Dio Tributes on Sonisphere Stockholm 7th of August

[MadMartin]

This past Saturday it was finally time for the Sonisphere Festival in Stockholm where Heaven & Hell was scheduled to play. The weather was awful – tons of rain and the raining was almost constant. The first band I saw perform was Anthrax and to my great amusement Joe Belladonna was back behind the mic. Joe was, as far as I understand, a good friend of Ronnie. As you probably know, Belladonna was also singing a very beautiful acoustic version of ‘The Man on the Silver Mountain’ on RJD’s funeral.
I was expecting that the passing of RJD would be mentioned by some bands of course, but Anthrax’s tribute caught me off guard. Without warning the band played Heaven & Hell and Belladonna was praising RJD as the best singer ever and told the audience that “not a day goes by without thinking of my friend RJD” and was repeating “I love you, RJD” at the end of that song. I was so touched by this so I couldn’t hold back my tears. I had to put on my sun glasses (even though it was raining) to hide my tears, but it was too late. The man next to me (I know him briefly) saw my tears the very same moment I saw that he was crying as well. I have never discussed RJD’s passing with him because I was assured that he wouldn’t understand. But the truth was the opposite – he had the same grief as I had.

What lesson could be learned from this? Perhaps one should not be so afraid to show others one’s feelings. The rest of the night we where enjoying the music and listened to ‘Blood Brothers’ which Iron Maiden dedicated to RJD. We where sure looking for a rainbow in the dark in all the rain and darkness. But hey, can you really ask for two revelations the same evening?

Thanks for the lesson RJD!

/M

[DioInfinitum]

Nice of you to share. This has been beyond all, for me, the summer of Dio.
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"Too many flames, with too much to burn, and life's only made of paper." - RJD

[StargazerGeisha]

Very nice post.

I still sniffle sometimes, and usually I don't cry over men...

[Non]

I was moved to tears.
Thank you for sharing.

There must have been many other people there who couldn't hold up tears like you.


Ronnie should be anywhere where we are.
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☆Tell me lies as long as it's not about love☆

[MadMartin]

Thanks for your input Dio-friends!
I just felt that I had to share it with you and I'm glad you appreciated it. Sometimes I still feel that I miss him so much, but I guess it's due to egocentric stuff (I cannot hear any new material, read the biography that he was working on, go to any show with the man).
Sometimes I'm asking "why" and then hear the immediate response (with the voice we all know so well): "Hey, I didn't choose to go, but it happened. Accept it, 'cause I have". Probably it's my brain speaking, but perhaps it's not!

He is/was the grand wizard of hard rock music. I will keep him close to my heart the rest of my life!

Take care friends!

/M