Rock and metal royalty has united to honor Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW with a sweeping all-star tribute album: Ride The Rainbow — The Ultimate Tribute To Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW, arriving June 19, 2026 via Cleopatra Records. The album's final single — a cover of RAINBOW's 1975 debut classic "Man On The Silver Mountain" — features a stacked lineup: Sebastian Bach (ex-SKID ROW) on vocals, Doug Aldrich (WHITESNAKE), Bob Daisley (original RAINBOW bassist), Carmine Appice (VANILLA FUDGE, CACTUS), Mick Box (URIAH HEEP), and Jonathan Cain (JOURNEY).
"Man On The Silver Mountain" is arguably RAINBOW's defining opening statement — the track that introduced the world to Ronnie James Dio's voice alongside Blackmore's virtuosic riffing on the band's 1975 self-titled debut. For a generation of heavy metal fans, it remains one of the foundational tracks of the genre, preceding and arguably informing much of what followed in heavy metal and hard rock.
The assembled musicians carry extraordinary historical weight. Bob Daisley played on the original Rainbow Rising and is one of the few living musicians with direct ties to classic RAINBOW. Carmine Appice has his own story with the band: "I was supposed to be in RAINBOW back in the day. Ritchie asked me to be in it, but I couldn't do it." Jonathan Cain summed up the legacy: "RAINBOW with Ronnie James Dio were one of the truly melodic and memorable metal bands."
The wider tribute album gathers other classic rock and metal contributors across a full tracklist celebrating the RAINBOW catalogue — one of the most underappreciated bodies of work in heavy metal history.
RAINBOW, active in various configurations from 1975 to 1997 and briefly revived by Blackmore in 2016, featured legendary vocalists including Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner, and produced enduring albums such as Rising, Long Live Rock 'N' Roll, and Difficult To Cure.
The tribute is both a celebration and a reminder: RAINBOW's influence on heavy metal runs deeper and wider than their commercial profile might suggest, and Dio's voice on those early recordings remains one of the genre's greatest gifts.