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12/6 TIMH Randy Rhoads

+14 HS
Ludwig Yards's picture
December 6, 2016 at 9:43am
45 Comments

Randall William Rhoads was born in Santa Monica CA in 1956, the youngest of three kids. Rhoads’ parents, as with many musicians it seems, were very musical. Both of his parents were music teachers, and after Randy’s father left his mom started a music school in Hollywood. Oddly though, the family did not own a stereo. Rhoads started taking classical guitar lessons at his mother’s studio when he was 7, before moving on to electric guitar. Not long after starting lessons on electric guitar his instructor informed Rhoads’ mom that Randy was too talented for him to teach him anything further. 

In 1972 when he was 16, Rhoads formed Quiet Riot with his best friend and bassist, Kelly Garni, and vocalist Kevin DuBrow. Popular in Los Angeles, but it never translated to wide-spread success or popularity.

In 1979, Rhoads auditioned for and got the gig as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne’s new band – The Blizzard of Ozz. Osbourne, who was very inebriated on that day, said of the audition "He played this fucking solo and I'm like, am I that fucking stoned or am I hallucinating or what the fuck is this!" Osbourne immediately gave him the job. Rhoads recalled later, "I just tuned up and did some riffs, and he said, 'You've got the gig'; I had the weirdest feeling, because I thought, 'You didn't even hear me yet'". Rhoads recorded two albums with Osbourne but sadly was killed in a gruesome plane crash in March of 1982, when he was just 25. Who knows what he could have done over the past 30 years.   

 

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