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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:49:37 GMT -5
Inspirations – The Randy Rhoads Legacy By Diane Pearson
It warms my heart to know That we will meet again For now I hold the memories I have of you my friend Running around in Junior High Playing in a band Living out all our dreams Turning out just like we planned Even though we drift apart On one thing I can depend That I may walk for all my days And say you are my best friend.
Kelly Garni
Best friend to Randy Rhoads/former bass player in the band Quiet Riot/Photographer
Randy and I were in the same junior high school together. We met in the seventh grade. I was eleven and somehow he seemed to be a year older than me, but he really wasn’t. Even at that young age he seemed very artistic and was clearly different than all the other kids around. You just couldn’t help but notice. Since there was something about him that was so different, a lot of the other kids really picked on him. There was just something about him that was very different than everybody else. I mean, he was weird and he looked weird. He had more of a Beetle like hair cut. It was kind of cool actually. I recently went up to a kid that had a hair cut like the one Randy had and said ‘hey, that is a cool looking hair due’. Randy dressed different and he was small. He was artful looking and not athletic-looking what so ever. You could tell he was artistic and very introspective and just all in all different. That is what attracted me to him. One day I just walked up to him and said ‘hey, how ya doin?’ After that we just started talking and hanging out together. I started going over to his house. It was immediately clear that his family was very musical. At that time, Randy knew his guitar chords already and was just starting to learn his leads. He basically didn’t know anything. His sister played guitar and his brother played the drums. His mother played everything. She owned a music school and taught music. Everybody was always playing something in that house. Some of the neighbors even played and if you didn’t play anything, you felt like a complete outcast. So, I decided that I wanted to play an instrument. Randy suggested that I play the bass guitar. So, he got me a bass and started teaching me. As he would learn his leads he would teach me some bass and I would eventually learn to do patterns that he would practice his leads over. That went on and on everyday for years until we were about twelve. That was when we started putting together little bands, playing together at neighborhood parties and parks. Anywhere we could. We started jamming with other people. We were obsessed with it. We played anywhere, anytime, anyway we could. It was always a constant battle to upgrade our equipment. We would do odd jobs for Randys mother to make enough money to buy amps and things. We were best friends and we always hung out together. The older we got, the weirder we got. We both got into Alice Cooper soon after we met. The first Alice Cooper show that we went to was in 1971. We got really into Alice and we eventually started looking like Alice. California is a party state. I don’t care where you live in California, it is a party state. People just love to party! We were in Burbank, California where there is a lot of surfers and stuff. All of the surfers were good friends with each other and they had parties like crazy. We were frequently asked to attend these parties and jam. It would be some type of deal where a kids parents would go out of town, they would get together and buy a few kegs, put some fliers up all over the city and throw a huge party where literally six hundred kids would show up. I am not exaggerating either. The party would take over the entire block. It freaked out all of the neighbors because there would be kids screwing and throwing up on their front lawns. Beer bottles were everywhere! Of course the cops would always get called out to shut the party down. We were very familiar with the police and they were always very cool with us. They never gave us any problems and even seemed to like us. They knew that we were just trying to play and they never blamed us for anything. We would at least get in a good hour before the cops ever showed up or could even make their way to us through the crowd of people. They had to walk through such a sea of kids. If the party wasn’t at someone’s house, it was at a local park. There were several parks that we played at where in the picnic areas there would be plugs so that we could hook up our equipment. The plugs were hot and we would bring long extension cords and our breaker box or whatever and just plug everything in. We had lights and the whole bit. We just played anywhere we could. Houses, parks, anywhere. It didn’t matter. We spent a lot of time playing in peoples living rooms, in back yards, wherever. It would be Randy, me, and we had several different drummers that we used. We were twelve at the time. Quiet Riot was formed when I was sixteen. So, from the time we turned twelve, we were pretty happening Musicians. We had our own songs and we made our own music. For three years, that is what we did. It was a cool way to grow up, especially in the summer time because we would virtually play somewhere every single night. We had several names that we called ourselves. If nothing big was going on, we would go over to someone’s house where they would have a few friends over and we would just jam. We never got paid. We never asked for much. We were just content with showing up, maybe having something to drink for free and then just being able to play in front of people. That’s what our ‘thing’ was. We would meet girls at the parties and just basic teenage stuff. It was definitely a good place to bum cigarettes. Randy and I had three to five drummers that we used to use. We would call them on occasion when we had a gig. We would hear of a party and then track someone down to ask if we could play. They would say ”ya”, and then we would have to find a drummer. We would get on the phone and call this guy or that guy to see if they had any plans for that particular night. Our next obstacle after finding a drummer was finding a car. Luckily, most of our drummers had vans and were much older than we were. Some were even in their thirties. That is how we put all of that together. We had to get a drummer and get transportation. As far as singers would go, we rarely used them. We did everything instrumental. Through the years prior to Quiet Riot, we had two singers that I can remember. We had one girl singer. We had one singer named Smokey. We would frequently go down to the Guitar Center in Hollywood and look at the bulletin board. That was always a really big deal for us. To go down to the Guitar Center and look at that bulletin board! That is where we wrote down Smokey’s name. The post said that he was a singer who was looking for a band. Well, we were looking for a singer and so we called him. Smokey came to Burbank and saw us play. He was blown away! He was like ”wow, look at these two kids!”. We both had really long hair by then and were very accomplished players. We easily blew away people in town who were much older than us. Smokey was the guy who really introduced us to Hollywood. He was a very tall, gay guy who looked better than most girls. He was gorgeous! He was a singer. He was like the world’s worst singer! But, he was just so cool looking. The time that we spent with Smokey brought Randy and I to a whole new level of somewhere to play. Now, we were playing Hollywood. We called the band Smokey. We started off playing what was Rodney Bingenheimer’s club which was called Rodney’s English Disco. Rodney was a male groupie type of a person who always wanted to be seen with the rock stars. He opened this club up in Hollywood which was extremely cool looking. I had never seen anything like it before. You would go in there and David Bowie would be sitting there, and sometimes Led Zepplin and Lou Reed. All kinds of rock stars were in there just hanging out. There was no age limit, and that meant that you could literally just walk up the bar and order a beer. This was of course all through the glitter era and so everyone had on glitter. We were all very glittery and everything just shined. We were the house band there for a while and it was a very cool scene. The band eventually broke up. One day Randy and I were at this girls house named Hillary. She was talking on the phone to one of her girlfriends about some singer named Kevin. I was like, ”singer? Kevin? Who is this guy?”. So, I thought that I would give the girl the third degree and find out some more information on this singer named Kevin. Hillary said that he looked like Rod Stewart, though she had never heard him sing. She didn’t know much about him and so she just gave me his phone number so that I could call him myself. Randy and I called him and spoke to him about what we were looking for. We wanted to check him out and so we went over to his house and took a look at him. Our first thought was that he looked pretty geeky. We didn’t see a whole lot of potential there! Randy and I just sort of looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We immediately started looking for a way to get out of there! But, Kevin was very persistent We would try avoiding him though he would keep calling us. We reluctantly had him come over to Randys house one day. We went into Randys garage and jammed with Kevin. Kevin was just horrible! Randy and I looked at each other and basically weren’t too suprised. We knew that. After that, he still would not leave us alone. He kept calling and asking ”well, when is our band going to play? When are we going to rehearse?”.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:50:59 GMT -5
