Alex Skolnick: remembering Dio

Alex Skolnick:

This past weekend, we lost Ronnie James Dio, not only one of the best singers in hard rock and heavy metal, but someone who was polite, well spoken and gentlemanly, something of an anomaly in a genre where ‘bad boy’ behavior is embraced and expected of its frontmen. When someone of his stature of passes away, there is a collective void felt by millions of fans, creating a sense of unity. This feeling takes on an even more sad, surreal quality when it is someone that you were on a first name basis with.

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One day, I was trying to reach my friend Lorenzo, who was on Dio’s sound crew. This was the early 00’s and our tours were crossing paths in Cleveland. I’d been unable to make the Dio concert, but another friend of mine went to the show and bumped into Lorenzo, who told him to say hi to me and pass on his new phone number.

When I called a day or so later, the voice didn’t sound like Lorenzo’s. “Alex Skolnick! How are you? I’ve always liked your guitar playing.” He asked what I was up to and how this person was and how that person was, asking me to please say hello to these people for him. This guy obviously knew me and others I knew, but I didn’t recognize his voice. Who could it be? I hesitantly asked. He laughed and said “Alex, it’s Ronnie Dio!”

My jaw dropped. He explained that either he’d lost his cell phone and had been borrowing Lorenzo’s or vice versa (I forget), then nicely offered to pass on the message and have him call me, then we said goodbye. Whatever the situation was, I barely processed it and it scarcely mattered…I was on the phone with Dio!

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