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Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981). Rhoads was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Pursuing an interest in classical guitar, Rhoads combined these influences with heavy metal, helping form a sub-genre later known as neoclassical metal. With Quiet Riot, he adopted a black-and-white Polka dot theme which became an emblem for the group. He reached his peak as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne's solo career, performing on tracks including "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" on the Blizzard of Ozz album. "Crazy Train" features one of the most well-known heavy metal guitar .
He died in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career, Rhoads is regarded as a pivotal figure in metal music, credited with pioneering a fast and technical style of guitar soloing that largely defined the metal scene of the 1980s. He helped popularize various guitar techniques now common in heavy metal music, including Tapping, vibrato bar dive bombs, and intricate scale patterns, drawing comparisons to his contemporary Eddie Van Halen. The Jackson Rhoads guitar was originally commissioned by him. He has been included in several published "Greatest Guitarist" lists, and has been cited by other prominent guitarists as a major influence.
The Rhoads family did not own a stereo, and the children created their own music at home to entertain themselves. Rhoads listened to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as a child and would imitate their performances with his brother Kelle in the family garage. Rhoads began folk music and classical guitar lessons at approximately age seven at his mother's music school. He became interested in rock guitar and began lessons at Musonia from Scott Shelly. Shelly soon approached Rhoads' mother to inform her that he could no longer teach her son, as Rhoads' knowledge of the electric guitar had exceeded his own. Rhoads also received piano lessons from his mother to help build his understanding of music theory.
Rhoads met future bandmate Kelly Garni while attending John Muir Middle School in Burbank, California, and the two became best friends. According to Garni, the pair were unpopular due to "the way we looked. Every time we showed up for school it was usually problematic, so we pretty much avoided it. We weren't nerds, we weren't jocks, we weren't dopers, we were just on our own." Rhoads' sister Kathy recalled, "People really gave him a hard time. They used to want to beat him up." (2025). 9781250051349, St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250051349 Rhoads taught Garni how to play bass guitar, and together they formed a band called The Whore, rehearsing during the day at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a 1970s Hollywood nightspot. It was during this period that Rhoads learned to play lead guitar. "When I met him he didn't know how to play lead guitar yet at all. He was just starting to take lessons for it and really just riffing around," said Garni. Rhoads spent several months playing at backyard parties around the Los Angeles area in the mid-1970s.
The pair performed for a short time in a backing band for a vocalist remembered only as Smokey before forming a cover band, Violet Fox, with Rhoads' older brother Kelle on drums. Violet Fox, which was together for approximately five months, staged several performances in the Grand Salon at Musonia. Among their setlist was "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain and songs from the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper and David Bowie. After Violet Fox dissolved, Rhoads formed various other short-lived bands such as The Katzenjammer Kids and Mildred Pierce. The Katzenjammer Kids' lead vocalist would often wear on stage, which sometimes led to violent reactions from the audience.
According to Garni, he and Rhoads frequently listened to Long Beach, California radio station KNAC because it was "the only radio station that would play anything of interest to us," and it was through KNAC that Rhoads discovered much of the music that influenced his playing. The home of a neighborhood friend with a high-quality stereo and large record collection became a regular hangout for the pair, and there they smoked Cannabis and listened to more obscure hard rock music such as early Scorpions records.
Live bootleg recordings were very popular at that time, and Rhoads began to take note of the differences between studio recordings and the live versions, particularly the different licks guitarists incorporated when playing live. He began to memorize these licks and taught himself to play them. Rhoads' brother states that a July 11, 1971, Alice Cooper concert at the Long Beach Auditorium that the pair attended was a defining point in the guitarist's life. After the concert was over he noted:
Garni concurs, calling Rhoads' discovery of Alice Cooper "a game changer." Guitarists Glen Buxton, Mick Ronson, and Leslie West were early influences on his playing.