We would make up excuse after excuse. We would say things like we had a cold , or one of the amps was blown up, or there was no where to play. He just wouldn’t give up though and kept calling. So, we finally just gave up and said, ”well, let’s see what we can do with him”. We started working on his singing and gave him a few pointers. As time went on he actually became a very good singer. He was eventually acceptable and once he was definitely in the band, he took over everything. He ran the whole show. It was fine with Randy and I because up until then I was the one doing everything. He took over us getting a manager, running the band, finding us a place to rehearse, finding us a gig. He was a business man through and through. We just kind of said, ”well, okay. He certainly justifies his involvement here”. It was cool. There was obviously no getting rid of him! We were stuck with him! That was it! He wasn’t going anywhere! Our drummer Drew Forsyth was one of the drummers that we had used through the years. We had decided to permanently bring him into the project. We were then, Quiet Riot. Kevin came up with the name Quiet Riot. As I recall he heard a guy say that if he ever had a band, he would call it Quiet Riot. He shouldn’t have said that in front of Kevin because Kevin said ”I’m going to have a band and I am going to call it Quiet Riot!”. So, he did. That same guy is probably going, ”wow, you know I said that once. Now it’s a big name!”. Our first real gig was at what would have been me and Randy’s High School Prom. We had a lot of problems in school with jocks and stuff beating us up because of the way we looked and dressed. We took a lot of heat because of it and so I did not graduate. I just said ”screw this”. I just didn’t want anything to do with school. Randy graduated through the adult school program. I did get a GED also. But, our first gig as Quiet Riot was at the Senior Prom which should have been ours. It was the first place that we had ever played as a group. After we performed we were very acceptable. All of the jocks were really cool with us, and they had all seemed to grow up a little. They had time since it was actually during Junior High where we would get beat up and chased. The second gig that we did was a Halloween party in Burbank. It turned into a real big riot! It literally turned into a riot! I mean, it was huge. Every cop in Burbank wound up being there because of all the tremendous fights that were going on. There must have been sixty people fighting! All of the people that worked there got broken arms or concussions. Everybody went to the hospital. All the while, we were up there playing. It was pretty scary. The third place that we played was the Chili Festival. Then from there we started playing the clubs. We would play at the Starwood on Sunday nights and eventually became the house band there through the next four years or some stagnating amount of time. All of this took place over a period of four years. We recorded two albums that were released in Japan. Prior to that we did some stuff that is recorded on the Randy Rhoads Tribute Album from Quiet Riot. By then I was eighteen or nineteen years old and I decided that I really didn’t like doing what I was doing. I was just ready for a change since I had basically been doing this all of my life. So, I left the band. I became a parametric and did that for many years. Randy didn’t stay with Quiet Riot too much longer. The Ozzy thing came up and he went for that. Then, Randy really wasn’t around much longer. I would hear from him every once in a while through phone calls. A time or two he would come home and I would drive to where he was and hang out with him for a couple of days. He came back to California one time for the Blizzard of Ozz Tour. He showed up a day early and we went out all night. Had a great time. Then, shortly after that visit, he was gone forever. Randy and I had a very interesting life together. Our upbringing was very unique and was very unlike the upbringing that most kids have. We were kids who were living out their dreams and doing what other kids only dreamed about. We were living it. We were fifteen years old and we had groupies! We were hanging out with rock stars! We were treated like rock stars! If we weren’t jamming, which is what we did ninety percent of the time, we did little else. This is how we got so good in such a short period of time. We really didn’t do a whole lot else. If we did stop, we would go to a big party and hang out with friends or whatever. Do things that you do at a party. One fun thing that we did was go to thrift stores and look for weird clothes to wear. We liked doing that. Randy had a couple of cars that we used to work on. I look back on that now and think of how strange that was, but we were actually pretty good mechanics. We had junkers for cars and were forced to have to fix them up ourselves. Randy and I were like a couple of wild party kids and really didn’t acknowledge all the legalities that were occurring around us in Quiet Riot. We were too busy enjoying our youth. I remember these managers that we had, would sit us down with these Lawyers in Beverly Hills. Randy and I would just be like ”what are we doing here? This is so boring!”. They would read these contracts to us and we would just be falling asleep or making faces at each other. It was all just going in one ear and out the other. It meant absolutely nothing to us. Kevin, of course, was all ears. This was his thing. We really depended on Kevin to look after us and he did. And, he did a very good job at it as he did and has done through all of the years of Quiet Riot. The wildest thing that Randy and I ever did, was there were several neighbors who had these tiny little sport cars that only four people could fit in. We found it great fun to go driving like maniacs through the Canyons in Hollywood Hills. Looking back on it now, it is a wonder that we ever survived! It really is. We would call them ‘runs’. We didn’t watch a lot of television, but our favorite show was the Beverly Hillbillies. No matter what was happening musically, when that show came on everything else stopped and the Beverly Hillbillies was watched. I remember how Randy would look at the old Alice Cooper, and his guitar player Glen Buxton. Glen makes a lot of noises and feedback when he plays. He really wasn’t a good player, but he made up for it by putting in a lot of freaky noises. His style was very abstract and not based on musical theory. I was more based on dramatics. Randy was able to gain a lot more from that. That was a major inspiration to him, that you really didn’t have to have training to come up with a unique style. Then, Mick Ronson is another good example. He has never been sited as being a major influence on Randy but I have to say that he definitely did have the most influence on him. Right down to the image. If you have access to the old David Bowie video called Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from mars, you will see an uncanny resemblance between him and Randy. That is very weird. There is Mick Ronson playing a Les Paul with Randys haircut! The magazines always say that he was influenced by Leslie West and all that, which is true, but Mick Ronson was the one. That was the guy! The last time I saw Randy was when he came here to Las Vegas. He came a day early for the Blizzard of Ozz tour, like I had mentioned earlier. He didn’t have any of his clothes with him since they were all on the bus. He came to my house and I remembered that I had actually borrowed some clothes from him and that I still had in my closet. So, I got them and said ”look, here’s some clothes and they just happen to be yours”. He thanked me for saving them. We went out and adventured to a bunch of buffets and bars that were there in town. We hooked up with Ozzy and the rest of the band at one of the casinos. They all wanted to see a show but Randy and I decided that we just wanted to hang out together and catch up. We stayed out that whole night and didn’t end it all until 6:00a.m. the next morning. That was the day that they played at the Aladdin. Randy asked me to come to the show and I said that I would though I had a girl with me. He just said ”well, you have two choices. I have two seats for you in front row center, the best seats in the house, or you can just hang out backstage”. I said that I would just rather hang out backstage and he said ”okay”. When we arrived, he pulled up a big road case on wheels and put it right along the side of the stage where he was. He looked over at me throughout the show. We would make faces at each other and I would make him laugh. It was really cool. Afterwards, we had just enough time to say good-bye and then he was out of there. He was on the bus and the bus was mobbed by people. That was the