Randy Rhoads

Revision as of 14:05, 25 February 2008 by Aimc (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ←Older revision | Current revision (diff) | Newer revision→ (diff)

Randy Rhoads

Bio

Name : Randell William Rhoads
Born : 6th December 1956 Died : 19th March 1982 (aged 25)
Style : Heavy Rock/shred & Classical

Best known as guitarist with Ozzy Osbourne

Tragically died in a plane crash killing all occupents whilst on tour in 1982.

Early Years

Randy began playing guitar at the age of 6, he began learning on his grandfathers classical acoustic guitar learning folk music, shortly after he began taking piano lessons till the age of 12 when he became interested in rock guitar!
Randy took lessons till the age of 14 then formed his first band

Quiet Riot

Rhoads (aged 17) taught his best friend Kelli Garni to play Bass guitar and they formed Quiet Riot, they auditioned singer Kevin DuBrow, and drummer Drew Forsyth joined them to complete the line up.

The band played small bars and clubs around Hollywood and although had a good following where unable to land a record deal in the US.
Eventually the band was able to get a record deal from japanese label CBS/Sony rocords, and the bands first two albums where released in Japan.

Ozzy Osbourne

In 1979 Rhoads was invited to audition for Ozzy Osbourne, Ozzy, recently departed from Black Sabbath was forming his own band, while Randy was warming up Ozzy instantly hired him as his right hand man, Randy immediatly took the position, recommended a friend to fill his spot in Quiet Riot and moved to the UK.
The band wrote and recorded their first album "Blizzard of Oz" in 1980, it was a huge success with rock fans and the band backed it up with an intensive touring schedule.
they then re entered the studio to record the 2nd album "Diary of a Madman", the band then embarked on another extensive tour to promote the album.

Tragic Ending

On March 19th 1982, the band was headed to a festival in Orlando, Florida. After driving much of the night, they stopped at the house the bus company's owner in Florida. The driver Andrew Aycock, took Rhoads and hairdresser Rachel Youngblood on a "joy" flight in a plane that he had taken without permission.During the flight Aycock buzzed the tour bus 3 times where some of the other band members were sleeping as a prank to wake them up. On the fourth attempt however the right wing clipped the right side of the tour bus by accident, leading to the crash of the plane into a nearby mansion, completely destroying the front of the house and completly destroying the plane. Nobody in the mansion was hurt but Rhoads, age 25, was killed instantly, along with the pilot and other passenger Rachel Youngblood.

Randy is buried in a tomb at Burbank, California and is visited by his family and many fans on the anniversary of his death and his birthday to pay tribute to one of rocks greatest ever guitarists.