Agenda: ‘Ride for Ronnie’: May 2017
Rock Out to Classic Metal & Roll Your Harleys for a Great Cause at Third Annual ‘Ride for Ronnie,’ Happening May 7 in SoCal
We all love to cruise the open roads on our bikes while listening to some cool tunes. Now we can do it for a good cause via another great event from the Harley-Davidson-riding community. And better yet, this one is a salute to one of our favorite artists: Ronnie James Dio. The late vocalist’s music has been providing a stellar soundtrack for our rides since the Seventies.
On May 7, Harley-Davidson of Glendale, California, is hosting “Ride for Ronnie: Third Annual Motorcycle Ride & Concert,” a Southern California-based annual motorcycle ride and concert whose proceeds will go to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.
Just in case you didn’t already know, Dio was the legendary heavy-metal vocalist who fronted Rainbow in the mid-’70s before joining Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne was fired from the band in 1979. Dio later formed his own band (named Dio, naturally). Legend also has it that Dio was the one who first brandished the ubiquitous “Devil’s horns” hand sign now used by metalheads around the world. After Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer on May 16, 2010, his wife, Wendy Dio, formed The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund in his honor.
This is the third annual “Ride for Ronnie” event. Last year’s ride raised $50,000 for the cancer research work of the T.J. Martell Foundation and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where Dio was treated during the last six months of his life.
Musicians Lita Ford, Faster Pussycat‘s Taime Downe and ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke were at last year’s event. Also on hand were Sons of Anarchy cast members Emilio Rivera, Michael Beach and Sean McNabb. Ford and ’80s metal stalwarts Great White headlined the 2016 benefit.
This year’s 20-mile “Ride for Ronnie” begins at Harley-Davidson of Glendale. It ends in Encino, where the concert will take place. Participants will depart Glendale, traveling the freeways of the north San Fernando Valley. Riders then move down the 405 freeway to a rally and live concert at Encino’s Los Encinos Historical Park.
The rally will feature gourmet food trucks and a beer garden. The biggest surprise — the reveal of the headlining band — is coming soon. But you can bet that like at previous events, many of Dio’s famous friends and bandmates will be on hand to jam.
For more information and to buy tickets, visit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund online. Check out last year’s event in the clip below.
Photos: Gene Kirkland via “Ride for Ronnie”