- Introduced the "horns" gesture (created by extending the index and pinky finger, with the middle and ring fingers held under the thumb) to the world of rock music. Audiences would start repeating the gesture and its popularity soon spread. To this day, it's still widely seen at virtually all hard rock concerts, and is used by audience members to reflect their enthusiasm for the music.
- In May of 1979, he replaced Ozzy Osbourne as the singer for Black Sabbath. Contrary to current popular belief, the band initially did quite well without Ozzy, with the Dio-fronted albums "Heaven and Hell", "Mob Rules" and "Dehumanizer" earning the band's best sales since 1974.
- Dio had become a fixture in heavy metal's global family, his legend burnished by his being credited with making the "devil horns" hand gesture the international metal call sign. Dio claimed he had learned it from his Italian grandmother, who used it to ward off evil spirits.
- Organized and wrote music for Hear 'N Aid in 1985, the heavy metal equivalent of Band Aid, USA For Africa, and other multi-artist charity projects that were very popular at the time. The Hear 'N Aid song "Stars" saw the collaboration of 40 artists from various heavy metal bands, and ended up raising $1,000,000 against starvation in Africa.
- Has a street named after him in Cortland, New York.
- Dio studied pharmacy at the University at Buffalo, New York, in 1960/61.
- Was bassist/vocalist in the rock band ELF in the early, and mid, seventies. Was a vocalist in the heavy rock band Rainbow from 1975-1978; in Black Sabbath from 1980-1982 and 1992-1993; in Dio from 1982-1991 and from 1993 until his death.
- Met Ritchie Blackmore when Elf served as Deep Purple's opening act. When Blackmore left Purple in 1975, he formed Rainbow around the Elf line-up, minus their guitarist. After the first album, "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" was released, Blackmore fired everybody except Dio.
- The last album he recorded was Heaven & Hell's "The Devil You Know".
- It was on tour with a spin-off version of Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, that Dio revealed he was ill [2009].
- Has one son, Danny
- In 1961, he changed his last name from Padavona to Dio, after Mafia member Johnny Dio.
- His final studio album with his solo band was 2004's Master of the Moon. His final studio recordings released in his lifetime was the Heaven and Hell album The Devil You Know (which was the only Dio-lineup Sabbath album released under the Heaven and Hell name.).
- Italian-American.
- Contrary to popular belief, Dio is not the first Black Sabbath singer to die - Ray Gillen, also of Badlands, sang for Black Sabbath in the late '80s and passed away in 1993.
- Is a very big sports fan, particularly of teams based in New York such as the Yankees, Mets, New York Rangers and the New York Giants.
- Per Metallian he used to play the trumpet.
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