[UPDATED: Rock Legend Ronnie James Dio Has Died; he passed on Sunday, May 16, 2010 in the morning.]

Rumors began spreading across the Internet last night (Saturday, May 15) that rock singer Ronnie James Dio had died early that day.

Many sites were picking up the story and reporting the rumor as fact, and Twitter and Facebook is all a buzz about this, despite the lack of attribution or official statement.

Since the rumor appeared online — leading to several revisions to Dio’s Wikipedia entry, the singer’s official site has been flooded with traffic, bringing it down (it was still down at the time of this posting).

Blabbermouth contacted Dio’s wife and manager Wendy Dio to respond to the rumors. Wendy Dio, who said she was at the hospital with her husband, responded that while the singer was not doing well, he is NOT dead.

The singer had been diagnosed with stomach cancer last November and has been undergoing treatment for the illness [read Rock Legend Ronnie James Dio Diagnosed With Stomach Cancer]. Because of his health, his band Heaven & Hell (the renamed Black Sabbath) canceled their plans to tour Europe this summer.

Dio’s cancer had been caught in its early stages, and in March, his wife posted online that after seven chemotherapy treatments and various tests, Dio’s tumor had shrunk down a lot and that his visits to a cancer clinic in Houston, TX, had decreased from every two weeks to every three weeks.

Judging by his wife’s statement today that “he is not doing well,” it seems Dio has taken a turn for the worse, even though his health seemed to be improving a few months ago.

All of us here at Geeks of Doom are relieved to know that the 67-year-old rock legend has not passed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him that he will recover from whatever setback he’s going through right now. There’s a lot of people all over the world pulling for him and all of us fans aren’t ready to let him go just yet. We hope he isn’t ready to go either.