We’ve been waiting for a long time for the first official biography of Ronnie James Dio. It’s not only that we’d get to learn more things about his artistic (mainly) life but the fact that the whole venture was supervised by his wife and the esteemed journalist Mick Wall added extra weight to the book. Add to all this, the absence of books regarding Ronnie’s career and one can easily understand why the expectations were high about “Rainbow in the Dark”. So what’s the verdict?
Unfortunately, I can’t say that I was fully satisfied by the overall reading experience of “Rainbow in the Dark” and there are three main reasons for my estimation. The first one has to do with the fact that there is a clear imbalance when it comes to down to Ronnie’s overall career. What do I mean? In this 240-page book, almost half of it depicts the pre-Rainbow bands thus leaving the sum of 120 pages to Rainbow, Sabbath and Dio! This is exactly where we track down the second negative aspect of the book: there aren’t many details regarding the three studio albums with Rainbow and the respective two with Sabbath while we only get a vague picture of Ronnie’s personal relationship with Blackmore & Iommi. Last but certainly not least is that the books abruptly stops in 1986 and the “Intermission” EP which means that either Ronnie’s handwritten notes ended there or that there is a second part of this autobiography in the works.
On a positive note there aren’t any tiring details of Ronnie’s childhood and school days while his style of writing is really smooth, colorful and enjoyable. However, the above negative points are more important compared to their positive counterparts although I must say that it’s really moving to read Ronnie’s notes as it leaves you under the impression that the great man is still alive. Come to think about it, in a way Ronnie is still with us as Legends Never Die! Long Live Ronnie James Dio!
