It seems that everyone and their brother are watching the newly released fourth season of the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things“. And due to the character of Eddie Munson, portrayed by actor Joe Quinn, the show has a pretty significant heavy metal presence, in part due to the character’s love of the genre and his sporting of a jean jacket complete with a DIO back patch.
As it turns out, that actual patch was donated to the hit sci-fi show by Ronnie James Dio‘s estate, headed up by late singer’s widow and manager, Wendy Dio.
In the series, Munson is the leader of the Hellfire Club at Hawkins High and sports a teased out perm along with a W.A.S.P. pin sported proudly on his jacket.
The DIO back patch displays the album art from the band’s iconic 1984 studio album “The Last in Line“, which gives the character all that much more reputability as a full-on 1986 headbanger.
“Stranger Things” costume designer Amy Parris gave a recent interview where she explained the inspiration behind the character’s wardrobe.
“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 Dio 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!”
You can check out the patch below.
The first seven episodes of the fourth season of “Stranger Things” are currently streaming on Netflix with two additional episodes arriving on July 1.
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