According to
Billboard, hologram production company
Eyellusion, which created the
Ronnie James Dio hologram, has signed with the
Agency for the Performing Arts (
APA), represented by agency partner
Steve Martin.
The
Dio hologram will return to the road in April is set to hit over 100 cities in 2019.
The legendary heavy metal singer died in 2010 at the age of 67 from stomach cancer. His hologram made its debut at the
Wacken Open Air festival in August 2016 in front of more than 75,000 fans.
The
Dio hologram production uses audio of
Ronnie's live performances from throughout his career, with the
DIO DISCIPLES band playing live, consisting of
Simon Wright on drums,
Craig Goldy on guitar, and
Scott Warren on keyboards, along with
Bjorn Englen on bass. Also appearing with them are former
JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens and ex-
LYNCH MOB frontman
Oni Logan.
After the tour's initial seven-date run was completed last December,
Ronnie's hologram is undergoing "some changes" before the launch of the next leg of the
"Dio Returns" world tour.
"The big question when we first toured
Dio through Europe was 'Is anyone actually going to show up?'"
Eyellusion CEO
Jeff Pezzuti told
Billboard. "We sold out the last three shows in Europe and we did really, really well. We're such believers in what we were doing and we're all such massive fans — in my sixth-grade class picture, I'm wearing a
DIO shirt, so you can imagine taking this all the way across the finish line has been a dream come true."
Ronnie's widow and longtime manager,
Wendy Dio, who is a member of the
Eyellusion team, previously said that the people that criticize the
Ronnie James Dio hologram should at least see it in person before voicing their disapproval. "Don't criticize it if you haven't seen it," she told
"Whiplash", the
KLOS radio show hosted by
Full Metal Jackie. "It's done with love. The band love doing it. And we just wanna keep
Ronnie's memory and his music alive."
She added that a digital version of
Dio makes perfect sense. "I think that
Ronnie was an innovator of heavy metal music, so why not be an innovator of technology?" she said. "And I think technology is coming a long way with holograms — a lot of people are doing it now. And I think the reason is because we are losing all of our innovators; everybody is getting older. And we need to keep them alive and keep their memory and their music alive. I think it's a new way. It's like when people first came out with a CD or a cassette: 'Ooh, we don't want that.' But then it was the way of technology."
