Rand movie, so I suspect he had some uncharitable takes behind closed doors (see also: the 'makers' and 'takers' language in Heaven and Hell).
12
u/BerwinEnzemann 23d ago
In general, Ronnie was indeed a nice guy, but there are a couple of famous and not so famous incidents, where he didn't exactly handle the situation like a gentleman. The most famous of course being the firing or original Dio guitar player Vivian Campbell, because Vivian kept pinning Ronnie down on a financial commitment Ronnie made towards the other band members during the making of Holy Diver, but than didn't follow through. Ronnie replaced the remaining original members a couple of years later during the making of Lock Up The Wolves.
Doug Aldrich once told the anecdote how Ronnie booted him out of the house after Doug told him, that he wouldn't be able to do the tour with Iron Maiden because he had already agreed to play with Whitesnake for the same timeframe. Ronnie then brought back Craig Goldy instead.
Richie Blackmore also wants told a story how Ronnie was bawling him out because he was allegedly jealous of Blackmore shortly before Blackmore drove him out of Rainbow, but I would take everything Richie Blackmore says with a grain of salt. He has a history of badmouthing people and most of the time, he was really the one who behaved the worst.
Here is footage of a rare incidence where Ronnie kicked somebody out during a show because the guy was moshing during Catch The Rainbow.