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Cover Artist Marc Sasso Creates Heavy Metal All-Star “Dio Army” For Ronnie James Dio Release This Is Your Life

 DIO2

 

Heavy metal artist Marc Sasso (Dio, Halford, Adrenaline Mob) recently completed the critically acclaimed cover art and package design for the new Ronnie James Dio tribute CD  This Is Your Life. The cover art, which depicts many of heavy metal’s greatest icons charging into battle, was a labor of love for the artist who is a metal head and Dio fan himself. 

“When I was a kid growing up I spent many hours drooling over the cover art of metal album covers including Rainbow, Sabbath and Dio. For this CD I wanted to paint something detailed and busy that harkened back to the glory days of album art when you would buy an LP and stare at the cover while you were listening to the record.  The piece is meant to feel epic in scale, pay homage to some of metals’ greatest icons and be totally Dio all at once.”

Dio cancer 2The proceeds from the tribute CD go to benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund which was founded by Wendy Dio after Ronnie’s passing to stomach cancer in 2010.  When asked by Wendy to design and create a cover and package that would somehow distinguish itself as a tribute release but simultaneously show the bands that participated, Marc came up with the idea of a “Dio Army” charging into battle to fight cancer.  Wendy loved the idea as did the Cancer Fund and Rhino Records who would be distributing the CD.

After the initial sketch was approved, Marc shot photos of models in different poses based on his design.  Each model portrayed a different metal icon ~ including Rob Halford, Glenn Hughes, Corey Taylor and members from legendary bands Metallica, The Scorpions, Motörhead, Anthrax and more ~ running into battle.  He then found photos of each musician to match his poses and combined them with his model reference.  This became the blueprint used to paint each musician.  Great detail was taken to make sure every metal personality was painted to look like themselves.  In some cases the musicians took photos of themselves and sent them over to Marc to use as reference.  The entire illustration was painted digitally in black and white (which helps to speed up the process) with color overlays added last to bring it all to life.

Dio Master of the MoonMarc first began working with Ronnie when he created the cover art for Killing The Dragon.  Since then he has created four Dio covers including Master Of The Moon, The Very Beast Of Vol. 2 and This Is Your Life.

“The years that I worked with Ronnie and got to build a relationship with him and Wendy are special for me.  When I got the chance to not only meet him but actually create with him it was very surreal, having been such a big fan since I was a kid.  Ronnie was warm and personable and always treated me with respect.  He and Wendy were the first people to hire me to paint an album cover and I’ve never forgotten that.  He couldn’t have cared less that I didn’t come with any music credentials or accolades, he liked what he saw and that was enough for him. Since then I’ve gone on to work and develop relationships with a lot of great musicians.  I went from painting denim jackets in high school to this.  Unbelievable!”

In addition to creating the cover art, Marc designed the entire digipack and booklet as well.  For all his artwork and contributions to the cancer charity, Marc was presented with the Long Live Rock And Roll award at the Dio benefit and Gala on March 17th by Wendy Dio.

 

Wendy Dio presenting Marc with the Long Live Rock And Roll award

Wendy Dio presenting Marc with the Long Live Rock And Roll award


You can find information about Marc Sasso and additional images of the This Is Your Life artwork at marcsasso.com

The official web site for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund is diocancerfund.org.