The long-awaited autobiography of Ronnie James Dio is scheduled for release on July 27.
Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the book will chronicle the life and career of one of rock’s most fascinating singers.
Dio famously fronted three successful groups. From 1975-1979, he was the singer of Rainbow, contributing vocals on the band’s first four studio LPs. Creative differences with the band’s founder and guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, led Dio to leave the group, but he’d soon latch on with Black Sabbath, replacing their departed frontman Ozzy Osbourne. Dio breathed new life into the metal giants, helping deliver the classic albums Heaven and Hell (1980) and Mob Rules (1981). He’d depart the group in ‘82, forming the eponymous band Dio later that year.
A press release announcing Rainbow in the Dark‘s release promised that the book would cover all aspects of the rocker’s career, including “everything from his fallout with Ritchie Blackmore, the drugs that derailed the resurrection of Black Sabbath, the personality clashes that frayed each of his three bands, and the huge bet he and (wife) Wendy placed together to launch the most successful endeavor of his career…his own band, Dio.”
The book reportedly begins and ends at Madison Square Garden, a legendary venue that “represented the pinnacle of success” to Dio. The musician had begun work on his life story prior to his death in 2010.
“Ronnie wrote the book up until the middle of (Dio’s time in) Rainbow,” the rocker’s window, Wendy, previously explained. “I know everything after that, and what I want to do is keep it in his words. So what we’re doing is we’re finding lots of interviews and things. So I want it to continue in Ronnie’s words, of what went on at that time and so on. … The part all the way up to the middle of Rainbow is completely Ronnie, and there’s a lot of stories in there that a lot of people will be surprised about in his childhood.”
Mick Wall, an acclaimed music journalist and longtime friend of Dio’s, picked up the work following the singer’s passing. The result is a “frank, startling, often hilarious, sometimes sad testament to dedication and ambition, filled with moving coming-of-age tales, glorious stories of excess, and candid recollections of what really happened backstage, at the hotel, in the studio, and back home behind closed doors far away from the road.”
Rainbow in the Dark is available for preorder now via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.