Ronnie James Dio

Transcribing Is a Bitch: The Collected Craig Hlavaty Interviews

My last official day at the Houston Press is tomorrow, so these past two weeks I have been sifting through my body of work here at Rocks Off, almost seven years of words. I've been gleefully overdosing on nostalgia here at my desk, and I have (almost) no regrets. I'll have some more words on my depa ... More >>

Last Night: Anthrax & Exodus at House of Blues

Anthrax, Exodus House of Blues April 10, 2013 I am going to come right out and say it: I never thought Anthrax should have been a part of The Big Four. When laying out the titans of thrash metal, the boys from New York -- a fact they never seem to want you to forget -- always seemed a bit out of p ... More >>

Squeezing the Lemon: Led Zeppelin & the 10 Most Shocking Rock and Roll Reunions

Five years ago this week, Led Zeppelin fans young and old squeezed their pants full of lemon juice when the band's three surviving golden gods -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - announced that they'd be reuniting for a one-off concert in London. John Bonham's son Jason would man the s ... More >>

Rock Arcade: 6 Musicians Featured In Video Games

Recently Green Day have been trying to promote their latest album by infiltrating all forms of mainstream media and somebody in the band must have realized that Angry Birds is a thing so why should it be left out? That is, presumably, how the world came to see Green Day members immortalized as gree ... More >>

The End of the Road: Digital Mourning in 2012

At the Houston Press office, I am usually the first person who finds out when a celebrity or musician dies, usually from a wire or, these days, the fine folks at TMZ. Hell, sometimes even when I am away from my desk I have to be the bearer of bad tidings, like when Adam Yauch passed on a few weeks a ... More >>

Supergroups: 10 Bands That Sprang From Other Bands

From the remnants of other great bands are often birthed more great bands. Oftentimes these little side projects go under the radar unless you are a hardcore fan, or the new band itself gains a lot of airplay or word of mouth. Either way, some of the greatest rock bands of all time have been birthe ... More >>

Iron Men: Five Rock 'n' Roll Cancer Survivors

Sad news emerged today that heavy metal godfather Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma. It was a big shock for Black Sabbath fans, as the group's original lineup have a new album and a world tour planned for 2012. Though already counted among rock and roll's ultimate sur ... More >>

Hail, Santa: The Top 10 Metal Christmas Carol Covers

​Rocks Off likes to believe that Christmas is such a merry holiday, even some of Satan's most stalwart servants can't help but get into the act. Of course, it could be that heavy metal musicians record Christmas music for the same reason as Mariah Carey: Because there's a crapload of money to ... More >>

Never Say Die!: Black Sabbath Reforming In 2012 For Tour & Album

​Today in Los Angeles, legendary, pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath convened in front of reporters at the Whiskey A Go Go to announce a 2012 reunion tour and album, set for a fall release. The event, hosted by Henry Rollins, was telegraphed by a countdown clock on the band's official ... More >>

Charlie Benante Keeps The Beat Steady For Anthrax

Photos by Andy BuchananAnthrax 2011 (L-R): Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna, Charlie Benante, Rob Caggiano​After a tumultuous few years both musically and memberwise, New York thrash metal pioneers Anthrax will be able to close out 2011 on a pretty high note. In addition to releasing th ... More >>

Tony Iommi: Music's Other Man In Black Proves His Heavy Mettle

​Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath By Toni Iommi with T.J. Lammers Da Capo Press, 416 pp., $26. Imagine this passage being read in your best "Behind the Music" narration: It was in the center of a dirty, grimy sheet-metal factory in Birmingham, England, when a 1 ... More >>

Dio Disciples Keep Ronnie James' Metal Flame Alive

When Ronnie James Dio succumbed to stomach cancer in May 2010 (some reports say it occurred here at M.D. Anderson), heavy metal lost its arguably greatest voice. And with a career spanning decades in bands like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, and his own Dio, he left a lot of material to ... More >>

The Aliens Should Have Kept Sammy Hagar

​Judging by the headline, you already know where Rocks Off stands when it comes to Van Hagar versus a David Lee Roth-fronted Van Halen. We love to hate Sammy Hagar, almost to the point where we actually like him a little bit. We can't even explain that feeling. It's like how when you were yo ... More >>

Eddie Trunk, Ultimate Metalhead, Writes Metalhead's Bible

​Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal By Eddie Trunk Abrams Publishing, 240 pp. $19.95. If hard rock and heavy-metal journalism have their own Eddie Murrow, it's Eddie Trunk. Via his web site, as a co-host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show, and his programs on both terrestrial and ... More >>

Black Eyed Pleeease!: Fergie & The Gang At The Super Bowl Halftime Show

Earlier this week we chronicled for you our favorite Super Bowl halftime shows, from Petty and the Who, to the Boss and the Stones. Tonight we will be live-blogging all the musical attractions from Super Bowl XLV from Dallas, er, Arlington. ​ Lined up in the next few minutes we will see Christina ... More >>

Dio's Last Stand: Heaven & Hell Live In Europe

​Heaven & Hell Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell Live in Europe Eagle Vision, 150 minutes, $14.98. When Black Sabbath 3.0 got together a few years back to record some new material for The Dio Years compilation, neither Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, nor Vinny Appice probabl ... More >>

Five More Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Last year's unholy Christmas metal list was so popular, we decided to reach back into our quasi-Santanic bag and find five more songs for you to blare while trimming the tree and wrapping presents. We made our list too late to catch Rob Halford's Christmas album, Winter Songs. Otherwise it ... More >>

