As reported in The Other Side Of Rainbow, a book that talks about Rainbow’s history.
The book explains what led to Dio parting ways with Blackmore.
Wendy Dio said:
“He got fired. You don’t have much choice there. I think Ronnie saw it coming.”
David Stone (Rainbow keyboardist (1977-1979)):
“That was kind of sad. Ronnie was always a really nice guy – no ego, really easy to get along with. Just one of the guys. A regular guy from Upstate New York, really. Blackmore was…he liked to control everything. So I could tell he was telling Ronnie what to sing and what to sing about. It limited Ronnie I think, creatively, quite a lot. Ronnie was like me – ‘We’re working with a rock god here, so we have to accord him that kind of respect.’ I think Blackmore should have stuck with Ronnie. He should have probably let Ronnie have a little more leeway when it came to songwriting and creativity. And he had a great band around him – all he had to do was let the band be a band. But he was a real control addict, and there was going to be none of that.”
Wendy Dio:
“I think that’s completely false [Ritchie’s claim in The Ritchie Blackmore Story DVD that Ronnie left after he was upset about a Circus Magazine cover photo that was of just Ritchie and not the whole band]. Ronnie was fired from the band – for not writing more commercial songs. I don’t think that would ever come up. It just sounds ridiculous.”
Wendy Dio:
“I don’t think so.” [In response to being asked if Ronnie and Ritchie ever spoke again after the split]
Craig Goldy (Dio guitarist, Dio Disciples guitarist):
“The news of Ronnie leaving Rainbow was the same thing as the news of Ritchie leaving Deep Purple – ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.’”
1 comment
Ikr,it’s such a waste because both of them could create more masterpiece together…but hey because of that we got more good song from dio in black sabbath and DIO