It’s not a stretch to say that if Randy Rhoads were alive today, the music world would be a better place. His sister Kathy certainly thinks so. “He was just a one of a kind. Anyone who ever played with him would tell you, ‘He’s probably the best musician that I ever worked with.’”
Kathy has understandably been feeling a bit raw since Ozzy Osbourne’s passing in July. Her family had known the Prince of Darkness since ’79 when Randy first hooked up with him, leading to the formation of a band with bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, and their two beloved records, 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz and 1981’s Diary of a Madman.
Randy may have been in his early 20s at the time, but Kathy recalls the rapid evolution of his craft. “It wasn’t like he changed, over years or months – he could improve literally in days.”
His solos on Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley and Over the Mountain are evidence of his unreal talent. But it that wasn’t all: “There was a charisma about Randy,” she says. “He had the looks and everybody just gravitated toward him. There was a charm that seemed to glow.”
The guitar prodigy was just 25 years old when he died in a plane crash in 1982. “He was only beginning,” she says. “Ozzy once said Randy was somebody that comes to this planet and bursts off like a shooting star. Here we are, 43 years later, still talking about this little kid from Burbank.
“The impact he still has on kids playing his music – when I see that it puts a smile on my face. They carry his memory to this day.”
We know a lot about Randy the guitar player. But what motivated him behind the scenes when he was very young?
“Randy and I are only a year apart and as kids we were really close. We were always playing around. My mom owned a music school – we still own it – and it was kind of like our second home.
“Instead of saying, ‘Do you want to take up any instruments?’ it was, ‘What would you like to play?’ Taking lessons was a huge part of our upbringing. Years later, Randy was an incredible guitar teacher at the school. He had like 60 students towards the end. They loved him and he really liked doing it. If he’d lived he’d still be teaching.”
When did the family realize he was gifted?
“When we started, my older brother Kelle picked drums, and Randy and I picked guitar. We started lessons on acoustic together. There’s a misconception that Randy was classically trained – but he wasn’t. What is true is that we learned how to read music properly.
“He started on acoustic and went over to electric around 14 years old. He took lessons from a teacher called Scott Shelly. Scott came up to my mom and said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t teach him anymore – he knows exactly as much as I do.’
“I’ll never forget the day I was in the kitchen with my mom and Randy, at this dining-height bar. He was 15, and my mom said, ‘Randy, you have a God-given talent.’ I just froze. I thought, ‘What is he going to say?’ Tears just started streaming down his cheeks – he was so happy that my mom had told him that.”
What are your memories of Randy once he got rolling with Quiet Riot in the ’70s?
“When he was trying to get Quiet Riot to work, he beat that to a pulp and tried so hard. That was his hope and goal, but it just never happened. My mom said one day, ‘You know, Randy, the reason that Quiet Riot never took off is the music is just not that great.’”
It must have been gratifying when things took off with Ozzy.
“Randy finally had the professional-level platform he really needed. Ozzy said, ‘Do your thing - just be you.’ He encouraged my brother to excel.
“Randy was a perfectionist. He was always criticizing his performance or worrying about his equipment. I could tell you stories about being in the limo when his pedalboard had gone out, and him being so upset about it. My mom would say, ‘They’ll get it to work; it’ll all work out, Randy,’ and calm him down.
“Another story is when they did Diary of a Madman over at Ridge Farm Studios. They wanted to tour the US, and they had to put together a second album so they’d have enough material to perform.
“They put it together in literally six weeks, and Randy thought, ‘Oh, it’s not going to be good. It was too quick. I don’t feel I did my best.’ He was so worried about it – but what a freaking masterpiece that album is!”
How did his success with Ozzy impact him personally?
“He was a very humble, almost shy person. He never let professional success get to his head. Never. People were starting to come up to him for an autograph, and he’d literally blush, like, ‘Are you kidding me? Do you really want this?’
“But once he got on stage he was like a beast. A different person emerged, larger than life. But he was always very quiet, humble, and he had little hobbies that grounded him.
In the diary he said, ‘Ozzy really likes me. He’s afraid I might leave. But he’s a really good guy’
“He only listened to classical music when he was home; he loved classical music. Toward the end of his life his passion became great for classical music. And when he was on the road he’d find a professor at a university from the Yellow Pages, call them up, and take a lesson as they toured in different places.
“He also grounded himself at home by collecting miniature trains. He had a set and buildings that went with them. He’d spend hours putting them together. We have all this stuff, by the way. For his last Christmas my husband built a big board for him, so he could put this whole set together. Sadly, he never got to.”
What do you remember about Randy and Ozzy’s relationship?
“It’s well-known that Ozzy was at the party stage of his life. That was a little hard for Randy, who’d never been away from home. He still lived with my mom and I was starting a family. It was hard for him being thrust into Ozzy’s partying.
