The late Ronnie James Dio’s wife Wendy Dio recently recalled how she met her husband at a Ritchie Blackmore party and why she, at first, didn’t find Dio to be her ‘type.’
The manager recalled how she met her husband in the mid-70s while chatting with Rockin’ 101, saying:
“We met at the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and Ronnie just had finished making ‘Blackmore’s Rainbow.’ They just finished recording. They hadn’t toured yet… [Then] I got invited to a party at Ritchie Blackmore’s house. I went there and met Ronnie. He followed me around a lot [but] I figured he was a bit short for me.”
Still, although the rocker was ‘a bit short’ for Wendy, she mentioned how the pair bonded quickly:
“We talked, talked, and talked; then, it was about five in the morning and we all went down to Denny’s to eat breakfast, then, we went for a drive to Malibu to watch the sunrise… I think I fell in love with his brain. We went out for a couple of weeks and I figured [when] he’s gone [off] to tour, that’s the end of it.”
However, it seemed that wasn’t the ‘end of it:’
“He asked me to quit my job and come, [but] I said, ‘I can’t quit my job. I can come for a couple of weeks,’ which ended up being the rest of my life.”
Listen to the chat below.
