(Credits: Far Out / Adam Bielawski)
Thu 18 September 2025 2:00, UK
Ronnie James Dio was essentially the polymath of heavy metal music. Whether it was Rainbow or Black Sabbath, Dio or Heaven and Hell, this was a man who was very well acquainted with the workings of a band.
Of course, by virtue of his being a prolific heavy metal singer, Dio had many inspirations whom he looked up to in the rock realm, helping him to ultimately guide his own path. But having worn so many suits as part of so many different outfits, it was inevitable that even once the wheels of his career had set in motion, the frontman still gleaned tips and material from the bands around him, even if they had been playing the game for a lesser amount of time.
One of those was AC/DC, a group that formed the better part of two decades after Dio started treading the boards of the business, but were still so blazing in their approach that it was impossible for them not to turn heads, even from the seemingly seasoned professionals like him. That’s why, when Dio once branded them as “the ultimate garage band” in an interview, he truly wasn’t being disparaging – it was meant as the highest honour.
“To me,” Dio espoused, “that’s always been – and I don’t mean this in a derogatory way – the ultimate garage band. By that, I mean a band that’s really natural and just picks up their instruments and plays. A band with an incredible sense of feel. They also happen to be friends, too, which is nice for me to be able to say that.” Indeed, there is a lot to be said for the intrinsic brotherly bond that emanated from the helm of AC/DC with Angus and Malcolm Young, but it also extends much further than that.
The most striking compliment that Dio paid the band was in the fact that he considered them all to be true friends while still managing to be one of the most formidable forces in rock. Don’t underestimate just how much of an impressive feat that really is. Sure, there were certain times when that veneer of peace and love inevitably did a lot of heavy lifting for AC/DC – the sheer amount of members they have managed to rattle through in the space of 50 years, admittedly for different reasons, is testament to that – but unlike other bands, ultimately the glue was always too strong to ever fully pull them apart.
In fact, you could almost say that the power and enthrall of everything that AC/DC cultivated has been passed down through generations of Youngs like a family heirloom, as their nephew Stevie took up his uncle Malcolm’s baton as of the 2014 album Rock or Bust.
Of course, although Dio himself would never live to see that coming to fruition, you might imagine that he would have been quite satisfied with that – his favourite band carrying on their tradition, and making sure that their spirit outlives them all.
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