Forsyth had periodically played with Rhoads and Garni in the past, most notably in Mildred Pierce. DuBrow was an L.A. photographer who was not at all what Rhoads had in mind for his new band, and he was not well liked by his Quiet Riot bandmates, a situation that caused a great deal of tension within the band. Rhoads had envisioned a frontman in the vein of Alice Cooper or David Bowie, but DuBrow was persistent and would not take no for an answer. In the end, Rhoads and Garni decided that if nothing else, DuBrow shared their enthusiasm and he was hired. Quiet Riot quickly became one of the most popular acts on the Los Angeles club circuit, and by late 1976 had secured a record deal with CBS/Sony Records. Fans began showing up at Quiet Riot shows wearing polka-dots, emulating the polka-dot vests and that Rhoads wore onstage. He also had a polka-dot Flying V-style guitar custom made by a local luthier.
While the band had a strong following in Los Angeles, Quiet Riot and Quiet Riot II were released only in Japan. The relationship between DuBrow and Garni had also deteriorated completely during the recording of the band's second album, with potentially catastrophic results. After drunkenly firing a handgun through the ceiling and engaging in a fistfight with Rhoads, Garni hatched a plan to shoot and kill DuBrow at The Record Plant studio while recording the album. Rhoads was left with no choice but to fire his longtime friend and band co-founder.
Over the next couple of days following the audition, Rhoads, Osbourne, Strum, and drummer Frankie Banali jammed together in Los Angeles before Osbourne returned to England. Disillusioned with Quiet Riot's inability to land an American recording deal, Rhoads discussed with his mother the possibility of joining an already established band. When she asked him if he would accept "an offer like this one", he replied, "Of course!"
Upon returning to England, Osbourne was introduced in a pub to former Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley by a Jet Records employee named Arthur Sharpe, and the pair hit it off and decided to work together. Unhappy with the guitarist they were initially working with, Osbourne mentioned to Daisley that he had recently met a talented young guitarist in Los Angeles by the name of Randy Rhoads. The new group's management intended to keep the lineup all British and was reluctant to hire an unknown American guitarist, but manager Don Arden eventually relented. Rhoads flew to England only to return home a couple of days later, being turned away by English customs at Heathrow Airport when he didn't have the necessary work permit. A representative from Jet Records was dispatched to clear the matter up but he never arrived, and Rhoads spent the night in a holding cell before being handcuffed and put on a plane back to the United States the next day. Osbourne subsequently called him to apologize, and arrangements were made for Rhoads to return to England with the proper paperwork. Rhoads flew to England on November 27, 1979, and met with Osbourne and Daisley at the Jet Records' offices in London. The trio traveled by train to Osbourne's home, Bullrush Cottage in Staffordshire, which also housed a rehearsal space. It was here that Rhoads lived with Osbourne, his then-wife Thelma, and their two children, during his first weeks in England. Years later, Osbourne said in his autobiography that he could not understand why a musician as talented as Rhoads would want to get involved with a "bloated alcoholic wreck" like himself.
They released two singles from the album: "Mr. Crowley" and "Crazy Train". "Mr. Crowley" is in the key of D minor and "Crazy Train" in F-sharp minor. Osbourne said years later, "One day Randy came to me and said that most heavy metal songs are written in an A to E chord structure. He said, 'Let's try to change that' ... so we made a rule that almost every number that we recorded on an album was never played in the same key." AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey described Crazy Train's main guitar riff as "a classic, making use of the full minor scale in a way not seen since Ritchie Blackmore's heyday with Deep Purple."
"Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" placed 9th and 28th, respectively, on Guitar Worlds 100 Greatest Guitar Solos readers poll. "Crazy Train" placed 51 in Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time list.
On 28 April, the band, then consisting of Osbourne, Rhoads, Sarzo and Aldridge, went to Channel 31 TV Studios in Rochester, New York to film live performances of "I Don't Know", "Suicide Solution", "Mr. Crowley" and "Crazy Train.” These performances were broadcast on the After Hours TV show as live promo-videos. These recordings feature the only clear, professionally shot footage of Rhoads during his tenure with Osbourne. All four songs from this set can be found on the Memoirs of a Madman DVD box set. “Mr. Crowley” and “I Don’t Know” were uploaded to Osbourne’s YouTube channel in 2015, with “Mr. Crowley” being uploaded on March 19, the 33rd anniversary of Rhoads’ death.
