Ronnie James Dio's Widow Recounts His Final Days

Ronnie James Dio's Widow Recounts His Final Days

Jan. 3, 2011

Kory Grow of Revolver magazine recently conducted an interview with Wendy Dio, the widow and manager of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Dio, Rainbow, Elf). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Revolver: We were really honored to have [Ronnie] at the Revolver Golden Gods award show [in April 2010]. How were his spirits after that?

Wendy: "I really thank you for that. Very, very special. I mean, he fought [the cancer] so hard. And he didn't let it get in his way. Because he didn't think it was going to conquer him. And nor did I, we just thought, 'We're gonna beat it.' And that was the attitude he had through the whole time, right until the end."

"I was actually leaving that Friday morning [on May 14, 2010, two days before Ronnie's passing] to go to, I think it was, Chicago. And he wasn't feeling well. And I was like, 'You know what? I think we should go see the doctor.' The doctor said, 'I think we should take him to the hospital.' So we went to the hospital and Ronnie says, 'Go, go. I'll be fine.' And I'm like, 'No, no. I'm staying.' And thank God I didn't go, because that was the Friday, and then he got these incredible pains. Incredible pains which he hadn't experienced before that strong. And they gave him a bunch of morphine, and once they'd given him, like, three shots of morphine, he was almost in a coma. He came in and out of it a few times, and then he passed away on the Sunday."

Revolver: Could you communicate with him before he passed away?

Wendy: "No. Ronnie... I mean, I held his hand the whole time, and I'd ask him things and he'd squeeze my hand. In between the shots, I'd wait — just when the morphine was wearing off, they'd give him another shot — and he could communicate for a few seconds. But it was really hard. Really, really hard. There were, like, 30 people there, all of his really good friends were there that day."

Revolver: What's your fondest memory of Ronnie?

Wendy: "Oh, there's so many fond memories, you know. Every day there's a memory of something. I remember when we'd go to Houston to get the chemo, 'cause it's a long walk in the hospital, we'd skip along and go, 'OK, one more down to getting better.' You know, that's what we'd do. We'd go there with a positive attitude. And that was Ronnie's attitude on life.

"You know, I met Ronnie in 1975. I had a long, long time with him, and I have so many happy memories. Much more than any sad memories. I have those to live with."