Ronnie James Dio’s Autobiography Will Finally Be Released This Summer

I know what we’re all using for beach reading* this summer: Ronnie James Dio’s autobiography, Rainbow in the Dark, which will be published on July 27… more than eleven years after the storied singer’s death from stomach cancer.

Wondering how it could possibly be that Ronnie wrote a book than a decade after his passing? Did they communicate with his via séance? Is he a Force ghost now? Did they just ask his hologram to fill in any gaps?

None of the above. The tome was actually completed by Mick Wall, the Kerrang! writer who has previously penned biographies of bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Metallica (he’s also one of only two media figures to be explicitly called out by Guns N’ Roses in their song “Get in the Ring”). Wall completed the book at the behest of Dio’s widow/manager/estate custodian, Wendy Dio.

Kerrang! says Consequence of Sound says Wendy says this:

 ​“I’m working together with Mick Wall, who has written books about everybody in the rock business – he’s from England. Ronnie had been writing his memoirs and he wrote up to about the end of Rainbow, and we found some other scribblings on his computer after he passed away – so there is a bit more. We’ve been finding interviews that Ronnie did along the way, so it will continue in Ronnie’s own words.”

But what if you hate reading? Fret not — there’s a documentary in the works, too:

​“I’m working on a documentary about Ronnie’s life with BMG, which is totally different to the book. With lots of photos and videos of Ronnie going through his whole life, and interviews with lots of different people that had been in Ronnie’s life.”

You can pre-order Rainbow in the Dark here.

*Assuming there are open beaches upon which to read, that is.