Around this time, Rhoads remarked to Osbourne, bandmates Aldridge and Sarzo, and friend Kelly Garni that he was considering leaving rock for a few years to earn a degree in classical guitar at UCLA. In the 1991 documentary film Don't Blame Me, Osbourne confirmed Rhoads' desire to earn the degree and stated that had he lived, he did not believe Rhoads would have stayed in his band. Friend and ex-Quiet Riot bassist Garni has speculated in interviews that if Rhoads had continued to play rock, he might have gone the route of more keyboard-driven rock, which had become popular through the 1980s. While on tour with Osbourne, Rhoads would seek out classical guitar tutors for lessons whenever possible.
At the time of his death, Rhoads had already made the decision to part ways with Osbourne once his contractual obligations had been fulfilled. Though he had a good relationship with Osbourne, the vocalist's constant drug and alcohol abuse made day-to-day life on tour difficult for the members of his band. As the Diary of a Madman US tour progressed, Osbourne would often refuse to perform due to the lingering after-effects of the previous night's excesses, and only Sharon could talk him into taking the stage. Many shows were simply canceled, and Rhoads grew tired of the unpredictability.
The final straw came when a plan was announced in February 1982 by Osbourne's management and record label to record a live album of Black Sabbath songs at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens later that year. Rhoads and bandmate Tommy Aldridge felt that they had established themselves as recording artists, and they regarded an album of cover songs to be a step backwards artistically and professionally. Thus, they refused to participate in the planned live recording. Osbourne viewed this decision as a betrayal, and the relationship between him and Rhoads became strained. Already drinking heavily, Osbourne escalated his drinking and began to tear the band apart. At one point he drunkenly fired the entire band, including Rhoads, though he later had no memory of doing so. He began taunting Rhoads with claims that the likes of Frank Zappa and Gary Moore were willing to replace him on the proposed live album. Osbourne's behavior soon convinced Rhoads to leave the band. He grudgingly agreed to perform on the live album with the stipulation that he would depart after fulfilling his contractual obligations to Jet Records, which consisted of one more studio album and subsequent tour. The proposed live album was scrapped upon the guitarist's sudden death weeks later, though the plan was quickly resurrected with the release of Speak of the Devil in November of that year.
During the second flight, more attempts were made to "buzz" the tour bus. Aycock succeeded in making two close passes, but botched the third attempt. At about 10a.m., after being in the air for approximately five minutes, one of the plane's wings clipped the top of the tour bus, breaking the wing into two parts and sending the plane spiraling. The initial impact with the bus caused Rhoads' and Youngblood's heads to crash through the plane's windshield. The plane then severed the top of a pine tree and crashed into the garage of a nearby mansion, bursting into flames. Rhoads (25) was killed instantly, as were Aycock (36) and Youngblood (58). All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and Rhoads was identified by dental records and personal jewelry. According to Sharon Osbourne, who was asleep in the bus and awoken by the crash, "They were all in bits, it was just body parts everywhere."
Airey was the only member of the band to witness the crash, as the rest were still asleep in the bus. In his account, he reported a struggle between Rhoads and Aycock in the cockpit, seconds before the crash:
As the band members on board the bus tried to figure out what had happened, Sarzo recalls side-stepping broken glass in his bare feet and looking through the gaping hole in the bus to see Duncan outside, rocking back and forth on the ground screaming "They're gone! They're gone!" Drummer Tommy Aldridge took a fire extinguisher from the bus and ran towards the crash site in a vain attempt to put out the fire. Duncan, who had been on board the first flight, explained that although he had been concerned about the pilot's behavior, there was no sense of foreboding:
Rhoads was afraid of flying and Youngblood had a bad heart. Rhoads originally had no intention of getting in the plane. Duncan explained how the guitarist ended up on the doomed flight:
Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake, who had recorded Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman with Rhoads and had been recently fired from Osbourne's band, were together in Houston, Texas, with Uriah Heep later that day when they got word of the accident. Kerslake recalled the moment he heard the news:
Rhoads' longtime girlfriend Jodi Raskin was in her car when she recalls hearing a block of songs from Blizzard of Ozz on the radio before the DJ announced the accident and the news that Rhoads had been killed. She was too distraught to continue driving. When close friend and future Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali heard the news, he quickly got in touch with Rudy Sarzo to make sure he was all right. He reported sensing that Sarzo was having a hard time continuing without Rhoads.
