Geezus and here I was expecting upon opening this thread for something of real interest like this
Randall William Rhoads was born on December 6, 1956 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California. With one brother (Doug) and one sister (Kathy), Randy was the youngest of three. When Randy was 17 months old his father, William Arthur Rhoads, a public school music teacher, left and all three children were raised by their mother, Delores Rhoads. William Rhoads would later remarry, producing Dan and Paul,... "half" brothers to Randy. Randy started taking guitar lessons around the age of 6 or 7 at a music school in North Hollywood called Musonia, which was owned by his mother. His first guitar was a Gibson (acoustic) that belonged to Delores Rhoads’ father.
Randy and his sister (Kathy) both began folk guitar lessons at the same time with Randy later taking piano lessons (at his mother’s request) so that he could learn to read music. Randy’s piano lessons did not last very long. At the age of 12, Randy became interested in rock guitar. His mother, Delores, had an old semi-acoustic Harmony Rocket, that at that time was "almost larger than he was". For almost a year Randy took lessons from Scott Shelly, a guitar teacher at his mother’s school. Scott Shelly eventually went to Randy’s mother explaining that he could not teach him anymore as Randy knew everything that he (Scott Shelly) knew. When Randy was about 14, he was in his first band,Violet Fox, named after his mothers middle name, Violet. With Randy playing rhythm guitar and his brother Doug playing drums, Violet Fox were together about 4 to 5 months. Randy was in various other bands, such as "The Katzenjammer Kids" and "Mildred Pierce", playing parties in the Burbank area before he formed Quiet Riot in 1976 with longtime friend and bassist Kelly Garni. Randy Rhoads and Kelly Garni (whom Randy taught to play bass guitar) met Kevin DuBrow through a mutual friend from Hollywood. How they actually got together is a different story with many variations.
Around that same time Randy began teaching guitar in his mother’s school during the day and playing with Quiet Riot at night. Originally called "Little Women", Quiet Riot got their "new" name from one of Kevin’s friends from the band Status Quo. Quiet Riot were quickly becoming one of the biggest acts in the Los Angeles area and eventually obtained a recording contract with CBS/Sony records, releasing two full length l.p.’s and one e.p. in Japan. Quiet Riots two records, Quiet Riot 1 (1978), which was originally recorded for an American record label, and Quiet Riot 2 (1979), received rave reviews in the Japanese press, claiming them to be the "next big thing". Unfortunately these recordings were never released in the United States. While there were plans for Quiet Riot to tour Japan, their management turned down the offer and Quiet Riot stayed in the United States continuing to sell out college and high school auditoriums as well as clubs in the Los Angeles area. About 5 months before Randy left Quiet Riot, he went to Karl Sandoval to have a custom guitar made. Several meetings and drawings later they would ultimately create a black and white polka dot flying "V", a guitar that would become synonymous with the name Randy Rhoads. The guitar would cost Randy $738.00 and was picked up by Randy on September 22, 1979. (September 22, 1979 saw Quiet Riot playing at the "Whiskey a go-go" in Los Angeles, California,... so chances are, that was probably the first place he ever played that guitar in front of an audience.) In the latter part of 1979, at the request of a friend (Dana Strum), Randy went to audition for a band being put together by former Black Sabbath lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne. As the story goes: Ozzy had auditioned just about every guitarist in Los Angeles and was about to go home to England, the hopes of a new band washed away. Enter Randy Rhoads. Randy wasn’t completely interested in auditioning, he was happy with his current band and thought that this "audition" wouldn’t amount to much. As with Kevin DuBrow, Randy's first meeting/audition with Ozzy Osbourne has a few variations. Ozzy began to assemble a band that would (ultimately) record his first two solo albums. How the band was formed is a story with (yet) more variations.
A.) With Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, bassist Dana Strum (Slaughter), and drummer Frankie Bannalli (Quiet Riot, W.A.S.P.), the band began to rehearse in Los Angeles, California. However, when it came time to go to England, where Ozzy's albums would be recorded, the record company could only obtain a work permit for one non-English band member,... Randy Rhoads.