last time that I saw Randy. It was nice that we had that time together. It was a rare occasion to be able to do that. We just had so much fun! I couldn’t believe how much food we ate while we were together! We were both very skinny and we must have made a visit to three or four buffets. Randy thought that the buffet was the greatest thing he had every seen! He had never seen anything like that before. I spent more time playing with Randy than anyone has. Randy and I played together for nine years and I am the only person who can say that. I was there when he didn’t even know how to play a lead. I was there when he learned. I was so accustomed to his playing that I got to the point where I really didn’t hear it anymore. It is all these years later when I sit down and listen to these old records and think to myself, ”wow, he was really good”. Because to me, Randy was Randy. He wasn’t the Guitar God that other people are able to appreciate. I can’t view him that way. It is not in me to hear it, see it, or anything. I barely recognize it. It’s kind of weird. But, I just know his style and his music. I am able to picture in my mind his fingers and what they are doing. Mainly, because I spent so many years watching those fingers and doing whatever they were doing. It just really went over my head how good he was. Through all of the years and even with Quiet Riot. He would do this amazing guitar solo and I would hear it and it would just be the same old stuff to me. I picked up playing the bass very easily. Randy was an excellent teacher. It became a matter of watching his fingers. Whatever his hands did, my hands did. That’s how he taught me. He said that the guitar is just like bass, which it is. If his finger was there, then go there. It became a matter of copying him. That is why over the years of playing with him, I could anticipate where his fingers were going and I knew what he was going to do. That is probably why we played so well together. He could literally say to me, ”I learned a new song today”, and I would say ”okay, let’s do it. Don’t teach it to me, let’s just do it”. He would play it and I would play right along with him. It is not that hard of a trick for anyone to learn. I was an accomplished player after about a year. Maybe even six months. We were then playing in front of people. Mrs. Rhoads helped out in a lot of ways. She owned a music school. One of the problems that Randy and I had was being able to play loud somewhere and not have the cops called out on us for disturbing the neighbors. Or, we would disturb his brother or sister. Disturbing anything! So, Mrs. Rhoads had this band called the Six Musonians. They were a real goofy band and were the kind of guys that wore ties with short sleeve shirts. Real nerdy. They played big band music and the deal was, if we wanted to play down at her school, undisturbed and as loud as we wanted, we had to play with the Six Musonians. The idea of having to play with them was degrading and demoralizing to Randy and I but that was the deal. If you want to play loud, the Six Musonians want you! So, it was like a trade off. These guys had real thick glasses and were all real goofballs. Complete nerds. They were all scared to death of Randy and I. They played mainly brass instruments and so Randy and I played back up. Mrs. Rhoads gave us some sheet music that we had to read off of and play. Neither of us knew how to read music and so we would just fake it all the way through. That was the deal though. If you play with the Six Musonians, you can then go into the big room and play as loud as you want for an hour or two.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:51:36 GMT -5
So, Randy and I forced ourselves to play with the Six Musonians. Occasionally, Mrs. Rhoads would recruit me to play bar mitzvah’s and things like that. I would make about five dollars playing at a bar mitzvah. That was probably the most money that I ever made playing music. Playing with the Six Musonians! Randy started teaching when he was about sixteen. He made pretty good money. He had forty to fifty students a week and made about five or six dollars a lesson. Back then, that was a lot of money for a sixteen year old kid. Probably more money than most adults were making full time. When we were in Hollywood, the cool thing to do was to fake an English accent. It was cool to be from England and so all of the poser types would be walking around with these fake English accents. We would make fun of that like crazy! If some chick came up to us and started talking with an English accent, Randy and I would just look at each other and start cracking up! They would never figure out what was so funny! We would just be rolling on the floor laughing! We would finally clue them in and say ”nice accent, how long have you had it, an hour?”. They weren’t fooling us! The real funny thing about all of it is Randy developed his own English accent after spending so much time in England with Ozzy Osbourne. He couldn’t help it! When he came to see me, he had this English accent. I just kept looking at him and going ”your kidding right?”. He was so embarrassed that he turned bright red and said ”I can’t help it, I just can’t help it!”. I would just make fun of him saying things like ”well, I had better talk that way too. I don’t want to feel left out”. I gave him such a hard time about that. He was almost in tears because he couldn’t stop doing it. That was the extent of our conversation about how he liked living in England. Randy really wasn’t a ladies man. As a matter of fact, the last time we were together he said that he could count all of his past girlfriends on one hand. I just couldn’t believe that because here he was this big rock star in a giant rock band. It was unheard of! He just wasn’t the kind of guy to go pick up girls. The relationships that he did have were quite long. He really wasn’t into the whole relationship, dating thing at all. Girls were really into him! They loved Randy! They would throw him on the ground and just be all over him. I lost so many girlfriends to Randy! I would meet a girl and everything would be going along just fine until he came along. All of a sudden, the girl and I would be having all of these problems and I would ask, ”what’s wrong?”. The girl would turn to me and ask ”does Randy have a girlfriend?”. That happened to me all the time! I could never bring any girls to meet him. I would get really mad at him and he would be like, ”what did I do?”. I would look at him and say ”God damn it! You did it again!”. He never encouraged it or anything either. All he had to do was talk to the girl and BANG! It was all over. She was hit. Then, I would find out that the girl would call his house and show up at his front door. I was like, ”what is the deal here?”. I laugh all the time at the things we use to do. All of the memories. We were very avid practical jokers. No one was safe! We were pretty daring and creative too. We were really into crashing parties. Not just any party either. We are talking Beverly Hills parties. I personally, crashed Hugh Hefners party. I went to the Playboy Mansion on New Years Eve and actually got in! Not many people can do that. I was there the entire night and didn’t get thrown out until 5:00a.m. the next morning. I hung out with Rod Stewert the entire night. I tried to explain to him who I was but he was so wasted that he really didn’t care. His girlfriend had him on a short leash that night, yelling at him if he dared to look at another female. So, he felt pretty safe sitting there with a young, zit faced kid all night. Randy and I would just go driving around the hills, looking for these rich parties to crash. We would knock on the door and just say ”hi”, like we knew everybody there. They would all be looking at us funny, but we were such good actors that they rarely ever looked twice. Occasionally, we would get kicked out right away, but for the most part we got in without a hitch. We would always do things that weren’t very nice. We would get a bunch of food and sneak upstairs to their bedrooms and hide it in their drawers and inside their shoes. We would do all of these things that we knew we would never be a witness to the outcome of. We would never get to go ”ha, ha, that guy just put his shoe on and there was an egg inside!”. We just thought that it was hilarious that someday, that was going to happen. But, usually by the time we left the party, we had completely forgotten what we had done. In Quiet Riot, we really didn’t play jokes on Kevin. Kevin didn’t have much of a sense of humor back then. Now, you can get away with anything on Kevin. You can terrorize him now, where certainly back then you could not. Kevin and I were on bad terms back then anyhow. We did not get along at all. So, I couldn’t play a joke on Kevin without him punching me in the face. If I played a joke on Kevin, he took it as a major offense towards him. No matter how innocent the joke, it just wasn’t funny. I could put a sign on his back that said something funny or crude and he would just walk around with it on for the longest time before noticing what everybody was laughing about. When he did figure out what was so funny, I got slugged. Randy thought that was hilarious! No, we just didn’t mess with Kevin too much back then. Anybody else, look out!
