Ronnie James Dio’s widow Wendy Walters recently revealed in an interview with Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown that when Dio was in Rainbow, they didn’t have much money to live on, and that’s why Dio left the band.
Wendy Walters and Ronnie met each other in 1975 at the well-known exclusive rock and roll hangout bar Rainbow. Wendy was working there and was invited to Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore’s party. There, she was introduced to Ronnie, and the couple got married in 1978. After Ronnie’s death in 2010, Wendy married her boyfriend, Omar Gimenez.
Wendy recently talked to Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown and stated in the interview that although Ronnie had a car and a house as a perk of being in Rainbow, they barely had enough money to buy food. According to Wendy, Ronnie quit Rainbow because Ritchie didn’t give him enough money, and they had to live on Wendy’s grandmother’s inheritance.
Here is what she said about Ronnie’s gain in Rainbow:
“Well, in Rainbow, we got a big house to live in, a nice car, and $150 a week, so we didn’t really have much money, that was to buy food with.
So, we never really got any money for all the time he was in Rainbow, and when Ronnie left Rainbow, my grandmother had left me around $50,000, so we took that money to L.A. and rented places there, and that money had almost run out to the point that we had only $800 left.”
She stated that they spent the money until there was $800 left. In Los Angeles, Ronnie joined Black Sabbath in 1979, replacing Ozzy Osbourne, who was fired. However, he quit in 1982 to pursue his career solo, forming the Dio Band. Even after his death, Ronnie is still known to be one of the best and influential heavy metal artists of all time.
