Dio - Killing The Dragon

Cd cover art and interior art for heavy metal band Dio.

Ronnie James Dio is one of my favorite singers and musicians of all time. When I was told by the record label that he would be calling me at 3pm to talk about designing his new cover, I was totally psyched. The phone rang at precisely 3:01 and we talked for over an hour. That was the beginning of many long phone calls and a great acquaintance that lasted until he passed away.

Besides being an amazing singer, he was a gentleman and all around nice guy that always treated me with much respect. Working with him and contributing to his catalog of music are some of the coolest moments of my career. RIP Ronnie, I miss you bro.

Hanging out with Ronnie backstage at Killing The Dragon live tour. Great day.

These were alternate concepts that I presented to Ronnie Dio during the design phase. He opted to go with the final that you see above. I pleaded with him to let me keep the "devil horns" or moloch as he calls it on the dragons' wing hands. I thought the fans would get a kick out of it but he declined.

Killing The Dragon album hanging at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles.

This is Gabriel Ramon Teodoro. He tattooed his entire back with the Killing The Dragon cover art I did! It took six sessions and over twenty hours. He is a total metal maniac! Very cool.

The artist's name is Tiagāo.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TIAG%C3%83O-TATTOO-CLINIC/127464528217?fref=ts.