New York, NY -- Jack Black's tenaciousness has been very good for heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio.

The "School Of Rock" star has long sung the praises of the former singer of Black Sabbath and Rainbow, in interviews, films and his rock group Tenacious D., which performs a song dedicated to Dio.

It's finally paying off for Dio, who says there's been much more interest in his music lately than in years past, and admits "Jack's really helped attract the younger perspective."

Of course, Dio also credits his newfound respect to VH-1, which recently gave him credit as the man who popularized the now-infamous "devil horns" gesture and chose it as "the No. 1 most metal moment in rock history."

After 30 years, Dio's not resting on his laurels. He says it's taken 50 years for heavy rock to be an accepted art form and wants to use his position as an elder statesman to keep making music.

To that end, he's just released, "Master Of The Moon," an album which he says is directly influenced by the "terrorism, people in Africa and paranoia. Otherwise, I'd just do a great big fantasy."

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