Black Sabbath was also touring the US at the time and heard the news on the radio. According to bassist Geezer Butler, they panicked, as they didn't know if Osbourne had been one of the casualties or not. They quickly contacted Osbourne's management to find out what had happened.
In the hours following the crash, band members and crew called loved ones to assure them that they were safe, as news reports hadn't yet named the victims. Sarzo found a church near the hotel they had been taken to and went inside to pray. The church was empty aside from one man at the front, crying uncontrollably near the altar. Sarzo was moved by the display of overwhelming grief. Eventually the man cried out "Why? Why?" and Sarzo realized it was Osbourne.
When fellow guitarist Eddie Van Halen learned about the crash he sensed immediately that the pilot "had to have been fucked up when it happened," saying in an early 1982 radio interview, "You don't fly that low and smash into a crew bus and then hit the house. (The pilot) was jerking off. That's just plain stupidity. I feel so sorry for (Rhoads)."
Aycock's estranged wife Wanda had spent that last night on the bus. Band members reported that Aycock was attempting to reconcile with her. According to witnesses, Wanda emerged from inside the bus shortly after the second flight took off and was standing in the doorway watching the plane as Aycock made his final approach. Don Airey and Sarzo both surmise that Aycock, having suddenly seen his estranged ex-wife appear, may have intentionally made the impulsive decision to kill her by crashing the plane into the bus. Sarzo also mentions Aycock's troubled emotional state that day, worsened by the effects of the cocaine and sleep deprivation. Given the struggle in the cockpit, Sarzo theorized that Rhoads' actions in the last seconds of his life prevented a direct hit with the bus, which potentially could have killed the pilot's ex-wife and everyone else on board.
Ozzy Osbourne recalled that he and the band didn't know Aycock was doing coke until the coroner's report. It was confirmed after autopsy that Aycock had tested positive for cocaine; Rhoads' toxicology test revealed only nicotine. The NTSB investigation determined that Aycock's aviation medical certificate had expired and it was reported that Aycock had been the pilot in another fatal crash in the United Arab Emirates six years earlier. Sharon had been aware of the prior crash, but hadn't informed anyone else on the tour. In the moments after the crash, she reportedly admonished tour manager Duncan for allowing their people into a plane with a pilot who had been using drugs all night, telling him "Don't you know that man had already killed one of the Calhouns' kids in a helicopter crash?"
Rhoads' funeral was held at the First Lutheran Church in Burbank, California. Serving as at the funeral were Osbourne, Aldridge, Sarzo, and Rhoads' former Quiet Riot bandmate Kevin DuBrow. On his coffin were flowers and two photos of the guitarist, one showing Rhoads and Osbourne on stage in San Francisco. Rhoads is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in San Bernardino, California. On his tomb is the inscription "An inspiration for all young people."
Osbourne has said that Rhoads did not use drugs and drank very little, preferring Anisette when he did drink. Osbourne says that while Rhoads did not like to party, he made up for it by smoking cigarettes heavily, saying "He could have won a gold medal in the Lung Cancer Olympics, could Randy Rhoads." Kelly Garni said that in the early days of Quiet Riot he and Rhoads experimented with marijuana and cocaine but "it really wasn't for us". He said Rhoads viewed cocaine as harmless at that time, and used cocaine only occasionally as a means of staying up all night and having fun, but developed a much more negative view of the drug after teaming up with Osbourne. Garni said that Osbourne's all-night drug binges taught the guitarist to avoid drugs and substance abuse, and he would typically go off alone to practice guitar or write letters home to his mother and girlfriend while Osbourne was getting high.
According to his brother Kelle, Rhoads was a "devout" Lutheran.
Among the items stolen were a 1963 Harmony Rocket (Rhoads' first electric guitar), a Peavey Amp Head which was part of Quiet Riot's original stage gear, a very rare Randy Rhoads Series Marshall Head (Prototype No. 1 or 2 donated to the Rhoads family by the Marshall Company), and a Great Depression-era Silver French Besson trumpet originally owned by his mother, as well as numerous gifts from fans, memorabilia, all photos of Rhoads, and other "miscellaneous instruments". The items were recovered just a few days later from a dumpster.
Rhoads's biggest influences as a guitarist were Leslie West, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, Charlie Christian, and John Williams.
