Ronnie James Dio passed away in 2010.
Legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio passed away in 2010 at the age of 67 from stomach cancer. A hologram of the vocalist was created by the company Eyeillusion and made its debut at Wacken Open Air in 2016, before an audience of over 76,000 people.
The singer's widow, Wendy Dio, spoke in an interview with Klos radio about the hologram.
“I think Ronnie was an innovator in heavy metal, so why not be an innovator in technology?” she said. “And I think technology is going very far with holograms – a lot of people are doing that now. I believe the reason is because we are losing all our innovators; everyone is getting older. And we need to keep them alive and keep their memory and music alive. It’s a new way. It’s like when people first released a CD or a cassette: ‘Oh, we don’t want that.’ But then it was the way of technology.”
“I think people who say, ‘This is terrible,’ should at least see it,” she continued. “Don’t criticize if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s made with love. The band loves doing this. And we just want to keep Ronnie’s memory and his music alive.”
The Dia hologram uses audio from the singer's live performances throughout his career.
