You know, I always seem to have a difficult time wrapping my head around the death of any one of the few celebrities I follow. I think I perceive them more as an undying icon than a human being… I dunno. In the case of a singer in particular, it’s difficult for me to listen to their music and not think of them as still, as forever alive, and sometimes I have to remind myself that, no, I will never meet him.

At the first and only concert I ever attended, last August, I saw Ronnie James Dio just months before he was diagnosed with the cancer that finally killed him yesterday. And though his death couldn’t really be called unexpected, it still seems really strange and almost incredible to me. I mean, I made metal horns at this guy. From 1/3 of the way up the amphitheater, sure, but still… my first metal-horns-at-a-concert experience with the guy that invented metal horns… and now he’s dead. And I’m not. Huh.