In the years since his death Rhoads' work has been very influential within genres such as neoclassical metal, highly regarded by such players as Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Zakk Wylde, Michael Romeo, Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, Mick Thomson of Slipknot, Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big, Buckethead, Michael Angelo Batio, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance.
Aldridge, who Rhoads had regarded as his favorite drummer since seeing him perform on television with Black Oak Arkansas in the 1970s, has said that working with a musician as talented as Rhoads "was inspirational. It was life-changing". From a musical standpoint, he has said that playing with Rhoads was the high point of his career, stating "It was very exciting. From a musical perspective, it was probably the high-water mark of my career. Working with people like Randy Rhoads, guys like that, they kind of grab you by the scruff of your neck and lift you up to their level."
Rhoads' talent was not always met with such praise during his lifetime. Fellow guitarist Eddie Van Halen was somewhat dismissive of Rhoads' playing, saying in 1982 "Everything he did he learned from me" and "I don't really think he did anything that I haven't done", but said that "He was good". J. D. Considine of Rolling Stone was critical of his playing, referring to Rhoads in his review of Diary Of A Madman as "a junior-league Eddie Van Halen – bustling with chops but somewhat short on imagination". Years later, however, the magazine listed Rhoads as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Jackson Guitars released an exact replica of Rhoads' original white "shortwing" V. His original guitar was handled, photographed, and measured extensively by Jackson's luthiers to produce the most precise replica possible. The guitar comes with black gaffer's tape covering the top wing and the back of the guitar, just like Rhoads'. Only 60 of the guitars were manufactured, each with the symbolic price tag of $12,619.56, which is Rhoads' birthday. In 2010, Gibson Guitars announced a new custom shop signature guitar modeled after Rhoads' 1974 Les Paul Custom.
As a tribute to Rhoads, Marshall Amplification released the 1959RR at the NAMM Show in 2008. The amp is a limited-edition all-white Marshall Super Lead 100-watt head modeled after Rhoads' own Super Lead amp. Marshall engineers looked extensively at Rhoads' actual amplifier and made the 1959RR to those exact specifications, down to the special high-gain modification Rhoads requested when he visited the Marshall factory in 1980.
In April 2011, author Joel McIver announced the publication of the first fully comprehensive Rhoads biography, Crazy Train: The High Life and Tragic Death of Randy Rhoads, with a foreword written by Zakk Wylde and an afterword by Yngwie Malmsteen. In June 2012, Velocity Publishing Group announced a comprehensive Rhoads biography, written by Steven Rosen and Andrew Klein, and containing over 400 pages of material.
May 31, 2011, marked the 30th anniversary and remaster-release of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Both albums were remastered and restored to their original state with Bob Daisley's bass and Lee Kerslake's drums intact. Blizzard has three bonus tracks: "You, Looking at Me, Looking at You", "Goodbye to Romance" (2010 Vocal & Guitar Mix), and "RR" (Randy Rhoads in-studio guitar solo). Originally, Diary was to include long fade-out versions of "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll", "Tonight", and "Diary of a Madman" (2010 Re-mix version), but they were not included in the re-issue. The Legacy version of Diary of a Madman includes a second CD called Ozzy Live, a live album pulled together from multiple performances on the 1981 Blizzard of Ozz tour. This performance features the same line-up as the Tribute album. Also included exclusively in the special box set are the 180-gram vinyl versions of the original albums, a 100-page coffee table book and the DVD Thirty Years After the Blizzard, that includes unreleased Rhoads video footage.
Producer Kevin Churko, who mixed the 2010 Ozzy Live CD, has stated that Epic Records has "a lot more in the vault" for future releases of Rhoads' material with Osbourne, as many of the band's live performances from that era were recorded.
Rhoads' mother, Delores Rhoads, created the Randy Rhoads Scholarship Endowment at California State University, Northridge that gives annual scholarships to guitar students in memory of her son.
On January 18, 2017, Rhoads was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for defining heavy metal lead guitar.
Rhoads was formally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021, as a recipient of the Musical Excellence Award. Speaking (via video message) at the induction were Ozzy Osbourne, and guitarists Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Zakk Wylde (formerly of Osbourne's band, and greatly influenced by Rhoads in his youth) and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
Rhoads was named the 21st greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.
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