B.) Drummer Lee Kerslake (who played on both of Ozzy's solo albums) auditioned and got the position. A few weeks later while in England, Ozzy happened across Bob Daisley. Boasting about this guitar played he'd found, Ozzy convinced Bob to join his band. A few weeks later they began to rehearse for the first album in Los Angeles, California.
C.) Ozzy already had a few band members when he met Bob Dailsey, who would be the only one to continue on in the band. Randy Rhoads was added shortly thereafter. Lee Kerslake was the last member to join as well as the last drummer to audition.
They rehearsed and wrote the first record in England before embarking on a UK tour towards the end of 1980. Randy was whisked off to England shortly before Thanksgiving of 1979 where, at Ozzy's home in England, they began to write the "Blizzard of Ozz" album and audition drummers. While the band rehearsed at "John Henry’s", a rehearsal hall in London, the earliest public performances of Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne came after they’d complete a song then go to a local pub to play the song for whoever was there. One such song, Crazy Train, appeared to get the audience moving, leading them to believe that they "had something". With ex-Uriah Heap members: Lee Kerslake (drums) and Bob Daisley (bass), the Ozzy Osbourne Band entered Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey, England on March 22 of 1980 and began recording for almost a month. "Blizzard of Ozz" was originally to be mixed by Chris Tsangarides who was fired after one week because Ozzy felt that it "was not happening" with him. Max Norman, Ridge Farm Studio’s resident engineer, was then hired to pick up where Chris left off and would play an integral part of both Ozzy Osbourne studio albums and the live e.p., as well as later down the road with "Tribute". After the finishing touches had been put on "Blizzard of Ozz", Randy Rhoads returned home to California in May of 1980, where he teamed up one last time with the members of Quiet Riot at the Starwood club in Hollywood for their final show. However, this would not be the last time he played with Quiet Riot bassist Rudy Sarzo, who would later join Ozzy Osbourne’s band just before the start of the United States Blizzard of Ozz tour. Once back in England, the Ozzy Osbourne Band surfaced for their first "official" show on September 12, 1980 when 4,000 fans broke the box office record at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. "Blizzard of Ozz" went straight into the U.K. charts at number 7 as they toured around the United Kingdom for close to three months playing 34 shows. Sales of Blizzard of Ozz more than doubled with each U.K. town they played. December of 1980 brought Randy Rhoads back home to California for Christmas. Once again Randy wanted a custom guitar built, this time he went to Grover Jackson of Charvel guitars, about a week before Christmas. With a drawing scribbled on a piece of paper, Randy Rhoads and Grover Jackson created the very first "Jackson" guitar to ever be made. Randy’s white "flying V" type guitar was yet another guitar that would become synonymous with the Randy Rhoads name. The finished guitar was sent to Randy in England about two months later. During the months of February and March of 1981, the Ozzy Osbourne band once again entered Ridge Farm Studios to record their second album titled: "Diary of a Madman". With an impending United States tour to follow soon after the recording of "Diary of a Madman", the actual recording of the album became rushed. (Randy’s solo on "Little Dolls" was actually a "scratch" solo and was not intended to be the solo for the finished song.) None of the band members could be present for the mixing of "Diary of a Madman", which only furthered their already mixed feelings of the album. With "Diary of a Madman" already recorded but not yet released, the Ozzy Osbourne Band began it’s North American tour in support of "Blizzard of Ozz", beginning in Towson, Maryland on April 22, 1981, one year and one month after the "Blizzard of Ozz" sessions began. Though they did not play on either studio efforts, Tommy Aldrige (drums) and Rudy Sarzo (bass) joined Ozzy’s band in time for the North American tour. They toured across North America from May through September of 1981 playing songs from "Blizzard of Ozz" as well as "Diary of a Madman", with a few Black Sabbath songs thrown in to close their shows.
