The hologram was developed by Eyellusion, and whilst not as realistic looking as the Tupac hologram from Coachella a few years ago, as far as dead people go, he looked pretty alive. Dio’s widow and manager of his estate, Wendy Dio, told Rolling Stone that “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.”
“When I first experienced the full production of Ronnie performing with his band as a hologram, I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears,” she continues. “With Eyellusion, we have been able to get Ronnie back up on stage where he belongs, ensuring that his music and memory live on. I want Ronnie’s fans around the world to share this experience.”
For fans in the audience, this was no doubt an incredible experience, and one they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, but it is the suggestion that the hologram be taken on tour with the band that has many other fans up in arms. The general sentiment of the community of Dio fans was that whilst it was a great tribute to bring back a hologram for part of one show at a festival, it’s wrong to try and make more money out of it by touring with it, a sentiment I have to agree with.
To me it seems in part as though Eyellusion are trying to make the most out of a project that took them a year to complete, and likely cost a lot of money to do – the Tupac Coachella hologram clocked in somewhere between US$100,000 and US$400,000, so this was no doubt in that vicinity too. We’d all like one more Jimi Hendrix solo, one more scream from Kurt Cobain and some more funky goodness from Prince, but sometimes it’s just best to let the dead rest. To borrow a line from Jurassic Park, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
