Legends never die in the music industry and now, thanks to holograms, they might be able to go on tour with live bands as well.
The hologram technique for artist performances was first seen when a hologram of Tupac was shown at Coachella 2012 leaving everyone in amazement. Many speculations have been made about the future of this new concept. We have seen great advances in hologram technology since then, with performances for the likes of Micheal Jackson and Whitney Houston.

On Saturday night, the last day of the mega-sized heavy-metal festival Wacken Open Air, Ronny James Dio came back to life and performed “We Rock“, the opening track from the 1984 “Last In Line” classic album, with the DIO tribute band “Dio Disciples”.

Ronnie James Dio is back according to Rolling Stone — in hologram form. Eyellusion, the company on the forefront of the dead-musicians-as-holograms craze, debuted their brand new Ronnie James Dio hologram after over a year in the making. The hologram, which is currently only programmed to perform the song “We Rock”, was so authentic that it moved his widow, Wendy Dio, to tears.

“I cried the first time I saw it. It was quite, quite scary. Our crew, when they first saw it at rehearsal, they were in tears. It’s absolutely amazing.” – Wendy Dio


Mrs. Dio, who oversees Dio’s estate after his passing, is working alongside Eyellusion and Dio Disciples to launch a full-blown tour with the hologram in 2017. They were working on a number of songs for the Saturday performance, including Rainbow in the Dark and Black Sabbath’s Neon Knights, before settling on We Rock due to how many decades the song endured inside of Dio’s setlist.

“When I first learned that a Dio hologram was in the works, I thought, ‘How is this even possible? We’ve all heard of holograms, but what Eyellusion and Dio Disciples were talking about was something different.” Wacken festival founder Thomas Jensen.

The hologram was captured from a live performance of Ronnie and there are plans to make up to 14 songs to complete a full set that Dio Disciples can perform with the Hologram of Dio on tour. The songs will include Dio classics and songs from when he fronted Black Sabbath.

(Via Rolling Stone)

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DIO Hologram – Wacken Open Air 2016