Ronnie James Dio’s enduring friendships highlighted by widow Wendy Dio

Wendy Dio, Ronnie James Dio‘s widow and longtime manager, discussed the bond between the legendary heavy metal singer and a few other rock icons during an interview on the most recent episode of the Rocktails With Ahmet Zappa podcast.

[Ronnie] and Rob Halford and Lemmy were very similar people. They chose their friends very carefully. They were just really, really cool people that loved to hang out and loved each other — very much so… And they, as I said, truly loved each other. And Rob still is amazing. He keeps in touch with me all the time. He does whatever he can for our charity. When he is out here, we go and meet up and stuff, and he’s just a sweetheart. I actually gave one of Ronnie’s rings to Rob. I saw Lemmy two hours before he died. Todd, his manager, called me and said, ‘He’s not feeling good. He hadn’t been well for a while. He’d just come off the road, like, about four months before. [Ronnie’s doctor] Sandy Kapoor was his doctor too. [Todd] said, ‘Can you bring Sandy over? ‘Cause he’s not feeling good.’ So we went over there. And he was talking away. And his birthday was in December and this was [a couple of days later]. I had bought him some old German books that I found that he was very into. And these were old antique books that I’d found — war books. And he thanked me for those. And we sat and talked for a while. And his girlfriend was there. And he said, ‘I’m a bit tired. I’m gonna lay down.’ He laid down. I left. I went to the mall. I was walking around the mall. Todd called me and said, ‘[Lemmy] just passed.’ I couldn’t believe it. I walked around, around in circles. I didn’t know. It was just unbelievable. I was just talking to him, like, two hours before. It was horrible.

Despite occasionally coming across as distant, Lemmy was a genuinely amiable man, according to Ahmet Zappa.

He was very introverted. So is Geezer Butler. They’re introverted people. They’re lovely people. But they really are kind of introverted. But when you know them, they’re just sweet, wonderful people.