Dio: Dreamers Never Die – Hot Docs 2022

The life and career of heavy metal pioneer Ronnie James Dio are revisited in Dio: Dreamers Never Die. Born Ronald James Padavona the career of Ronnie James Dio spans the entire history of rock music, beginning with the 1960s band Ronnie Dio and the Red Caps later renamed the Prophets. After fronting the hard rock bands Elf and Rainbow, Dio was recruited by Tony Iommi to replace Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. However, Dio's time with Black Sabbath only lasts two albums, before he goes on to modest success with his own band.

Dio: Dreamers Never Die is a career-spanning documentary about Robbie James Dio directed by the duo of Demian Fenton and Don Argott (Framing John DeLorean). The film features interviews with Dio's bandmates, widow Wendy, members of Judas Priest and Deep Purple, and actor Jack Black, who memorably featured Dio in a cameo in 2006's Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. The film covers how Dio pioneered the heavy metal “devil horns” hand gesture and he became known for his extravagant stage shows featuring fire and dragons. However, Dio's career was greatly affected by hair metal and grunge and he would drop to near-obscurity, before a brief resurgence with the members of Black Sabbath as “Heaven & Hell,” shortly before his death of cancer in 2010.

Dio: Dreamers Never Die is a film that shows how passionate Ronnie James Dio was about his career, with him never having stopped performing, even after his commercial success waned in the 1990s and beyond. Dio is a man who can be considered a heavy metal legend, but whose career was marked with frequent clashes with bandmates. Overall, Dio: Dreamers Never Die is a film that can be enjoyed by both seriously metalheads and those who are new to the man known as Dio.