“But they liked each other a great deal. I have a diary Randy kept from when he first got with Ozzy. He actually lived at Ozzy’s home; Ozzy was married to Thelma at the time, but was going through the divorce. That kind of upset Randy because we came from a divorced family. He felt bad for the kids.
“In the diary he said, ‘Ozzy really likes me. He’s afraid I might leave. But he’s a really good guy. I really like him.’ Ozzy was just one in a million. You could sit down with him and it felt like you knew him. He was very relatable, kind, funny, and definitely a character.
“But we were raised in a Christian school and attended church. To be thrust into the Ozzy Osbourne world was an eye-opener. I think that’s why Randy picked up classical guitar; you know, to ground himself. He was homesick a lot, especially around the holidays.”
Do you remember when Randy told Ozzy he was leaving to go back to school?
“It’s known he’d told Ozzy just a few days before he passed that he was done with touring and wanted to come home. My mom and dad were at the beginning of the process to get him into UCLA for a master’s degree in classical music. Randy was really looking forward to that.
“Ozzy said, ‘Are you crazy? You’re a rockstar!’ Randy said, ‘That’s not what I want; this is what I want.’ Ozzy said – and I’ll quote him – ‘You could buy your own fucking college if you keep doing this!’ But for Randy, the biggest thing was to be a true musician.”
Eddie got to live until he was 65. Had Randy lived until he was 65, we’d have a whole different story
What can you say about the aftermath of Randy's passing?
“Ozzy’s passing brought that all back. It was such a dark, horrible time. I’ve never been able to say what happened in the household that day. It’s so gut-wrenching and so horrific that I can’t even put it into words.
“Here was this rising star who’d just started. To be cut down like that was just so tragic, and it was such a silly, unnecessary situation. The fact that he got on that plane – and Randy hated flying – is just shocking to me.”
Why do you think he did it?
“He probably went up to take pictures. He loved taking pictures, and he probably wanted to show my mom because it was a beautiful area where they’d stopped the bus. I guess Randy thought, ‘Okay, I could do this.’
“That’ll be the first question I ask him when I see him – ‘Why did you go on that plane, Randy?’ But yeah, it was just a horrific time, and it was so horrific for my mother too. It almost killed her.
“My husband had to get on a plane that night to represent the family and bring him home. To this day, he won’t tell me some of the things that he witnessed.”
On the flip side of that darkness, Randy’s impact and influence seem boundless.
“Nobody would be more shocked than Randy himself! When he recorded those albums he was 21 or 22. And he triple-tracked his solos – Ozzy told him, ‘Nobody can do that!’ Well, Randy could. That was just the genius of Randy.”
You’ve been keeping Randy’s legacy alive in many ways. One of those was the MXR Randy Rhoads Distortion pedal. Are there more things like that in the works?
“I’m always working on something, though I don’t talk about it. My brother Kelle had a stroke last year, so he can’t help anymore, but I have a lot of support from my husband. We’re about to release a second MXR pedal.
“I met with Jimmy Dunlop about two years ago, and we took Randy’s pedalboard out for the first time and did the first pedal with the polka dots. In September we’re releasing a second one designed after the Jackson Concorde.”
I think he’d have combined rock and classical music, and blown us out of the water
Elsewhere, the Randy versus Eddie Van Halen debate rages on. Does that have you rolling your eyes?
“I’ll tell you two things and they’re from Randy. He would always say, ‘It’s not fair to compare us. We have a different style.’ Randy had classical influences – you could take his music and play it with an orchestra. He sometimes sounded like he was playing a violin. Eddie had a different style.
“Randy would say, ‘It’s like comparing apples to oranges.’ And Eddie got to live until he was 65. Had Randy lived until he was 65, I think we’d have a whole different story here. I can 100 percent guarantee you of that.”
If Randy were alive today, what might he be doing?
“I think he’d have combined rock and classical music, and come up with something that would have seriously – and I’m not kidding – blown us out of the water.
“And he loved teaching, so he’d have wanted to have a little bit of that in his life, and helping kids with music. And I could see him writing music for movies or something.”
What do you think he’d have thought of Ozzy’s last stand at the Back to the Beginning show?
“I think Randy’s spirit was there, and they did an amazing tribute to him. Ozzy had always given Randy credit for his career and life. When Ozzy got inducted into the Hall of Fame – he doesn’t like long speeches – he said, ‘I owe my life and career to Randy Rhoads.’ It blew me away when I heard him say that.
“It was a gut-punching feeling when Ozzy passed so shortly after that concert. But he probably put his all into that and then he thought, ‘Okay, I got what I wanted. I accomplished my goal. I’m good.’
“But who knows? I absolutely know that Randy would have been there performing with him. And I think that they would have remained really good friends.”
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