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:52:15 GMT -5
We had special names for most everybody. They could never figure out why we called them that certain name. Then, other people would hear Randy and I calling that person a name and so they would start calling them that same name. That person could never figure out why everybody was calling them that name and nobody else really knew either. The only people who knew were Randy and I. People would ask the guy, ”hey, why does everybody call you that?”. The person would be like ”I don’t know. Those two guys over there call me that and now everybody is calling me that. I don’t know what it means”. Like I said before, Randy and I had the greatest upbringing. Our parents were very supportive of what we wanted to do and what we were doing. They gave us our freedom which is always very important. They would help us buy equipment and go see us play at the Starwood. They continued to support us even though we were totally out of control. They obviously could not control us so they just gave up and hoped for the best. The most important thing that could be said about Randy is how humble he was. He had no idea how good he was. He didn’t think of it that way. He didn’t look at how good am I, he looked at how good can I be. What he did accomplish truly didn’t please him. What he did never left a big impression with him. It was just something that he had done, then it was onto something else. That is why you hear people say ”Randy didn’t want these Quiet Riot recordings to be released”. I have to say, that is totally ridiculous. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. It is just not true. It is like some big shot football quarterback saying ”gee, I hope that nobody ever finds out that I played football in high school”. You would just never hear one of those guys say something like that. Of course you played football in high school! Then, say somebody shows a video of that person in high school throwing a pass and hitting the referee in the head. It wouldn’t mortify people! That is how I see Randy listening to those tapes. They are not bad at all. You are listening to a seventeen year old kid playing. Now, you show me a seventeen year old that can play like that! There aren’t any. So, it is ridiculous to say that Randy would be embarrassed by those old Quiet Riot recordings. Randy would understand the need for the band to have stuff like that out there. Kevin needs to keep his name out there. It was nice for me to finally have the Japanese things in somewhat of a format so that people here could purchase them. A big baring on the Quiet Riot tribute coming out was all of these fans showing up at Randys grave sight with these bootleg CD’s of our Japanese records that they paid $150.00 for! That is the main reason why Mrs. Rhoads decided to endorse the album. Few people can die and still live on the way Randy has. It’s easy to be a legend if your famous. As much as he was a legendary Guitarist, he was a great human being as well. People still gather at the San Bernadino grave sight on his birthday and the day that he died. The day that he died draws the most people. The amount of people does seem to be lingering as the years go by. There use to be about fifty or sixty people who showed up, though now it is more like twenty. The people still come from very far away. Several travel all the way from Japan. I go there for the family and for the fans. As far as I am concerned, Randy is here, with me, everyday.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:52:44 GMT -5
Danie Powers Musical Artist/Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist for American Power Metal Band
I don’t recall the year when I discovered Randy Rhoads, but it was after his death unfortunately. I was partying with some people in a park and my drummer that I had just met put a tape in his stereo. It was a live bootleg of Ozzy with Randy. Everything just stopped for fragments of time and I was transported away to this wonderful realm. I was like, ”who is that on guitar!”. He proceeded to tell me about Randy. I was already familiar with Ozzy through the Black Sabbath days, but hadn’t followed his career. I had admired Sabbath, but was not a huge Ozzy fan until my association with this drummer, and his constant playing of that tape and other albums that Randy Rhoads appeared on. It ingrained his guitar playing into my being. It was as if his soul came ripping through the speakers that very first time that I heard the tape. It was beyond any other guitar work I had heard then or since. Randy truly spoke to me. Randy definitely is my guitar idol. I don’t strive to sound like him so much as I do to be like him, which is a very lofty goal. He had far more love for his instrument than I think I will ever have. When I loose focus, I immediately think of Randy and it pulls me back in line. But, while I think it’s flattering to his memory to learn and copy every lick of his and try to sound just like him, I think that Randy would have preferred we take the art that he created and use it for inspiration. You know ‘don’t imitate, innovate’. To me, it would be an insult to his sheer genius to try and sit down and copy everything note for note and become a Randy clone, and nothing beyond that which reflects your own soul. I am not knocking those who do, I am just saying that for me, I think he would have just wanted us to take his knowledge and incorporate it into our various different styles. There is only one Randy Rhoads and never will there be another. I would hope that his purity and self effacing personality along with his tendency would be as much an impact on everyone else as it has been on me. He was so far beyond just being a rock star. To me, Randy is a symbol of constantly striving to do more, be more with your instrument. Music to Randy was more like a lover than a means to stardom. He nurtured it and loved it. I have a picture of Randy that I keep with me for inspiration. Even beyond just music, there was just something him. He was such a gentle, peaceful soul. His thirst for knowledge was genuine and honest. Guitar was not a science to him as it winds up being to so many virtuosos. It was an honorable, chaste, untainted art form. He was a genius. That same brilliance will always be evident to people. True genius never dies. I began a web page on the Internet dedicated to Randy Rhoads. When I started my page there were only four others out there that I had found and two of those quickly folded. The sites that were up had very little information and were largely take-off’s of each other. One had some pretty nice photos. I just came up with my small tribute page and it’s linked in my music links hoping that the curious will check it out and read the interviews that I found and typed on it. I have also added some links to some other sites that have some very extensive information now. I was so glad to see those out there. I offer a metal award for sites on the web, and was very quick to award the people who took the time to research and share their knowledge of Randy with us. I created a special Celtic cross that appears next to the links, that is my REMEMBER RANDY RHOADS graphic. If we can keep him in the public eye, his legacy will only continue to grow. To me, that is the most important thing. We cannot allow the memory of Randy and his accomplishments die. He is very much alive through his music. I know that I keep going back to Randys stellar guitar work, but I can’t help that being a Guitarist myself. His lead work was just phenomenal and it’s not just his dexterity. The way he could go from a classical run into a blues riff with such ease and smoothness. The leads always sore so well with the music. With some Guitarists, the lead is just an afterthought, and not much actual thought has been put into it, yet they are touted as being so astounding. If you sit down and dissect the songs that Randy has done and all the sections, it’s just so full of heart and soul along with exceptional skill level. That is a wicked combination. Most have one or the other. To be able to achieve both and do it so well? I am just in awe of his talent. The team of Randy and Ozzy was just extraordinary. His loss was such a tragedy. Imagine where Ozzy’s music would be right now if Randy were still alive. I mean, even if Randy had left the band in order to pursue other projects, you know that he would still be looming in Ozzy’s music. I’m sure he’d have quest solo-ed. They were so tight and that is what gave their music such depth and beauty. Two souls flying free and dancing on the edge of hell. They created such memorable, undying music together. It still hurts to think about he tragic impact that his death had on Ozzy Osbourne. It is so obvious that a piece of him died along with Randy. They seemed so close. We all suffered from the loss, though you can tell that it really affected Ozzy. That very first song that I heard was ‘Suicide Solution’ with that astounding, ripping solo in it. That made such a huge impression on my psyche. I would have to say that ‘Suicide Solution’ is my favorite song followed by ‘Mr. Crowley’ and of course, ‘Dee’. ‘Dee’ is touching and has such a pure, medieval flair to it. It’s just gorgeous in it’s technical simplicity. Of course, ‘Good-Bye To Romance’ is a favorite. Having heard Ozzy talk about how this song was created and how Randy urged him to get that tune out and work on it. That he was insistently humming the song also showed that he allowed Ozzy to be Ozzy and because of that, some wonderful music came into being during that creative period. That is the sign of an excellent partnership. When your partner opens you up and doesn’t try to keep you in a well established box. So, there is one more superb characteristic of Randy. The ability to bring out greatness in others he touched. I ask all who read this to please hold Randy dear in your hearts and minds and turn as many others onto him as you can. His legacy should live on forever for his accomplishments, his sheer love of the guitar, his beauty and his gentle soul. He was a genius, pure and simple. The world of heavy metal music is a much richer place for our having been blessed by his presence.
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Post by Morgan-Chan02 on Apr 30, 2006 19:52:51 GMT -5
Wow....I'm speechless...
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:53:33 GMT -5
Rob McEllhiney Randy Rhoads Admirer
I saw the Blizzard of Ozz tour and was really blown away by Randys playing. I was in high school at the time and just beginning to mess around with playing the guitar. This show was definitely the catalyst for my continuing love of playing guitar. A few months later I was called by a friend and he told me that he had just heard that Randy was killed. It was really a sad day. I was going to see the Diary of a Madman tour in just a few weeks. I spent that night making black arm bands to pass out at school the next day. To this day, I still study Randy’s work as a tool for learning and simply because I love his stuff so much. I am not a professional Musician, just a fanatic guitar hobbyist. I own several guitars including a Jackson Rhoads offset V. I wouldn’t be able to give an objective opinion about how the music scene was changed by Randy. I was young at the time and these albums shaped my view of music. It would be a very skewed opinion. Looking back now, I can see that Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were a major part of what began the metal scene of the early eighties. Listening to Randy certainly inspired me to want to play. His playing nailed exactly what I was searching for. It was like a person searching for something and then finally finding it. It was so good that you tended to listen to it again and again. Obviously, his music is his lasting accomplishment. There is so little we know about Randy other than his music. His works are my Bible of guitar knowledge and I tend to quote different passages for different reasons and occasions.
