Heaven & Hell's Ronnie James Dio Recovering from Stomach Cancer

by Jacob Zinn | March 16, 2010 at 11:45 am

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Rocker Ronnie James Dio, best known for replacing Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of Black Sabbath and now playing with former Sabbath members Vinny Appice, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi in Heaven & Hell, is recovering from stomach cancer.

Dio's cancerous stomach tumour has shrunk significantly through treatments at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. His wife and manager, Wendy Dio, posted an update on the official Ronnie James Dio website.

“It has been Ronnie’s 7th chemo, another CAT scan and another endoscopy, and the results are good,” wrote Wendy Dio. “The main tumor has shrunk considerably, and our visits to Houston are now every 3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks.”

Ronnie James Dio Back in Studio: Heaven & Hell European Tour

The 67-year-old heavy metal vocalist was diagnosed with early stages of stomach cancer last November. At the time, Heaven & Hell was forced to cancel their European tour in support of their 2009 album, The Devil You Know.

Dio has been in and out of the rehearsal studio with his drummer Vinny Appice in hopes of touring soon. Heaven & Hell are releasing a live DVD currently in production.

Though Dio hasn’t entirely recovered from stomach cancer, Heaven & Hell is scheduled to play concerts in Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland for the Sonisphere Festivals. They were also recently announced as the supporting act to Iron Maiden for the August 11 show in Bergen, Norway.

Dio is credited with inventing the “devil horns” hand gesture, popular in heavy metal, and one can't help but think he's using the gesture now soon to be raising hell again.