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Rainbow in the Dark

The Autobiography

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Rainbow in the Dark

By: Ronnie James Dio, Mick Wall, Wendy Dio
Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
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About this listen

Ronnie James Dio was a heavy metal icon and frontman of three of the best-selling, most influential and famous rock bands in history: Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his own multi-million selling band, Dio.

Rainbow in the Dark is a rollercoaster ride through the extraordinary highs and lows of Dio's life, and takes us from his early days as a street gang leader and Doo-wop singer in '60s Vegas through to his breakout success with Rainbow and Black Sabbath in the '70s and the stadiums of US metal in the '80s - ending in Dio's dressing room at Madison Square Garden, in June 1986, at the peak of his worldwide fame with Dio.

Tragically Dio passed away from cancer in 2010, but had already begun writing a memoir before his death. Edited by the world-renowned music biographer Mick Wall, with the involvement of Dio's wife of over 35 years and personal manager Wendy Dio, Rainbow in the Dark honours and features Dio's never-before-seen original manuscript, while drawing on the extraordinary collection of print and audio interviews with the man himself to produce a vivid, raw and faithful portrait of one of the world's greatest ever rock legends.

©2021 Ronnie James Dio (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Biography
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The book chronicles RJD's lfe to the third Dio release and Intermission EP.

We get to hear about life as a unknown singer, using cars illegally on the weekend and accidentally aligning himself to a Mafia boss.

The Elf, Rainbow and Black Sabbath years are covered along with the first 3 Dio releases. The albums are covered, some in greater depths than others, but don't expect a track by track overview.

From what I've read, Wendy Dio had a hard time creating the book and given how quickly RJD passed, I can understand why.

That stated, I do hope a second tome is released covering the remaining Dio albums, the reunification with the Black Sabbath and the increase in recognition through the efforts of Jack Black.

The book is short but great.

Excellent look at Ronnie James Dio's rise to fame

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🤘 what an incredible amazing person never forgotten remembered forever Ronnie James Dio🤘 Thank you Wendy Dio for sharing

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

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RJD is without doubt one of the leaders in creating the genre of heavy metal. His voice, creativity and skill have left a legacy that will remain forever. Unfortunately this book, although incredible in its own right somehow misses something. Perhaps the difficulty in writing something after Dio's death. perhaps it was the repeated justification of how much other members of the band Dio were paid.

Dio was a man with a vision

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Really interesting back story to RJD. As a music nerd, all the details about gigs, a constant revolving door of line up changes and how he coped with all that is excellent. Only downside was that it gets a little bitter at the end. Good to spell out what happened but not sure a bio is the right place for it. Don’t let that put you off

Great read/listen

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