I listen to your laughter Blowing in the wind The big bow-tied court jester Is at his tricks again Not a day passes When I don’t think of you The pranks you use to play The trouble we’ve been through Oh how I miss your laughter My heart will never mend So I’ll keep on the Riot And think of you, my friend.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:54:19 GMT -5
Kevin DuBrow Musical Artist/lead singer of Quiet Riot/best friend to Randy Rhoads
I am a huge Humble Pie fan and I went to see them play in 1975 in San Diego, California. The show had cancelled so I came back home and there was a message for me that said ‘Randy from Smokey’s band called and wants you to call him’. So, not knowing what this was about, I called Randy and we discussed his situation. There was this guy named Smokey who was a singer in a band that Randy and Kelly were in. They use to play in a club called Rodney’s English Disco in Hollywood. Kelly and Randy had left the band and were told about me through a mutual friend. They were told that I was a singer. Randy and I started talking on the phone and he told me that he was a guitar player and it just turned out that we both had a lot in common. We then got together. It was funny because when I first heard him play, he was actually playing the songs that were eventually on the first Quiet Riot album. All with a little guitar amp and a Gibson SG. He was pretty amazing. We just started playing in the garage of his mom’s house. Randy gave me my first guidance as a singer. I was singing really low and he suggested that I try singing a bit higher. The way that you hear him play later on is actually pretty much how he played early on as well. We soon became Quiet Riot. Our first real band argument was that Randy and Kelly wanted to play a lot of Alice Cooper stuff and I wasn’t a big fan of Alice Cooper. Also, Randys girlfriend at the time had a big influence on the decision making that was happening in the band. I was like ”hey, why is she making decisions when she is not even in the band?”. I certainly brought the business sense into the band that was most definitely lacking. I actually shook things up a bit at the time. Randy and Kelly were just kids. I was eighteen, but still had a business sense. We finally got things organized. The first thing that we realized was that we needed a place to rehearse. Somebody I had known mentioned this guy named Dennis who owned a plumbing company. He had a studio built behind his house where he would let us rehearse for free. He knew that we didn’t have any money. He also became our manager. He got us a recording in Sound City in Venice where we did our first demo. We recorded three songs. This was the summer of 1975. We really pressed ourselves with this single. Soon, we realized that the manager was not getting us from point A to point B, and so we let him go. We were then picked up by this company called GTO. They wanted to manage Quiet Riot and they really helped form our image. An example of that is the polka dot bow tie that Randy wore. In 1978, in the middle of recording Quiet Riot Two, Kelly Garni decided to leave the band. His final show with us was at the Santa Monica Civic Center, opening for Angel. Rudy Sarzo joined the band and stayed from 1978-1979. We did some demo’s with Rudy and just kept trying to get a record deal but the trend was so against what we were doing. Van Halen was the only band that was getting anything. In October of 1979, Dana Strum from Slaughter asked Randy to audition for Ozzy Osbourne. Randy auditioned and he got the gig. Randy did his final show with Quiet Riot the weekend of October 29, 1979. At that point, Randy left for England with Ozzy. He went back and forth a few times. Rudy left the band soon after Randy and went to play with Ozzy. We did a reunion gig in February of 1980 and were supposed to do another gig though Randys management with Ozzy Osbourne would not allow it.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:54:45 GMT -5
. Our friendship was very strong until he bailed on that show. We didn’t talk for about three months. I bought a new car and Randy had heard about it. He showed up one day at my house and asked me to take him for a ride. I was still pretty mad at him though he wasn’t at all mad at me. He was in a situation with those people where they really ruled with an iron fist. We started talking and I soon just realized that he and I were best friends and there was no point in being angry any longer. You can’t expect for people to be the way you are and if that were the case, you would probably always be disappointed. We became friends again. We were always very close friends though in a different way than him and Kelly. Randy just loved Kelly. They had that childhood closeness and Randy just absolutely adored Kelly. Kelly was the one person who could really make Randy laugh hard. I enjoyed my entire experience with Randy Rhoads. He was a really funny guy and I don’t think that is said enough. He was totally hilarious and just a great person.
Brett Levac Musical Atrist/guitarist/songwriter for French
My first encounter with Randy was when I was probably about three years old. My sisters and their friends use to listen to Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman around 1981 and 1982. It was when Randy was still alive. I remember the music, but Randy meant nothing to me at the time. After all, I was only about three years old. The first time that I recognized Randy for himself as well as his music, was through a taped copy of the Tribute album by Ozzy Osbourne. What caught my attention at the first listen was actually all of the instruments coming together so perfectly. I was just starting to get interested in the guitar, so I didn’t know what to pick out of the music as far as the guitar was concerned. Shortly after I bought the Tribute album and I bought my first guitar. Things happened so fast after listening to the Tribute album. It was almost like instinct. It was like the music had a message for me, which is weird because I wasn’t in tune with the guitar at that time, but just hearing it subconsciously told me to learn from him. I can’t really explain it because I’m unsure myself what caused my sudden interest in the guitar. His inspiration lives on more than fifteen years after his death and will continue to live on for several reasons. The most important is his dedication. This can only be seen through the people who can see Randy through his playing. Some people, even big Randy Rhoads fans, only see Randy as a great guitar player and try to play everything note for note like he did. Then, they think that they will be as good as he was. Well, I don’t even consider people like that to be true Guitarists. A Guitarist to me, is someone who can create music from what they feel. If you try to make a song for it’s technical involvement on the guitar, you are just mocking the sound and style of past Guitarists. Yes, they might make a name for themselves, but the true Musicians will not respect them and I feel that the respect of a true Musician is what everybody who is trying to make it in the music business strives for. My definition of a true Musician is someone who let’s every ounce of talent out the window and plays from pure heart and emotion. Randy had the talent and the emotion, and the feeling he put into his music just made that talent stronger. He is a Musician because he had the ability to use his talent and his emotion together for the ultimate blend of music. Randys style differs from any other Guitarist, especially Eddie Van Halen, for the exact reason that I mentioned before. Eddie plays the same music and has been for twenty years. It just doesn’t seem to have any feeling to it. It’s just Eddies style and it sells records and so he continues to play it. With Randy, he played whatever he felt was right. He took the chance. That sold, too. It didn’t just sell records though, it sold on the ones who make music what it is, the Musicians. The people who don’t just play music,, but create music. Put simple, Guitarists play music and Musicians create music. Every person who feels a certain way about a song, such as a couple having ‘their’ song or a person thinking of a loved one while listening to a certain song, feels that way because the Musician intended the song to give people an emotional outlet. Guitarists who just play to impress will only impress other Guitarists. Randy was so musically inclined that a drummer, a singer or another guitar player can learn an awful lot more from Randy. That has to be his biggest musical achievement. He can appeal to anyone in music, not just a guitar player. His knowledge of musical theory is something that any Musician of any kind could learn from and use in their style of music. I see the closest Guitarist to Randy as being Jimmy Page. He didn’t care what anyone thought, and just played from the heart. Even though his playing didn’t have the perfection that Randys did, he has the right mind set when he plays. Pure feeling and emotion. That is the essence of a Musician. Jimmy has the knowledge also. Producing all of the albums as well as playing them. Even though Randy did not produce, his knowledge goes far beyond anyone that I have ever seen in music. In reality, music is what keeps us going. Think of a world without music….I can’t.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:55:13 GMT -5
Sam Hall Randy Rhoads Admirer
