Rainbow’s end… R.I.P. Dio, and a 1987 news clip about my high school’s KVAL radio

Ronnie James Dio died early Sunday morning after a long bout with stomach cancer - passing of a legend. I was never a huge fan at the time, but I know now that the stuff he did with Black Sabbath is awesome - something I didn’t really acknowledge as it was happening because at the time I was more into punk, ska, new wave, and the early strains of hip-hop that Tower carried, and frankly, I thought of Sabbath as old dudes that didn’t even have their original vocalist… I know, I know… I WAS WRONG, ok? What can I say?

I’m dating myself here, but my first exposure to Dio was in high school (the way it should be, motherfuckers). My high school, Valhalla High School in San Diego, was pretty cool, mostly white, sorta like a John Hughes movie. The diversity was more in the wealth, activities, sports or the music you liked (or hated). I like the Mob Rules album now, but back then it was just a two-color t-shirt to me, a black t-shirt with 3/4-length white sleeves, ‘MOB RULES!’ scrawled in red, over some white lines made to look like graffiti on a brick wall, worn by scattered metalheads at my school, one of them that had that ‘Who is Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen?’ shirt in constant rotation. You just couldn’t listen to the music those dudes listened to, that would mean you were losing the good fight, that you were just a burn-out or someone who actually liked what MTV was playing all the time (metal was huge on MTV then), and didn’t care about the punk or alternative music that was thriving.

“If you listen to fools…”

Well, I write this post as an apology to Dio and all the metalheads that I didn’t join at the time in listening to some of that great music. The funny thing was that the metal burnouts all had a head-start on some of the truly great bands - bands like Rush, Zeppelin, Judas Priest, the Doors, or Sabbath. I went the 2000 Ozfest, met Tommy Iommi, and saw Ozzy and Black Sabbath perform together again… The funny twist is that after all the reality shows and commercials Osborne did, I actually now wish I had seen Sabbath when Dio was at the helm.

Now I understand.

I have met you in the “metal.”

Now you middle-aged metal fucks need to go back and listen to Discharge, Crass, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, DEVO, English Beat, P.I.L. (playing in NYC this week), Madness, The Cure, Kraftwerk, Suicide, Bauhaus, The Clash…

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Coincidentally, earlier today my high-school friend Tony (aka

on xBox, you nerds know wassup) sent me this short clip on YouTube: a news report from a San Diego television channel about our high school Valhalla, on the student-run radio station called KVAL. It’s from 1987 and it rules. Keep an eye out for same-sex marriage activist and fellow alumni Molly McKay in there. See if you can figure out which student in the clip might be bummed about Dio passing (hint: it’s near the end):