Pocket Rockers: Ten Musicians 5'5" And Under

Photo illustration by Monica Fuentes; click image to enlargeThe Tall Guys, l-r: Ric Ocasek (The Cars), John Mayer, Joey Ramone​Saturday night, closet cat lover and reigning Dark Lord Glenn Danzig will be in town for a headlining gig over at Warehouse Live. The diminutive, but no less awesome, ... More >>

Last Night: Michael Bolton At Jones Hall

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​Michael Bolton with the Houston Symphony Jones Hall September 8, 2010 It was a little over a year ago that Aftermath saw Yanni, and just a few months back that we saw Kenny G. Wednesday night we saw Michael Bolton, forming a power-trio of artists that you're not suppos ... More >>

Ten Iconic Musical Nicknames, And 25 You May Never Guess

​You know what sucks? Getting saddled with a really awkward family nickname when you are younger and it following you until it takes a frenzied freak-out to stop it. We were once called "Pooter" by our mother until an eight-year-old Rocks Off gave her a terse look right before third grade star ... More >>

Answers To Rocks Off's Musical Nickname Quiz

​Rocks Off hopes you enjoyed our musical nickname quiz earlier today. We have had a few nicknames ourselves over the years - our dad called us "Boog" after former Baltimore Orioles first baseman Boog Powell, and we were known for years around the Austin Chronicle offices as "Weezer," which we ... More >>

Friday Night: Pat Benatar At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​Pat Benatar House of Blues August 13, 2010 For more photos from Friday's show, see our slideshow here. For some reason whenever we saw people after Friday night's Pat Benatar show and they asked what we thought, all we could do was shrug our shoulders. Usually after a s ... More >>

Pop Rocks: You'll Be Sorry When They're Gone

​Harvey Pekar died yesterday. What was lost in the usual exercise of macabre one-upmanship -- as everyone rushed to update Twitter and Facebook in an effort to be the first to break the bad news to all their friends -- was the fact that most of them were only aware of Pekar's existence thanks ... More >>

Can Music Fight Cancer? MD Anderson's Celebration Singers Think So

Earlier this year, we lost God himself Ronnie James Dio to cancer. Dio had been valiantly fighting the disease at Houston's own MD Anderson Cancer Center. Approximately 1,500 people in America die every day of cancer, but MD Anderson continues to find new avenues to help heal those afflicted, incl ... More >>

Top 5 Daniel Lanois Productions

​This past Saturday in Los Angeles, legendary producer Daniel Lanois, known for his trademark echo-heavy sound and work with the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan, was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. Lanois was slated to soon begin work on Brandon Flowers of the Killers' solo debut and the u ... More >>

5 Rock Deaths That Shook Us Down

​It was sometime this past Saturday night that we first heard that Ronnie James Dio was dead. It was after midnight and we had just bellied up to the Mink's front bar when we checked our Twitter feed and saw that Dio had passed on. Our body froze every metal bone in our body ached for a few minute ... More >>

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio, Gone To His Metal Reward

R.I.P., Holy Diver.​Ronnie James Dio resumed his post as God of Earth, Heaven and Hell Sunday, after a 67-year mission on Earth correcting errors in previous gospels through heavy metal. His earthly form was diagnosed with stomach cancer in November 2009. As of this March, Dio was still optimisti ... More >>

Throwing The Devil Horns For Dio One More Time

Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the Houston Press in August 2003, when Dio (the man and the band) played the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. ​It's a ubiquitous sign for the ages. Whether thrown in rapture or irony, the pinky-and-index-finger extended "devil horns" might mean something di ... More >>

Monoliths & Dimensions: The Best Metal Records of 2009, Part 1

​This year was such a good one for heavy music, I wound up having to cheat when putting this list together. I just couldn't settle on ten albums that kicked my ass the hardest in 2009; there were dozens of candidates. The best I could do was fourteen, so each of my top four slots are ties. 10. Meg ... More >>

In Wishing Ronnie James Dio a Speedy Recovery, Our Life as a "Holy Diver"

​Metal legend Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians you've probably always been aware of, even if you haven't counted yourself a huge fan. Rocks Off can sympathize, for while we've personally gone out of our way to seek his music, we've always taken it for granted that Dio would be there, hov ... More >>

Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know

Retro Active: The Ian Gillan-Fronted Black Sabbath

Ian Gillan on his brief stint in Black Sabbath Last week, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi filed a lawsuit against Live Nation, claiming that one of the promotion behemoth's subsidiaries, Signatures, sold a bunch of Sabbath merch after a licensing agreement expired in 2006. Though the idea of Blac ... More >>

The Best Christmas Album of 2008 is... Metal?

Mail Call: Post-Ike/ACL Edition

Aftermath: Masters of Metal at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford

Master of Metal

Black Sabbath: The Rules of Hell Box Set Reviewed

Get Lit: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Joel McIver

Rotation: Heaven and Hell (CD); Live at Radio City Music Hall (DVD)

Heaven and Hell

The Heaven and Hell tour stops Wednesday, May 2, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Robbins Dr., 281-363-3300.

One Toke Wonder

Tenacious D gets the band back together, and...and... and ?

Into the Frey

If you thought A Million Little Pieces was a pack of lies, wait till you check out the Mötley Crüe biography

dios (malos), with Swords and Go Spread Your Wings

Saturday, November 12, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-864-2727.

Classics Rock

Which Greek god is your favorite musician?

Soaring on the Wings of a Demon

Ronnie James Dio has rocked for a long, long time

Rage Against Shawn Pander

Well, not any more, as former bandmates Slop Jar Junior admit

Rhythm Room Boom

Chicks who rock and Tourbaby take the Washington Avenue stage

In The Dark

Lee Way

!Quermos Rock!

The chords are the same, but the lyrics are en espanol. The rockeros like it, yes they do.