I first heard about Randy when my best friend bought the Blizzard of Ozz album and told me that I had to listen to it. I feel that Randy had a tremendous impact on the entire music scene. He was no wanna-be and he was a real Musician who set the standard for those who followed. He greatly influenced me in my personal guitar playing and I learned many valuable things by just listening to his music. I learned to take time with a song and make it into something more than a song. Something that make you and other people happy. I feel that Randy just touches so many people. His music doesn’t just capture people because it’s fast. Yes, that is very cool. But it is more of the way he did it. He played with his heart and with so much passion. If you don’t have those two things then you shouldn’t be playing music. I am only seventeen and I am a Musician according to the people who hear me play. I play my guitar whenever I am awake, so basically all day long. It is sad though because some people think that just because I am young, I can’t play. But, studying Randy Rhoads and his music along with other various Artists, has helped me develop into the Guitarist that I am today. Bill Ward
Music Artist/nationally known as the drummer for the band Black Sabbath
I first heard of Randy Rhoads through Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy and I, at that point in our relationship would talk to each other fairly regularly and he would just be raving about this new Guitarist that he was working with. He would often talk about Randy in the sense that he was a good kid and a kick ass guitar player. A lot of nice things. I almost got to know Randy through Ozzy. It was like a medium or something. Ozzy only had good things to say about Randy. I know that Randy was very important to Ozzy. I think that one of the things that Randy did was almost come into an era. Almost a post Sabbath era where there had been a ten or twelve year period of rock and heavy metal that was, in a sense, almost disciplined. It was regular. It was an era of ‘records will come out and then there will be rock shows’. I think that during the time period where Sabbath first started to break up, at least from my own experiences, at that point it seemed like there was a lot of chaos. It also seemed like there were a lot of bands that were arriving and were playing a sudal metal kind of feel. Randy came into an era where he almost sort of picked up the baton. I felt that Randy was unlike any other Guitarist that I had listened to at that time. He seemed like a very serious Musician and he seemed to know where his roots were. I could feel that in his guitar playing. I think that it was one of the most important things about him. It just felt so real. I think that he also invented some really good things. He was so much like a pioneer by himself and unto himself. He carried some extremely well known songs which are now legendary. The music scene was so chaotic at the time and Randy came in and was like an anchor. He held something. Ozzy has a sound in his voice that is like no other. Ozzy’s sound is Ozzy’s sound. I feel that Randy enhanced Ozzy’s voice and the entire band for that matter. I think that Ozzy’s earlier work was pretty incredible. There is a lot of stuff there that I particularly like. When Randy died, Ozzy shared a lot with me. I went through, with Ozzy, the loss of Randy Rhoads. I would just listen to whatever it was that Ozzy wanted to share. Often, he would reflect on what a good player he was and how much he missed him. He would just talk about the loss, and this was well after Randys death when these conversations took place. So, in that sense, I felt that I was a part of the grieving process. That was a reality for me and it was my only real attachment to Randy, which was through Ozzy.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:55:55 GMT -5
Keith Lynch Music Artist/Guitarist for Bill Ward
That sound in Crazy Train really caught my attention. Randy had a real fuzzy tone, much different than what Black Sabbath had done. They were much darker and Randy had a much brighter sounding distortion. Randy was a very clean player. You can just hear every note that he plays and he is so innovated. His sound. He has most certainly inspired me as a Musician. I think that the Blizzard of Ozz was a great accomplishment for Randy. That whole album was great. ‘Crazy Train’ is the one song that sticks out in my mind as being my favorite Randy Rhoads song. I’ve played it before, though my sound is so much different than his. He had a real bright sound where mine is a Tony Iommi meets Van Halen meets Eric Clapton sound. A much darker, more looser sound.
Ronnie Ciago Music Artist/Drummer for Bill Ward Randy Rhoads was one of the new up and coming rock guitar greats. He was unique in his own technique and style. His death was a tragic loss to us all. Cort Hullinger Randy Rhoads Admirer
I went to see the Blizzard of Ozz tour on August 29, 1981 in South Bend, Indiana. I was backstage before the concert and Def Leppard was warming up. It was wild. I remember that Randy was hanging out , sitting on the side of a building on a cement walk. Everyone was saying ”there’s Def Leppards guitar player” and I just kept saying ”man, that ain’t Def Leppards guitar player”. I had never seen what Ozzy’s guitar player looked like. At the time, Randy just looked like some little girl sitting over there. When Ozzy came out, Randy walked out to. I was like ”wow, that is the same guy that was backstage!”. Ozzy walked off stage through the song ‘I don’t know’ and Randy stayed and just jammed with the rest of the band. The crowd was excellent! They did not play ‘Crazy Train’ and I can remember that there was a big write up in the paper the next day head lining ‘Ozzy’s Blizzard was a big snow job!’. The paper praised the instrumental.
Simon Partridge- Music Artist/Guitarist for Seer’s Tear
I first discovered the Blizzard of Ozz album in 1983, like most people I suspect. At the time I only heard new and exciting music. I was eleven and had no classical listening background at all. I am still trying to contextualize all of what Randy is doing on those songs today. Randy was a classical Musician. He brought these skills, such as knowledge of musical theory, and combined them with the pure energy of rock in a way that no one had ever done before, or has since in my opinion. He also revitalized Ozzy’s career. Imagine Blizzard of Ozz or Diary of a Madman without Randys input and sound. It just wouldn’t have happened. I am sure that Ozzy would be the first to acknowledge that. I remember reading a print of one of the small number of interviews that Randy did in one of the American guitar magazines. Randy said that he always played through everything completely clean before adding distortion. I think that he referred to distortion as fuzz. He said that some players use distortion partly to mask their faults. This idea really stuck with me as that was exactly what I was doing at the time. Randy was constantly wanting to study and improve himself and others around him. He was a very well rounded performer, paying attention to all aspects of his art, both on tape and in concert, guitar tone, rhythm playing, effects, multi tracking and especially his acoustic playing were all developed and focussed on. This concentration on the wider picture rather than just how many notes per second that he could play should be inspirations to us all. Although some heavy metal music has dated very badly, the melodies and approach that Randy used are very much timeless. He was an innovator and an originator, and is remembered as such. I am in England and Randys popularity here is not as high as he deserves it to be. At least not as high as it is in the United States or Japan. Ozzy still has a high profile mainly due to Black Sabbath and his ‘madman’ image. Knowledge of the albums with Randy seem very confined to people who like metal in the eighties. The musical jump from Quiet Riot to Ozzy was amazing. In am not knocking Quiet Riot, but Randy seemed to develop so much during his short time with Ozzy. I love all of Randy’s music, though if I have to narrow it down to two, it would be ‘Revelation Mother Earth’ and ‘Mr. Crowley’. I have to say that the improvised fade out on ‘Tonight’ is also a stroke of genius! Jeremy Wagner Musical Artist/Guitarist/Lyricist for Broken Hope
I don’t remember how old I was when I first heard Randy. I was ten or something like that. I had some Black Sabbath stuff and was listening to hard rock. I saw the album cover to Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz and thought ”wow, this looks pretty heavy”. That was basically when I first got to hear Randy Rhoads. I loved that album. I heard the solo in ‘Crazy Train’ and had never heard anybody play like that! I just thought that Randy was totally awesome! When your a kid, you think that people in heavy metal bands have the most coolest names. You know, like Ozzy Osbourne and now Randy Rhoads. There was just something about that name! It just sounded right. He had the right name, the right look and he played that guitar like nobody else could! I play the guitar myself and am still finding out things about Randy Rhoads that I never knew before. I guess that he doubled all of his solos? Note for note? He would do two solo tracks in the studio. That was amazing! You hear solos like ‘Crazy Train’, and ‘I Don’t Know’ and it’s like totally shredding. When you hear them, it’s just perfect. There’s a million guitar players out there who are real shredders and whatnot, but Randy just had that ability to put down a solo that was not only memorable, but he did so with such perfection. He was amazing. He was almost like the Michael Jordan of guitar players. I think that one of Randys greatest accomplishments was giving the entire world such fabulous music.
