The FREE MP3 song download of the day over at Amazon is Dio‘s Stand Up And Shout (Live).

Click the link to the song, then click on the “Get MP3” button on the top right corner of the product page and it will download the song for NO charge.

The free download is only for today until midnight PST, so grab it right now!

The song comes from Dio’s Holy Diver Live and the MP3 version of the entire double-live album is also on sale right now for only $7.99.

[UPDATE 7/9/2010: The deal for “Stand Up and Shout” is over, but today there’s a new FREE mp3 the album, the song “Holy Diver (Live)” — so grab that right now!]

The creation of this image was suggested to me by a friend via Twitter, and I immediately thought ‘Horns’ and got to work making it happen.

I created ‘Horns’ to honor of one of the most inspiring people in my life and the lives of many of my friends, the Godfather of Heavy Metal — Ronnie James Dio, who passed away yesterday.

Dio’s bold music scored such a large part of the backdrop of my youth that I can rarely think of good times without thinking of him (Look Out!!).

I was lucky enough to have seen him perform in concert more times than I can rightfully put a number to and I gotta tell ya, every single time I saw him he made that concert seem like the ‘best’ performance of his career.

My friend Greg said it best: ‘Black Sabbath with Ozzy may have created Metal – but it was RONNIE JAMES DIO that made metal a REALITY’

Rock in Peace, RJD!!

\m/ \m/ Hold those horns high!!

[UPDATED: Rock Legend Ronnie James Dio Has Died; he passed on Sunday, May 16, 2010 in the morning.]

Rumors began spreading across the Internet last night (Saturday, May 15) that rock singer Ronnie James Dio had died early that day.

Many sites were picking up the story and reporting the rumor as fact, and Twitter and Facebook is all a buzz about this, despite the lack of attribution or official statement.

Since the rumor appeared online — leading to several revisions to Dio’s Wikipedia entry, the singer’s official site has been flooded with traffic, bringing it down (it was still down at the time of this posting).

Blabbermouth contacted Dio’s wife and manager Wendy Dio to respond to the rumors. Wendy Dio, who said she was at the hospital with her husband, responded that while the singer was not doing well, he is NOT dead.

I just noticed that there’s an offer on Amazon’s MP3 page for a FREE download of the Eagle-Armoury Records 2009 Metal/Hard Rock Sampler.

The album’s name probably means nothing to all of you, as it meant nothing to me at first glance, but, all I need to see is the word ‘metal’ and I’m checkin it out. Turns out there’s 10 great hard rock/heavy metal tunes on the album from bands like Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Dio, Twisted Sister, and Black Label Society.

Now, listen to me when I say this: This album is FREE. FREE. FREE. No obligations, no commitments, no nothing. DOWNLOAD THIS NOW. If you’re new to metal, you’ll at least benefit from getting Dio’s “Holy Diver” if nothing else. Let’s put it this way: I am the biggest metalhead you’ll ever know – I already own most of these songs in every medium possible, yet I downloaded the album.

Check out the full track listing here below and then go grab this baby for yourself. You can thank me later. \m/\m/