Guitar Jams! Pastor Brad's 80s Christian Metal World! Musical Influences--Randy Rhoads

In Memory of Randy Rhoads

                                          There had been talk of Ozzy teaming up with other name guitar players at the time in an attempt
                                          to form a "supergroup". Instead he took advice from his soon to be wife Sharon Arden and
                                          came out to Los Angeles to inspect a crop of guitar players hoping to find a diamond in the
                                          rough...

                                          After several pale imitations of Tony Iommi, including one player who went to the extreme of
                                          wearing plastic tips on his fretting hand ala Tony, Ozzy was about to give up. He had sat through
                                          seemingly endless auditions and retired to a hotel room with a half-fried brain.

                                                Literally a day before Ozzy was scheduled to return to England he received
                                               a call from a talent scout who insisted that he listen to one more player say-
                                               ing, "you have to listen to this guy, you're insane not to." Randy Rhoads
                                               walked into Ozzy's hotel room at almost 4:00 a.m. with a small amp and just
                                               started playing. The first words out of Ozzy's mouth were, "you want a gig
                                               man?"

                                               Randy hadn't been a part of the Rainbow scene. He had spent his time practicing and
                                               teaching guitar to a new generation of guitar players that he touched forever.

                                               He had recorded the first two QUIET RIOT albums and a rare 7" single that were only released in Japan but
                                               to most everyone outside of the LA scene he was still an unknown. Ozzy took Randy to England where they
                                               started putting together the first two albums," BLIZZARD OF OZZ", and "DIARY
                                               OF A MADMAN."

From the beginning Ozzy was careful to give Randy the space he needed to grow as a musician and was quoted many
times as to how happy he was with Randy's playing. "He's been such a gift I can't tell you, not only is he a great player,
he's a great person to work with." Ozzy even mentioned that he would never trap Randy in any band instead saying,
"whether he wants to play for me or on his own, good luck to the guy."

The first album, "BLIZZARD OF OZZ" was released well ahead of the domestic version and sold much better than
anticipated, and also forced Columbia to take the band seriously. Ozzy was far from a washed up old rocker. He had a
new band that killed and a guitar player that was slowly becoming a legend. At that time all the attention was focused on
Eddie Van Halen and Randy drew some criticism probably more out of petty jealousy of the fans faithful to Eddie. The majority of metal fans delighted in Randy's incredibly fluid playing, his unique chording and seemingly impossible to throw in fills that were his trademark.
                                                            Seeing Randy live on the first tour it was evident then that he had grown incredibly as a player just
                                                            from the recording of the record! He threw in fills that were impossible and played his tai off as Ozzy
                                                            loaded him up on his shoulders and carried him around the stage as if to show Randy off to the world
                                                            Randy's constant search for musical knowledge was insatiable. According to Ozzy, "When we were
                                                            on the road Randy would look in the yellow pages of each city and find a classical guitar teacher so
                                                            he could take guitar lessons. Just before our last concert in Nashville, Randy was practicing classical
                                                            guitar in the dressing room and I couldn't believe how much he had improved in eight weeks."

                                                            On that tour with Ozzy, the band was in the process of recording a live record that would feature
                                                            Randy Rhoads. "We had a contractual obligation," Ozzy said, "one album was going to be my stuff
                                                            with Randy and the other album was going to be old BLACK SABBATH stuff. When Randy was killed refused to let the live album be        released. I felt it was in bad taste. Ever since then I have been getting bags of mail as has Rhoads. Mrs.                                                    My wife and Mrs. Rhoads got together on the phone just before Christmas 1986 and the possibility of                                                        releasing the live record was brought up. I said I would listen to it and if it was any good I'd put it out. I                                                          didn't want to put out a record that sounded like a bootleg, it's come out real good."

                                                          "I don't think that if Randy was alive today that he would be all that happy with the record, because like
                                                           most guitar players he was a perfectionist. I have heard him play better than this and I have heard him
                                                           play worse than this, but this is the best of what I have to offer. I can honestly say that this is the end of it. I have no more live recordings of Randy."

Most knowledgeable rock fans knew that the last tour was being recorded and in fact a lot of us have
tapes from radio broadcasts made during that tour. Ozzy had said in the past that he felt Randy
Rhoads would become a cult legend much in the way that Jimi Hendrix's aura had grown after his
death. There are a couple of basic distinctions between the two legends, Hendrix and Rhoads. As
great a guitar player as he was, Jimi Hendrix may not have taken his talent and vision as seriously as
he had to. His experiments with drugs and his threatening lifestyle made his loss more understandable
even though artistically it was incredibly tragic. Randy's death was so senseless. He was a brightly
burning star that was influencing the entire musical world by his romance with his instrument. He took
his gift seriously by practicing, constantly growing, and keeping in contact with other musicians. Ozzy
always raved about how polite Randy was, how easy to deal with Randy was when working or just
passing the time. Now for the record and on vinyl Ozzy has made the right decision by letting all those
who loved Randy have a final moment we can treasure as well. It is sad that Ozzy says this is all that's
left from Randy's legacy. This writer I'm sure is in accordance with most people who have read this far
in saying that we will never forget Randy Rhoads and the "Tribute" album is something very special and
defintely worth the wait.

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