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:56:24 GMT -5
I think that perhaps having the time to record his work and share it with everyone is a great accomplishment. Unfortunately, it seems that these great, gifted people who are just shining stars and who captivate people, are taken away from us much too young. You always wonder what they would be doing now. I, personally being a fan of guitar playing am very thankful for what he was able to do while he was here. I am thankful for what he has given to me, personally. I think that Randy was really ahead of his time. When Blizzard of Ozz came out, it was before a lot of these heavy metal bands made it big. If you listen to his playing, you can almost hear a million people who are now trying to imitate that sound. It is not just someone who is producing music. This is someone who really put honest feeling into every single note. This is before MTV and before a lot of radio stations would play that kind of stuff. This was a guy who not only played heavy metal music, but a lot of other kinds of music as well. There is a lot of melodies and a lot of feeling in his music. He introduced classical music to heavy metal. I don’t think that there have been that many people who have been able to do that. He certainly set a standard for other Guitarists. He was a great, gifted person.
Marko Pekkanen Randy Rhoads Admirer
It was the early eighties when I first heard of Randy Rhoads. I was fifteen. He really introduced classical music to heavy metal. I played the bass guitar and he sort of taught me how to ‘fly’ when I was playing a solo. He was the best! He could play all kinds of music. Blues, jazz, heavy metal, classical, you name it. I live in Sweden. Randy is still number one here but the new generation only knows Randy as one of Ozzy’s Guitarists. They should know better!
Dyckson Dyorgio Dolla Randy Rhoads Admirer
I discovered Randy Rhoads when I listened to Ozzy’s live Tribute album to Randy. I always read things about how good his talents were. I grabbed a copy of the Tribute, listened to it and wondered how a person could make such beautiful music like that. His solos were absolutely wonderful, especially ‘Mr. Crowley’ and ‘Suicide Solution’. I guess that a lot of Musicians tried to follow his steps especially after his death. It’s sad, but some artists become more famous after their death. Maybe it’s my problem, but when I listen to these new artists, I see a little shadow of Randy there. I guess that after his demise, some people started to pay attention to his music. I live in Brazil and I haven’t read much interviews with Brazilian Bands. I did read where one Guitarist mentioned Randy as his inspiration. It’s strange, but in Brazil, we have more contact with outside bands than our own. Brazilian bands aren’t really heavy at all.
Stacey Blades Musical Artist/Guitarist for Roxx Gang
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:56:59 GMT -5
I was just a kid when I first heard of Randy. I think that I was eleven or twelve. I was on my way to school and I had a walkman on and was listening to the radio. Anyway, they played ‘Crazy Train’ and I heard the guitar solo and was blown away! I thought ”who the fuck is that?”. I soon picked up Blizzard of Ozz. Need I say more? Randys playing was definitely revolutionary. Sure Eddie Van Halen was out but Randy had such a different approach. No matter what kind of guitar player you are, I think that Randy made an impact on everyone. He was the first guy to incorporate classical notes in his rock n’ roll guitar. The guy was fucking flawless! I am sure that he is still influencing a ton of guitar players as we speak! My main influences consisted of Jimi Hendrix, Ace Frehley, Joe Perry and Johnny Thunders, but Randy definitely had an impact on my playing. I definitely stole a few licks here and there. I grew up in Toronto and I remember when I was about fifteen, the main radio station, Q-107, played live concerts on Friday nights. One night they played live Ozzy from the Diary of a Madman tour. I freaked! Needless to say, I taped it off the radio. I believe that the show was actually from Toronto. The Maple Leaf Gardens. They played about seven or eight songs. God, I wish I still had those tapes! Anyway, Randys sound and playing was so fucking intense. I remember listening to his guitar solo over and over and over again in complete astonishment! The amazing thing about Randy is that you can still listen to his records today and feel the magic of his playing. It’s timeless, just like Hendrix. He was a genius way before his time. I am sure that is often said about Randy. I think that Randys most memorable accomplishment was just his overall playing in general. I still listen to his leads and am blown away! Randy and Ozzy were great together. They wrote some really good music. Randy definitely gave new meaning to heavy metal guitar playing. His style will always be priceless.
Dan Abrigg Randy Rhoads Admirer
I first heard Randy when the Blizzard of Ozz record came out. I think that I was fourteen years old. I remember my uncle, who also plays guitar and got me started on guitar, called me up one day and said ”you have to listen to this record! You have to hear this guy play guitar on this record! It is unbelievable!”. So, I took a listen and I was just blown away! The only other guitar player that impressed me at that time was Eddie Van Halen. I thought that Eddie was great and everything, but there was something special about Randy Rhoads that just caught my ear. Randy had tremendous influence on me in my guitar playing. The first couple of years that I was playing, I pretty much just took lessons form a local teacher from the town where I grew up. I was just learning your basic chords and open chord formations. I wasn’t really at the point where I could learn songs or pick up things from other players. When I first heard the Blizzard of Ozz record, all I wanted to do was learn every song from it. It was a goal of mine and to this day I still listen to that stuff. Sometimes I go through slumps and I get bored with my playing. I will then just pick up those old records, put them on and listen to them. It gives me inspiration to play and maybe come up with something new and get some new ideas for things. At the time when he came around, there really wasn’t too many guys that were playing or incorporating classical music into rock n’ roll or heavy metal. I would say that Randy was a pioneer of that style. He would incorporate classical lines, scales and feel into a lot of their songs. His guitar playing on certain songs can be compared to violin playing. Just because of how flowing and staccato it is.
Matt Strangwayes Musical Artist/Vocalist for the band Windigo
I was a little too young to remember when Randy first started with Ozzy. It must have been 1981 or 1982 when I first started to get into Randy Rhoads. I actually discovered Ozzy before I discovered Black Sabbath. I knew who Randy Rhoads was before I knew who Tony Iommi was. I remember how skinny Randy was and I can remember thinking that it was so cool. I was an eleven or twelve year old kid who was into sports, seeing this guy who was so skinny yet such a bad ass in the way that he played that guitar! It was kind of like that episode in the Simpsons where Bart imagines the whole rock n’ roll thing and he’s getting drunk when all of a sudden you hear ”it use to be about he music”. Then Bart is like ”woa, cool”. That’s kind of how it was for me because I was just like ”woa, this guy is just so bad ass and thin!”. This was my visual image of Randy Rhoads. He just had that rocker sheik. I was playing the trumpet at the time and wasn’t singing or anything but I did know music. It was right around that time when I really got into music. I began to get really obsessed with it. The walls in my room were just covered with posters and pullouts from Cream and Hit Parader magazine. I had that stuff all over my room. I was amazed and intrigued with rock n’ roll, even before I was playing. I think that there is kind of a time line with guitarists with their fans where there is a question of who is the best and who is the most famous. I grew up in New York, and Kiss was just massive there when I was young. I can just remember kids getting really angry and almost to the point of violence with the question of who was the best guitarist, Ace Frehley or Jimmy Page? It was very intense and those were all of the older kids who would be arguing about that. Then it was passed down to my generation, where there was Randy Rhoads or Eddie Van Halen? It wasn’t so violent with us, though it was very important. Which songs displayed their best and which songs did they show off the best? It would just constantly go back and forth. I had a best friend who was so into Randy Rhoads and then my other friend was into Eddie Van Halen. It was difficult. It was really cool though because it gave you the opportunity to really get to know the songs. Even if you weren’t a guitarist, you would know things like the thirty second bridge in an Ozzy song, where as you may not know all the lyrics. You could basically play air guitar to it. These battles between who is or was the best is a real legacy since it has been strung out over the years. In the early seventies it would have been Jimmy Page, and then in the later seventies it would have been Ace Frehley, and then it went to Eddie Van Halen, and then finally to Randy Rhoads. Randy was the next in line of guitar wizards. Even though Randy experienced such a short time in making records, I think that the body of work speaks beyond. In regards to the amount of songs that are still remembered. Every kid that picks up a guitar today learns ‘Crazy Train’ or ‘Mr. Crowley’, and this is so many years after these songs first came out. It is kind of like a right of passage that every guitarist has to go through. To go through Randy Rhoads’ work. Every rock guitarist goes through it. It is like, if you haven’t to a certain degree, learned Randy’s stuff, you are not a rock guitarist. Since it is something that you learn at the beginning of your playing, it sticks with you forever. When somebody grows up and they are in whatever band, such as Stone Temple Pilots or Metallica, you know that ten years earlier they were picking away at ‘Dee’. You just never loose that.
