Three years ago to the day, I published in this paper a review of Heaven and Hell, who’d performed at the Mohegan Sun Arena. As all demon metal folks know, H&H = Black Sabbath, only with Ronnie James Dio singing instead of Oz.

For some reason, according to the review, I was under the impression that Dio was at the time 57 years old (when in fact he would have been 64). Well, he kicked riotous ass that night — and not only did he do so in the context of 57 or 64, there probably aren’t many 23-year-old thrash singers who could have kept up with his stage antics or his amazing voice that evening.

Yeah, whatever you think of his chosen musical style, by God Dio could absolutely sing. Up until the very end, I like to think. He passed yesterday in Houston’s M.D. Anderson Hospital of stomach cancer, and it makes me happy to imagine that the last thing he uttered would have been a full-throated devil howl, or the final verse of “Children of the Sea.” Six floors up, in a completely different wing of the hospital — radiology, perhaps — patients and doctors and hospital personnel all momentarily stopped what they were doing …

“Jesus, didja hear that?”

“Spooky. What the hell is it?”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s Dio. Sounds just like ‘Children of the Sea.”

“Well, he is in the hospital.”

“No way!”

For me, I’ll always claim the signature Dio work is the first Blackmore’s Rainbow album with, yes, “Man of the Silver Mountain.” Just my opinion.

But Dio cut a wide and influential swathe through Satan Rock and we’ll go a long time before we hear a voice like that again.

As for the apocryphal story that Dio is the guy who came up with the “devil horn” sign cherished by all Metal People, it’s simply not true. Art Garfunkel is the person who originally used the devil horn, in “For Emily Wherever I May Find Her.” Dio just appropriated it and it took off. For real.