Dio’s Guitar Players Ranked From Weakest to Strongest

In the world of heavy metal frontmen, lead guitar players often stand out as the key figure in chemistry both writing in the studio and performing live. Who’s Steven Tyler without Joe Perry?  How many incredible guitar players has David Coverdale had in Whitesnake?  And of course Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career wouldn’t be nearly as legendary without his assault of the four horsemen of guitar playing.  Then there’s Ronnie James Dio’s solo career.  His players are often not as prominent as others with the exception of Vivian Campbell (who gets downplayed in Def Leppard).  However, Dio’s guitar players can play circles around the best of them.  Here’s a look at the best guitar players in Ronnie James Dio’s solo career from weakest to strongest.

5.  Doug Aldrich

Doug Aldrich came into the Dio camp during the latter years of its existence.  His sole studio contribution is 2002’s ‘Killing the Dragon’.  Like his predecessor before him, Craig Goldy, Doug Aldrich had hard shoes to fill.  The 2000 comeback album ‘Magica’ which marked the return of Craig Goldy, was a success and the tour was equally as successful.  The band returned to record a follow up getting most of the song writing finished.  When Goldy had family issues however, the band turned to Doug Aldrich, giving the talented guitarist the career push he needed.  Aldrich’s time in the band was short lived.  However, there is a superb live document ‘Evil or Divine…Live in New York City’ that showcases his playing and contributions.  In late 2003, Goldy returned to the band for the final album ‘Master of the Moon’.  Ironically, Aldrich went on to join Whitesnake like predecessor Vivian Campbell did before being swept up by Def Leppard.  ‘Along Comes A Spider’ from ‘Killing the Dragon’ is the only song writing contribution Aldrich made with the group.

4.   Craig Goldy

Replacing Vivian Campbell in 1986, Craig Goldy had big shoes to fill, especially since he joined mid tour.  He did better than fine becoming a fan favorite fast.  While his reunion with Dio in 2000 led to the comeback album Magica, he unfortunately never had the ample timing to really commit to the group full time.  Yes, Goldy does play on three Dio albums, tying Vivian Campbell for most records.  But, they are more sporadic and less consistent in Dio’s time frame.  In fact, Dio wanted to keep him around in 1987 but the rest of the band was apprehensive of Goldy’s presence, particularly long time veteran drummer Vinnie Appice.  That and Goldy wanting to pursue a solo career led to his short tenure.  Despite Dio’s liking of him.  In 2000 Goldy returned to Dio after the dismal album ‘Angry Machines’.  The album ‘Magica’, featuring Goldy, got Dio back on top in the metal community and the tour was a success.  The group wanted to continue the success with a follow up and started writing.  Unfortunately, Goldy started having family issues and left the group once again.  He returned in late 2003 for the final Dio album ‘Master of the Moon’, but that era was cut short with Dio reuniting with his former Black Sabbath members until his death in 2010.  In 2013, a live album from the 1986 ‘Sacred Heart’ tour was released, showcasing Goldy’s skill.  It’s a magical performance and the guitar work is otherworldly.  Even getting into the technical levels of players like Richie Kotzen and Vernon Reid.  In many ways, Goldy is the most technical player to play in the band besides Rowan Robertson.  So why is he at number 4?  The answer is that Goldy never really brought anything original to the table other than ‘Magica’ being a concept album.  He’s basically a more schooled version of Vivian Campbell which is exactly what the band needed at the times he was in the group.  Goldy’s contributions to Dio are excellent and it’s clear why many might consider him to actually be #1.

3.  Tracy G.

Many Dio fans recognize Tracy G. as the guy who played on the only bad Dio album ‘Angry Machines’.  So why is he in the middle instead of on the bottom?  Because Tracy G. is also the guitar player who plays on Dio’s biggest, baddest, nastiest, sweatiest, most fucking in your face album ever; 1994’s ‘Strange Highways’.  It’s a crossroads, lightning in a bottle, record.  One of a kind.  Dio wanted to accommodate the heavier 90’s metal crowd and delivered in finding guitarist Tracy G..  His brassy, 80 megaton guitar tone would serve as the anchor for what would become one of Dio’s finest hours.  Songs like ‘Jesus, Mary…and the Holy Ghost’, ‘Hollywood Black’ and ‘Evilution’ remain the heaviest in all of Dio’s 40 + year career.  No keyboards on the album and no songs about Dungeons and Dragons, some hardcore fans felt alienated by the new direction.  It is certainly a serious album that takes itself very seriously and maybe a little bit too much at times.  However, Tracy G. proves himself as more than just a new guitar tone.  His solos are simply outstanding, using speed picking and pick-up patterns with a killswitch as his main technique as opposed to hammer ons or sweeping.  This solo technique also gave the group a more modern sound.  Unfortunately the 90’s would go on to be a very difficult decade for metal overall.  Dio’s popularity had greatly diminished by the time ‘Strange Highways’ was released.  So, no matter how good of an album it was, it was doomed to not sell and it didn’t.  However, the laurels of Dio’s past success kept the tours lucrative enough to keep the band together.  That and the fact the band, also including former Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson, sounded un-fucking-believable.  It’s just a shame that ‘Strange Highways’ goes so overlooked  It’s a truly unique metal record, particularly in terms of production.  I don’t think I have heard a ‘bigger’ sounding record.  Everything from the vocals to Vinnie Appice’s drums are just gigantic.  Dio said that ‘Strange Highways’ and Tracy G. would most likely go on to be the least recognized and underrated parts of his entire career.  He was right.