Choosing to headline their tour instead of going on a bigger tour as a support act paid off as "Blizzard of Ozz" went gold in 100 days, though in some of the smaller cities in the United States, their shows were threatened to be cancelled due to poor ticket sales. In one such city, Providence, Rhode Island, the Ozzy Osbourne Band (along with opening act Def Leppard) was informed by the concerts promoter that (due to poor ticket sales) he did not have enough money to pay either band. Towards the end of the United States "Blizzard of Ozz" tour, Randy once again went to Grover Jackson to have another custom guitar made. He complained that too many people thought his white "Jackson" was a flying-V. He wanted something more distinctive. A few weeks later, Randy and Kevin DuBrow went to look at the unfinished guitar that Grover Jackson had begun work on. Once in the wood shop, Randy and Grover Jackson began drawing on this unfinished guitar for close to an hour before a final design was decided upon. There are two stories as to how the guitar was actually cut: A.) As Grover Jackson cut the body to their design specifications, Randy waited in Grover’s office, not wanting to watch it being cut. B.) Grover Jackson put the unfinished guitar body on a bandsaw and cut a "chunk" out of it. Randy, watching, said, "yeah, yeah. That’s it!" Ultimately they came up with a variation of his white "Jackson" only with a more defined look to the upper wing of the guitar. Randy would receive this guitar, the 2nd Jackson ever made, just before the start of the "Diary of a Madman" tour. At the time, there were three guitars being made for Randy. He recieved the first one, the black custom, as they continued to finish the other two. (Unfortunately, one of the "two" guitars, that were being built for Randy at the time of his death, was accidentally sold at a NAMM show by Grover Jackson. The "third" guitar, which Jackson stopped working on at the time of Randy's death, is currently owned by Rob Lane of Jacksoncharvelworld.com.) Ironically, as with Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads’ guitar playing would be heard on two full length albums and one e.p. while in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The "Mr. Crowley" e.p. featured live performances of three songs (including: "You said it all", previously unreleased) recorded in October of 1980 in South Hampton, England, during the United Kingdom "Blizzard of Ozz" tour. ('You said it all' was actually recorded during the bands sound check, with the crowd noise added at the time of mixing.) It was said that at that time the "Mr. Crowley" picture disk became the biggest selling picture disk of all time and even earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. With the release of the Ozzy Osbourne Band's second album, "Diary of a Madman", Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads (the only original member of Ozzy’s band) along with Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldrige traveled to Europe in November of 1981 for a tour that would end after only three shows. The tour had to be cancelled after Ozzy collapsed from both mental and physical exhaustion. The entire band went back to the United States so that Ozzy could rest. They would come back a little over a month later with a four month United States tour to start December 30, 1981 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and a single (Flying High Again) that was making it's way up the charts. Traveling with a crew of approximately 25 Las Vegas and Broadway technicians, Randy Rhoads went from selling out Los Angeles area clubs with Quiet Riot to selling out the biggest arenas in the United States on one of the most elaborate stage sets with Ozzy Osbourne. When the "Diary of a Madman" tour began, their first album, "Blizzard of Ozz", was selling at the rate of 6,000 records each week. Backstage opening night in San Francisco, Randy was awarded with Guitar Player Magazine’s Best New Talent Award. (He also won best new guitarist in England’s "Sounds" magazine.) With that, the band began an exhausting yet memorable tour that seemed to be plagued with problems. Their concerts were boycotted by many cities while others were attended by local S.P.C.A. officials due to claims of animal abuse. Meanwhile "Diary of a Madman" was well on it’s way to platinum status. With all of this going on around him, Randy Rhoads’ interest for classical guitar was consuming him more each day. Often times Randy would have a classical guitar tutor in each city the band played. It became common knowledge that Randy wanted to quit rock and roll temporarily so that he could attend school to get his masters in classical guitar. Randy also wanted to take advantage of some of the studio session offers he was recieving.
Randy Rhoads was put to rest in San Bernadino, California.
Randy Rhoads’ guitar playing, however, could not be silenced
as "Tribute" was released in 1987.
"Tribute", recorded live, much of it in Cleveland, OH on May 11, 1981
and Randy’s solo in Montreal in July of 1981,
continued to earn him recognition as a guitar virtuoso.
Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums featuring
Randy Rhoads have sold over 6 million copies combined.
Tribute on Cusser's all time Top 5 Live Albums list!!!!!
