Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll, Round 1: Ronnie James Dio (Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath) Vs. Jim Morrison (The Doors)

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Let's get started! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two matchups per week, continuing with today's shootout, Ronnie James Dio of Elf, Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and beyond against Jim Morrison of the Doors.

Latest Results

Winner: Robert Plant (71.84 percent)
Loser: Bon Scott (28.16 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Round 1 Matchup (3 of 8)
Ronnie James Dio Vs. Jim Morrison

RONNIE JAMES DIO

Born: July 10, 1942, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Died: May 16, 2010, Houston, Texas
Associated Acts: Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio, Heaven & Hell, Elf, Hear 'n Aid
Website:ronniejamesdio.com

Quote: "Music, rock and roll music especially, is such a generational thing. Each generation must have their own music, I had my own in my generation, you have yours, everyone I know has their own generation."

JIM MORRISON

Born: December 8, 1943, Melbourne, Florida
Died: July 3, 1971, Paris, France
Associated Acts: The Doors
Website:thedoors.com

Quote: "I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments."

Voting Closed!

Winner: Ronnie James Dio (68.46 percent)
Loser: Jim Morrison (31.54 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.Guitar World/Samson Greatest Rock Singers