2.  Vivian Campbell

Vivian Campbell, is one of the finest players that’s still in the mainstream business today.  It’s sad that his current band Def Leppard downplays his abilities.  To truly understand the awe inspiring work of this talented guitarist, one must refer to the first three albums of Dio’s solo career:  ‘Holy Diver’, ‘Last In Line’ and ‘Sacred Heart’.  When Dio left Black Sabbath in 1982 no one really knew what to expect of his career.  He quickly roared back with a solo band introducing then unknown guitarist Vivian Campbell.  The debut ‘Holy Diver’ became a platinum album and put life back into the singers tenure.  Vivian Campbell’s reputation quickly skyrocketed as he displayed skills that made all bow to his will.  With songs like ‘Straight Through The Heart’, ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ and ‘Invisible’, Vivian Campbell displayed a brilliant mixture of shredding techniques, riffage and melodic passages.  All accompanied by a thick, heavy, two ton tone; making Dio one of the heaviest acts at the time.  At first it seemed like Dio and Campbell might be the next Tyler and Perry.  The follow up album ‘Last In Line’ was an even stronger effort and is considered by many Dio fans to be the best in all of the singers canon.  The ensuing tour was a massive success. Unfortunately, tensions started to build during the recording the third album ‘Sacred Heart’.  Finally, it hit the fan when Campbell and Dio had a huge fight after a show on the tour resulting in Campbell quitting.  He was replaced by Craig Goldy mid tour.  It clearly didn’t hurt ticket sales as the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour would go on to be recognized as one of Dio’s best and most lucrative.  The next album was a slight step back in sales, most likely due to the Campbell faithful.  No one knows quite how huge of a commercial entity Dio could have become if he and Vivian Campbell got along.

1. Rowan Robertson

Coming in at number one for Dio’s guitarists is the wunderkind Rowan Robertson.  From a small, country town in England, Robertson was swept up by Dio in 1989 at the ripe old age of 17.  Dio had unexpectedly announced that he was going to revamp his entire band line-up excluding Appice who would leave after the demos of what would become ‘Lock Up The Wolves’.  Encouraged by some local buddies, Robertson sent in a tape showcasing his talent.  He didn’t expect anything to happen in the slightest.  Well, that changed when one evening the phone rang and Rowan’s mother came into the living room saying a Wendy Dio was on the phone for him.  Turns out, Ronnie loved his tape and decided to fly him to Los Angeles to jam.  Dio told Rowan that he hoped things would work out and they did.  At just 17, Robertson was a member of Dio.  The revamped group went in to write and record what many critics and fans consider Dio’s most mature and finest hour, ‘Lock Up The Wolves’.  Robertson and Dio seemed to have a writing chemistry that really popped.  Robertson’s infectious riffs mixed with Dio’s vocal melody seemed to fit just right.  Every song on the album is strong. However, it’s not just the riffs that the album is known for.  Robertson’s solo work stands above them all.  It’s truly jaw dropping what this talented guitarist contributed on tracks like ‘Wild One’, ‘Twisted’, ‘Born On The Sun’, and ‘Walk On Water’.  He’s a G3 status guitar player (Vai, Satriani, Petrucci, Gilbert and the like).  It turned the band into a more serious and mature outfit.  Robertson made the band progress, yet still retain the elements that made fans fall in love with the group.  He quickly became a sensation in the guitar community.  The metal community as a whole embraced the album and thought Dio had finally found his main man.  The tour was a success and a follow up album for ‘Lock Up The Wolves’ was in the making.  Unfortunately for Robertson, a huge surge in the Seattle scene prompted record executives to get the ‘Mob Rules’ line up of Black Sabbath back together.  Dio put his solo work on hold for enough time to convince Robertson that a follow up album wouldn’t happen.  He moved on with his career and when ‘The Mob Rules’ line up of Sabbath had their second falling out, Robertson was committed to other projects.  A reunion with Robertson never happened leaving ‘Lock Up The Wolves’ as his only album contribution to Dio.

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