Stranger Things and heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio come together in Stranger Things 4, the new season of the nostalgic Netflix sci-fi series that arrived last week. Among the episodes, the character of Eddie Munson, a metalhead played by actor Joe Quinn, sports a jean jacket with a Dio back patch. The merch is the real deal — it was donated to the show by Dio’s estate, led by the late singer’s widow, Wendy Dio.
The piece makes sense for Munson, leader of the Hellfire Club at Hawkins High. He rocks a teased metal perm along with a W.A.S.P. pin on his jacket, looking fully the 1986 headbanger. To prep for the part, Quinn even listened to a lot metal. As it turns out, the character also loves thrash metal pioneers Metallica.
See a pic of the Stranger Things Dio jacket below.
The back patch features the album art from The Last in Line, the 1984 second studio album by Dio’s eponymous metal band. In a recent interview, Stranger Things costume designer Amy Parris explained the inspiration behind the wardrobe choice.
“He’s wearing one thing because he’s in that outfit the whole time,” she explains, “so I really focused and zeroed in on making sure everything in that outfit was authentic.”
Parris continues, “He’s a fan of wizard metal; he’s a fan of Dio. He’s a fan of Metallica. Actually, Dio was a popular band in the ’80s, and we reached out to the estate [of the late Ronnie James Dio to source a band shirt]. His wife is in charge of his estate and offered to send us vintage T-shirts, which was such a dream.”
On Monday (May 30), Wendy shared those quotes from Parris on social media, adding, “It was great to see this vintage DIO design on the recent episode of Stranger Things! Eddie loves DIO!”
On Stranger Things, Eddie Munson is a rebellious metalhead who failed to graduate more than once. He leads the Dungeon & Dragons club at the school. He’s also guitarist of the band Corroded Coffin, and he invites another character to come see them.
Want to learn more? The first seven episodes of Stranger Things 4 are streaming right now; two additional episodes will hit Netflix on July 1.