CRAIG GOLDY Pays Tribute To RONNIE JAMES DIO: 'The Whole World Was Affected By That Man'

Ex-DIO guitarist Craig Goldy has paid tribute to his former bandmate, legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW),saying that "Ronnie changed the world because he created his own universe with his lyrics and the way he wrote."

After joining DIO in 1987, Goldy became Ronnie James Dio's right-hand man and went on to co-write such DIO classics as "Dream Evil", "One More For the Road", "As Long As It's Not About Love" and many others.

Speaking to Rock Scene at this month's M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, Goldy said (see video below): "Just like you will always remember where you were on 9/11, anyone who ever heard Ronnie James Dio sing for the very first time will always remember where they were. I will never forget it. [I was] sitting in a car with a friend a mine; we were getting a band together. I was all upset 'cause DEEP PURPLE had just broken up and disco was taking the scene, so the world was upside down. And all of a sudden I heard 'Man On The Silver Mountain' [from Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW] come on the radio, and I said, 'Who the hell is that?' And next thing I know… I came from an abusive family, so I was living on the streets of San Diego. Five years later, I'm headlining Madison Square Garden with my favorite singer, Ronnie James Dio, playing songs that we wrote together, and it was an actual dream come true. So dreams come true."

He continued: "Ronnie changed the world because he created his own universe with his lyrics and the way he wrote. And he also… That kind of music called to the downtrodden and the black sheep of the globe. 'Cause you could hear what hurt Ronnie was… subject matter that also hurt me. And when he was angry, those are the things I was angry about. So it was almost like we were talking to each other before we even met; it was like I knew him before I even met him. And he had that relationship with the whole world."

Goldy added: "He was so good to his fans. I mean, he would always pick the least and make them the most. The one weirdo that got backstage who always got overlooked or was the last one to be picked on the volleyball team in high school, Ronnie would pick him and make him feel the most special. He always had a way of making you feel like you were the only one in the room for that time that you were together. It'd be almost like having the golden ticket for the cholocate factory and meeting Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory. And so you had the keys to the kingdom and you were gonna get to meet the king, and he would turn it all around and become your servant. And he'd go, 'Hey, can I get you anything? Can I do anything for you? Can I make you a sandwich? Can I pour you a drink?' And then he would just blow their minds with kindness.

"Anybody who didn't ever really meet him in person, they had a special relationship with him because of the way he wrote and the way he sang and the way he was to his fans. His family was the world, and the whole world was affected by that man."

Asked what the most important thing was that he learned from Ronnie, Craig told Guitar World magazine in a 2013 interview: "There are so many, but a lot of it is first the music has to feel good. The groove has to be great because a lot of guitar players write for the riff first. The way he wrote songs was special too, because he really toiled. The law of hit songwriting is melody first, lyrics second. A lot of people don't do that; a lot of singers sit around with their notebooks filled with lyrics and they try to cram their lyrics into a song. So the two have already been sitting around collecting dust and they try to call it an original song. That's not the way you do it. You’ve got to start from scratch."

He continued: "[Ronnie] would really toil because it's hard to tell a story and hit people in the heart with the limited amount of syllables you have in a song. It's not an easy task, but I watched him do that and I learned from him."