Jason Wilhite Musical Artist/Guitarist for the band Windigo
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:57:35 GMT -5
I played drums all through junior high school and didn’t start playing the guitar until about 1991 when I graduated from high school. I had the advantage of having the only parents who allowed a band to practice in their house, so everyone left all of their equipment with me. So, I definitely had the advantage of always being able to mess around on the guitar since it was always at my disposal. The Tribute album from Ozzy is one of my favorite albums of all time. I use to play it constantly. That was what I use to listen to in the initial phases of picking up the guitar and learning to play. I listened to a little bit of Diary of a Madman and The Blizzard of Ozz albums. Randy influenced me a great deal with playing the guitar. Our bands’ style doesn’t carry a whole lot of flashy leads, so it’s not really a part of my personal style though when I first started playing the guitar it was the era. It was all that mattered in how a guitar player was identified. I remember that I use to sit there and listen to ‘Mr. Crowley’, and that was the first guitar solo that I ever really figured out. That really got me exposed to a lot of the different modes on the neck of the guitar and where Randy Rhoads was playing. It also exposed me to a lot of notes that I could use and really got me started in a way to lead guitar playing. I just remember that I must have listened to ‘Mr. Crowley’ a million times during the course of a few weeks. Randy is a guitarist who just by hearing a few notes of what he is playing, you know that it is him. That really means a lot and it is also one of the ways that you can differentiate the greats from the passer-bys. You can just immediately tell who is playing that song. ‘Dee’ is an awesome, awesome song. I really love it. Randy had such a level of emotion that he put into all of his music. I think that also identifies the greats from the average player. The greats never really settle for just anything that comes out of the guitar. They have to create that feeling, and Randy did that. I think that Randy really created the breeding grounds for great musicians. He set standards. He was able to manage both ends of the spectrum with great ease. To be intricate and simplistic both at the same time. I was really amazed by that and especially with that in the song ‘Mr. Crowley’. I think that it was a really good break for Randy when he hooked up with Ozzy. Ozzy still sells albums and the kids are still buying them like mad. It was a very influential time for Randy and Ozzy. I don’t know if Ozzy necessarily had anything to prove when he left Black Sabbath, or if it was just the connection that him and Randy had, but I think that the two first albums that they did together were just amazing. Nowadays, when kids get turned onto Ozzy, they research back and take a look at his previously released albums. They then stumble upon Randy Rhoads. I think that the legacy of Randy Rhoads has a lot to do with Ozzy Osbourne.
Pete Mihelcic Randy Rhoads Admirer
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Post by Cro/Kiyoshi on Apr 30, 2006 19:58:10 GMT -5
I was thirteen years old when I first heard his songs on the radio. I distinctively remember one afternoon when my brother and I were driving up to this video store. It was a cold day in the middle of winter and we had the stereo cranked up when all of a sudden the station played ‘Crazy Train’. I just remember hearing that song and thinking that it was so cool! The rhythm guitar parts were just so unique and different. Up until then, I had been listening to Hendrix, Richie Blackmore, and I always did like Black Sabbath. I was an Ozzy fan from the time I was a young kid. I was always into comic books and stuff, and I always thought that the song ‘Iron Man’ that Black Sabbath played was about the man in the comic book. At that time though, I did know that Ozzy had a new band and after I heard them, I really liked them! Randy was a big influence on me with my guitar playing. I started playing the guitar when I was about twelve years old. I actually use to play kick ball in grade school and tried to catch a line drive and dislocated my thumb. I had a cast on my arm and couldn’t do much of anything. I couldn’t go outside, play or ride my bike. So, there was this old guitar laying around and I picked it up. Since my thumb was in a cast, I stuck a pick over it and just started strumming away. It gave me something to do. After that, I just carried on with it and I was always kind of interested in it. I started playing and I took a few lessons here and there. I would just always pick the guitar up and start playing. I had my own band about six months after I started playing, and held my first gig after about a year of playing experience. ‘Crazy Train’ was actually one of the songs that we would play. As a guitar player, I would practice all the time. I had a drive and I really wanted to be good. I thought that playing in a band was all that I wanted to do. I think that Randy Rhoads took that all a bit further. A lot of people accused him at the time of being a copy of Eddie Van Halen. That just wasn’t true at all. Throughout the spandex era of the early to mid eighties, everyone was trying to play as fast as possible. Everybody was doing those sixteenth notes during the rhythm. It was one of the things that really stood out and identifies the music of the eighties. Randy Rhoads was one of the first people to do that. If you listen to most of the bands that are out there now on MTV or the top forty who are considering themselves rock n’ roll, just listen to the guitarist and you will soon realize that they really don’t have much skill. There is no guitar solos and there’s no proficiency. If you look at Kurt Cobain, he wrote great songs but his guitar playing was terrible! That is the way that I feel bands are today. Maybe it will come around. It is just kind of funny because in the eighties, everybody was so concerned with technicality and playing fast. Everybody wanted to play great. Now, if you can play with any degree of proficiency at all, your kind of shot! It is beginning to fall out of vogue if you can actually play. All of a sudden nobody wants a guy with long hair who can play fast. They want the guy with the buzz cut and the flannel shirt standing there holding the guitar. Ask yourself this……how many of those guys that were real greats and could play fast are still around? Very few of them. All of the fast players have been nearly forgotten. I don’t blame that on the people who are listening, but I do blame it on the record companies who would not sign them any longer for whatever reason. The record companies figure that people are going to like what they hear on the radio. It is whatever the record companies push and promote. They just decided that they weren’t going to promote that type of music any longer. It is just kind of weird how things change so fast. Everybody back then had long hair, wore spandex and made it all about technicality and promotion. So quickly it all changed. Now, if you put one album out that’s not a success your dropped from your contract. Back in the seventies, a band was allowed to develop over four or five albums. Nowadays, a band doesn’t have a chance! Or, if you put out a popular album and then it’s follow up album doesn’t sell, your dropped. The music industry is just so disposable. I see so many musicians who had a few great songs out there, were on the radio and on top of the world for a few years but are now working in a furniture store or not working at all. Look back five years and ask yourself about those bands that were popular five years ago. Where are they now? It’s a tough business. Randy Rhoads played very clean and didn’t have a whole lot of delay in his playing. He was just playing with distortion. The quality of his playing still stands out. Some people at that time would play fast though it wouldn’t sound right. Randy played fast and it sounded good. Randy put together the unique combination of having great songs with great guitar playing. Randy also looked like the ultimate rock star. There is something said about that. A lot of the bands now have their buzz cuts and they just stand around up there on stage, not doing much of anything. Not moving around at all and just standing there strumming their instrument. My idea of the ultimate rock n’ roll band is one that gets up on that stage and entertains you! One that looks cool! Randy looked cool. He played great and he was the epitome of what a guitar hero is supposed to be.
Barry Sparks
Musical Artist/Bass player for the Michael Schenker Group/ Former bass player with Yngwie Malmsteen
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