Six Degrees of Dio

Deep Purple

2012-02-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

When you think of the pioneers of metal the first band you should think of is Black Sabbath but right behind them is Deep Purple. More on the iconic band in a bit.

First the trip from Deep Purple to Dio is a very direct one as Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio were both in Rainbow together.

Now with other bands I have been picking somewhat obscure songs to play but with Deep Purple there is only one song that I can pick, That of course is 'Smoke on the Water'. In my generation when you first picked up a guitar the first riff you learned to play was the opening Riff to Smoke on the Water, even before you learned to play the Iron Man riff from Black Sabbath.

Blue Oyster Cult

2012-02-20T19:54:00.000-05:00

Before they were reduced to a joke about cowbells on Saturday Night Live Blue Oyster Cult was one of the premiere hard rock bands of the U.S. They were to the U.S. what Black Sabbath was to the U.K. As matter of fact Blue Oyster Cult was the very first concert I attended in Atlantic City during the Summer of 1982. (Get off my damn lawn.)

However our route from BOC to Dio takes a more modern route as bassist Rudy Sarzo played with them in 2008 and as IO mentioned before Rudy also played in Dio. What's that you say? You don't believe Rudy was in BOC. Neither did I at first until I found this video.

Now here's a more traditional BOC with my favorite song of theirs 'Joan Crawford'...

Black Sabbath

2012-02-13T21:19:00.001-05:00

I know what you're thinking. Black Sabbath Trench? Really? Yes, really because it allows me to talk about the most underrated Black Sabbath album of all time.

We all know Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules but not enough people know about the 1992 album Dehumanizer. This was the reunion of Dio, Iommi, Butler and Vinny Appice. With the advent of grunge and alternative this album went largely unnoticed by the unenlightened however it is just as epic as the other Dio era Sabbath albums.

Of course as we all know Ronnie James Dio was in Black Sabbath.

Now here is Black Sabbath with Computer God off of Dehumanizer. If you pay close attention to the lyrics you can see that Ronnie was eerily prophetic with this song.

Zakk Wylde/Black Label Society

2012-02-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

To be honest I'm not a huge fan. I mean his work with Ozzy was good but I haven't liked anything by BLS since Sonic Brew and that was 13 years ago. But I can't deny that Zakk is a very talented musician and comes within a fraction of C.H. of being as talented as Randy Rhoades.

Anyway since Zakk has worked with Ozzy for years you should know how this one goes by now.

Zakk played for Ozzy. Ozzy was in Sabbath. Ronnie was in Sabbath/Heaven and Hell.

My favorite project of Zakk's was actually his Southern rock bad Pride and Glory. Here's Pride and Glory with 'Shine On'.

Tim 'Ripper' Owens

2012-02-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Ripper gets a bad deal sometimes because a lot of people seem to think that he's just a Rob Halford imitator. Those people are doing themselves a great disservice because in my opinion Ripper is one of the premiere voices in metal. As a matter of fact in my pantheon of metal gods Ripper is only behind Dio himself.

If you have not listened to any of his stuff either with Priest, Iced Earth, Beyond Fear or his solo work you are really missing out.

Ripper has also worked with some of the premiere names in metal. For example he has several short routes to Dio but I took this one.

Vinny Appice appeared on Ripper's solo album Play My Game. Vinny was also the drummer for the Dio-era Sabbath and Heaven and Hell.

Here's Ripper and Beyond Fear with 'My Last Words'

Badlands

2012-01-31T18:33:00.000-05:00

Badlands was a band that was started in the late 1980s when Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee was fired from the band by telegram from Sharon Osbourne. Yes, even back then she was an obnoxious bitch.

Badlands had a great hard rock sound with their debut album. I saw them live in 1990 opening for Great White and Tesla. I was there just to see Badlands. Unfortunately they couldn't follow up on their debut albums with anything decent afterwards in my opinion.

They actually have a few roads to Dio and thankfully they are all quite short.

As I mentioned Jake E. Lee played with Ozzy where we can go to Sabbath and then Dio. However both lead singer Ray Gillen and drummer Eric Singer had both been members of Black Sabbath, post-Dio, as well.

Here's Badlands with my favorite song off their debut album, Streets Cry Freedom.

Anthrax

2012-01-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

Anthrax is one of the seminal thrash bands of all time. There's a reason they're part of the big 4, even though to me it's really the big 2 but that's neither here nor there.

Dimebag Darrell Abbott played on several Anthrax albums. He also played on the Rob Halford song "Light Comes Out of Black". Rob Halford has filled in as the lead singer of Black Sabbath on occasion with Tony Iommi. And by now you should no that Tony was in Sabbath/Heaven and Hell with Dio.

Now while I'm sure most people are fans of the classic Anthrax with Joey Belladonna on vocals I'm more of a fan of the John Bush led Anthrax. I felt they were a more serious band with John Bush.

Here's the John Bush fronted Anthrax with Anyplace But Here off of the album We've Come For You All

Alice in Chains

2012-01-28T10:26:00.000-05:00

In my opinion Alice in Chains was the only band from the heyday of grunge that was worth a damn. Not only that but they were an awesome band. But yes, even they have a connection to Dio.

Chris DeGarmo of Queensryche appeared on Jerry Cantrell's solo album Degredation Trip. DeGarmo was in Queensryche with Geoff Tate. Geoff Tate and Ronnie James Dio both sang vocals on the song 'The Chase' off of Operation Mindcrime II

Here's my favorite Alice in Chains song, 'Would?'

