It was the talk of the Wacken Open Air festival last year -- the members of Dio Disciples performed with a hologram of their late longtime inspiration Ronnie James Dio. Soon after the hologram made its debut, there was talk of utilizing it for additional performances in 2017, and it appears as though the first of those shows will come next month at the annual Pollstar Awards.

According to Blabbermouth, the 28th Annual Pollstar Awards will take place Feb. 2 at the Novo in Los Angeles, with Dio Disciples set to perform assisted by the Eyellusion-created Dio hologram. In addition, earlier in the day, Wendy Dio and Eyellusion's Jeff Pezzuti will take part in a Pollstar Live! panel centered on "The Hologram Experience."

"I was a huge fan growing up and I thought it would be different and exciting to bring back Ronnie with the live band, making it the first time with that band," Pezzuti told us last fall. "The biggest challenge was making it as authentic as possible and making it come to life. It had to be right and it had to be from the heart and it had to really, really resemble and be as if Ronnie was there."

Wendy Dio, speaking at the Bowl 4 Ronnie event last fall, added, "If you saw the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour when we had the crystal ball that came down with Ronnie’s head in it, we were trying to create a hologram then. So when [Jeff] approached me and we wrapped our head around it and it took a year to develop with a lot of money, but we thought that this would be good for a lot of people who loved Ronnie and would love to see him again as well as the fans who didn’t get the opportunity to see him.”

Dio Disciples keyboardist Scott Warren recalled the initial performance, stating, "It was amazing. It’s a brand new technology, so it was a challenge. It was a year in the making, but for all of us it was a learning curve. We didn’t have time to set up. It was a throw and go and Wacken festival usually happens very fast. But the hologram thing is a work in progress, and it started out with a blast.”

He adds, "I think it’s very important because I know that there is always with new technology that age old question of just because we can, should we, and there are some things that would raise a lot of controversial issues, but I know Ronnie and Dio was a live band and Ronnie was a live singer and I know that this would be what he would’ve wanted."

Stay tuned as more dates utilizing the Ronnie James Dio hologram will be revealed.

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