An Official Ronnie James Dio Documentary Is Coming This Year

The fully authorized project "goes all the way through his life till the end"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Jan 3, 2022

Following last year's arrival of a long-anticipated autobiography, the life and work of late vocal power Ronnie James Dio will be explored in a 2022 documentary film.

Blabbermouth notes that Wendy Dio, the artist's widow and longtime manager, shared with Argentinian journalist Lucas Gordon that the career-spanning film would arrive this year, fully authorized by the estate. The site reports that BMG is both financing an executive producing the film.

"I [recently] saw the first cut of it. It was very emotional," Wendy Dio shared. "It's very different from [2021 autobiography Rainbow in the Dark] 'cause the book finishes in 1986, with Ronnie playing Madison Square Garden. But the documentary goes all the way through his life till the end. And it was very emotional. I was watching it with my publicist and a person from BMG, who are funding the documentary. And we all cried. It was very emotional."

Wendy Dio also shared that the film features interviews with Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford, Jack Black, Lita FordRainbow in the Dark author Mick Wall, SiriusXM radio personality Eddie Trunk and more. Speaking with New Jersey's WSOU late last year, she also revealed the involvement of Ronnie James Dio's former Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler — the latter of whom claims he was throwing up the horns long before Dio.

Ronnie James Dio passed away of stomach cancer in May 2010. He was 67.

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