Alice Cooper

2012-01-25T08:04:00.002-05:00

If you don't like Alice Cooper you must be a goddamned communist or something. And if you stopped listening in either the 70s or 90s you've missed some of Alice's better material.

Ozzy Osbourne appeared in the Alice Cooper song 'Hey Stoopid'. Bass player Rudy Sarzo played for many years with Ozzy and Rudy also played for many years with Dio.

The funny/sad/cool thing (take your pick) the sing-talking Ke$ha can be linked to Dio this way also since she did a duet with Alice Cooper on Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

Anyway here is Alice Cooper with 'Pick Up The Bones' off of 1999's Brutal Planet. One of the best Alice albums in my opinion.

Accept

2012-01-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

Prior to Balls to the Wall, Accept was one of my favorite bands growing up. They had a great sound and were one of the few bands that the poseurs hadn't latched on to yet. That was until Balls to the Wall was played like every 5 minutes on MTV. Plus the lead singer's name was Udo Dirkschneider. Not only is that an awesome name but it pretty much described the way he looked.

So far Accept takes the longest route to get to Dio.

Udo has recorded a couple of duets with Doro Pesch. Doro has recorded a couple of duets with Lemmy from Motorhead. Lemmy was in Motorhead with Fast Eddie Clarke. Fast Eddie was in Fastway with Pete Way. Pete Way played for Ozzy. Ozzy was in Sabbath with Geezer Butler. Geezer was in Sabbath/Heaven and Hell with Ronnie James Dio. Whew.

Now here's Accept with the classic 'Fast As A Shark'.

AC/DC

2012-01-20T04:39:00.000-05:00

I mean who doesn't know AC/DC? They have a long storied career that has spanned over 5 decades. So it's not surprising that their connection to Dio is a rather short one.

Simon Wright played drums for AC/DC from 1983 to 1988. Wright also played drums for Dio from 1990-1991 and 1998-2010. It doesn't get any more direct than that.

Here is the Simon Wright backed AC/DC with 'Shake Your Foundation' off of 1985's Fly on the Wall.

A Pale Horse Named Death

2012-01-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

I'm kind of going in alphabetical order through my musical collection but don't ask me why Iron Maiden was first. Anyway today's band is A Pale Horse Named Death.

If you're not familiar with them they're a cross between Type O Negative and Alice in Chains. That shouldn't be surprising since there are two former members of Type O in APHND.

So here's the route I took to Ronnie James Dio...

Sal Abruscato of APHND was in Type O Negative with Peter Steele. Type O recorded the song 'Matchstick Men' with Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy was in Black Sabbath with Tony Iommi. Tony of course was in Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell with Ronnie James Dio.

Here's APHND with my favorite song off of their album And Hell Will Follow Me, 'Meet The Wolf'.

UPDATE: An astute commenter on the APHND Facebook page mentioned that Peter Steele and Tony Iommi did a song together. I completely forgot about that so Ozzy can be skipped entirely in this case.

And a very special thank you to Sal Abruscato himself for linking to this post on both Facebook and Twitter.

Speaking of Kevin Bacon

2012-01-17T11:22:00.001-05:00

Ronnie James Dio has a Bacon number of 2.

Rules Clarification: We're Stars

2012-01-17T10:11:00.001-05:00

I took a meeting today with the Six Degrees of Dio Rules Committee (my wife) and we came to the conclusion that a metric ass-ton of bands could be linked to Dio through the Hear 'n Aid project, especially the song 'We're Stars'.

We have decided to use 'We're Stars' in the game would be cheating so it has been disqualified.

For those of you not familiar with Hear 'n Aid and 'We're Stars' it was the metal equivalent to We Are The World.

See how many people you can pick out.

Iron Maiden

2012-01-17T08:01:00.000-05:00

First up on Six Degrees of Dio is Iron Maiden.

Now keep in mind I am doing this off the top of my head if you can think of a shorter way to get from Iron Maiden to Dio please feel free to leave it in the comments but this is how I went.

Bruce Dickinson is in Iron Maiden. Bruce recorded the song 'The One You Love to Hate' with Rob Halford on the Halford album Resurrection. Rob Halford was in Judas Priest with Glenn Tipton who was in Judas Priest with Tim 'Ripper' Owens. Ripper was part of Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. Yngwie recorded a cover of Aerosmith's 'Dream On' with Ronnie James Dio.

And now here's Iron Maiden with 2000's 'Out of The Silent Planet'.

By the way, I tend to pick the more obscure songs since we've all heard 'Run to The Hills' like a million times.

Intro

2012-01-17T05:53:00.001-05:00

I've been a fan of Ronnie James Dio just about as long as I can remember. I've also been amazed at the myriad of musicians he played with throughout his storied career. He has played with so many musicians that after I got married my wife and I started playing what we called the Ronnie James Dio game. It's basically a bastardized version of the Kevin Bacon game but except with movie stars you try and connect bands or musicians to Ronnie James Dio in the least amount of steps.

I realize I am far from the first person to come up with this idea but this is a website I've been wanting to do for sometime. Since the world lost its greatest voice in metal on May 16, 2010 I figured this is the least I could do as a tribute to him.

So sit back, relax have some fun with me over the days as we discuss some great bands and in my opinion the godfather of metal.