Randall William Rhoads was born on December 6, 1956 at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. The youngest of three, he was raised by his mother Delores Rhoads.

Randy began guitar lessons around the age of 6 or 7 at Musonia in North Hollywood, a school owned by his mother. His first guitar was a Gibson acoustic belonging to Delores's father. His initial lessons were in folk guitar, and later supplimented with piano lessons at his mother's request so that he would learn to read music. At the age of 12, Randy began to show an interest in rock. He switched to an old semi-acoustic Harmony Rocket his mother had that was "almost larger than he was". He took lessons in rock guitar at Musonia for about a year, after which time his teacher went to Delores proclaiming that he couldn't teach him anything else, as Randy knew everything he did by that point.

At age 14, Randy joined his first band, Violet Fox, with his brother Doug. The band was named after his mother's middle name, Violet, and featured Doug on drums, and Randy on rhythm guitar. Violet Fox were only together for 4 or 5 months, but Randy went on to play in several other local bands such as "The Katzenjammer Kids" and "Mildred Pierce".

In 1976, Randy joined Quiet Riot with longtime friend and former student, Kelly Garni on bass, and Kevin Dubrow on vocals. During this time, Randy was teaching at Musonia by day, and jamming with the band by night. Quiet Riot quickly became one of the bigger acts in Los Angeles and garnered a recording contract with CBS/Sony records. Quiet Riot released two albums and one e.p. in Japan: Quiet Riot 1, in 1978, and Quiet Riot 2, in 1979. Although given rave reviews in the Japanese press, neither recording was ever released in the US. Plans were made for a tour of Japan, but the band's management declined, and Quiet Riot continued to to play in the L.A. area.

In the latter part of 1979, Randy auditioned for a band being put together by former Black Sabbath lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne. Randy was happy in Quiet Riot, and didn't think the audition would amount to much. Shortly before Thanksgiving in 1979, Randy went to England and began to write with Ozzy what would become Blizzard of Ozz. With ex-Uriah Heap members, Lee Kerslake (drums) and Bob Daisley (bass), the Ozzy Osbourne band began recording on March 22, 1980. Blizzard of Ozz went straight into the UK charts at number 7 as they toured England, with the sales of the album more than doubling with each city.

Through the months of February and March of 1981, the band recorded Diary of a Madman. The recording was somewhat rushed towards the end due to an impending US tour. With Diary recorded, but not yet released, the tour began in Towson, Maryland on April 22, 1981. Upon release, Diary of a Madman went gold in 100 days.

During this tour, Randy was awarded with Guitar Player Magazine's Best New Talent Award, and England's Sounds Magazine's Best New Guitarist Award. At the same time, Randy's interest in classical guitar was growing, and becoming more consuming. He was known to search out classical guitar tutors in every city the tour stopped in. It was becoming common knowledge that rock and roll would only be a temporary thing. Randy's desire was to return to school and earn a Master's degree in classical guitar. This dream would sadly never become a reality.

At approximately 9 a.m. on the morning of March 19, 1982, tour bus driver Andrew Aycock took Randy, and tour seamstress Rachel Youngblood, up in a red and white 1955 Beechcraft Bonanza F-35 for a few minutes. During the ride, the plane flew low to the ground, at times below tree level. Stories vary as to whether or not the plane "buzzed" the bus, but on the fourth pass, the left wing of the plane struck the left side of the tour bus, puncturing it in two places. The plane, sans left wing, was thrown over the bus, hit a nearby pine tree, severing the tree approximately 10 feet from the bottom, and crashed into the garage on the west side of a home. The house and garage were almost immediately engulfed in flames.

Randy Rhoads was laid to rest in San Bernadino, California. His guitar playing could not be silenced. In 1987, to honor Randy's memory and talent, Ozzy Osbourne released a live recording, Tribute.

SOURCE: The Day the Music Died. For more information on Randy's life, death, career, etc, please visit The Day the Music Died site (http://http://www.flash.net/~ulknatme/)

Thanks for posting that! It still makes me want to cry to hear about his passing. :cry: I was just listening to ''Crazy Train" today and really listening closely to his solo. There is no one that could ever duplicate his talent or style of guitar playing.

I was gonna post something tomorrow to mark the 20th anniversary of his passing, but this thread will do.

I was not even 5 when this happened so I have no personal memories, but what a tragedy this was.

Originally posted by Cartoon_Chris
I was gonna post something tomorrow to mark the 20th anniversary of his passing, but this thread will do.


That's exactly why I'd waited to make this post myself. I wanted to do something to honor the day, and when I saw that no one had done a bio yet, I decided that we needed one.

I do kinda hope there will be other postings or other threads about him though. Hard to believe it's been 20 years.....:( :cry2:

:cry: Thanks for posting this. It's comforting to know that I am not the only one missing Randy.

Ok, that first link apparently doesn't work for some reason. :confused: Let's try this one and see if it's any better. Randy (http://http://www.flash.net/~ulknatme/bio.htm)

At the age of 12, Randy began to show an interest in rock

My age now. i am a huge fan and yesterday all day, whenever i got the chance i listened to randy rhoads. he is the best. i have pics of him on my ceiling. i wish he were still here, but he is watching over us. and believe it or not, i get choked up and cry. its sad that he died that young.

theres some cool stuff over at Ozzyhead.com but if you look at the articles section theres a paper about randys death.

- ps , i made a randy rhoads screen saver

~~RandyRhoadsFan FOR LIFE

something else i found about him, some is wrong for some reason. the date when he died and what age is wrong

Famous / Infamous For:

Famous For: Being one of the leading lights of the early 1980's metal renaissance. Accomplishing more on two albums than most would on a hundred. Being Ozzy's best guitarist to date. Reintroducing classical elements into the 80s metal framework. Rhoads also known for playing a polka dot custom Flying V, and being dwarfed by a cream Gibson Les Paul Custom.

Infamous For: Being tragically killed at the age of 26 on March 20th 1982 in a private plane crash. Spending hours on-end in the studio, triple-tracking his guitar solos. At his audition for Ozzy's "new band" Rhoads showed up with a only a tiny practice amp and began tuning up. He looked so slight and delicate that Ozzy asked simply him if was gay. Rhoads quipped "No, I'm Church of England," and he got the gig on the spot! After hearing the hundreds who auditioned before him, one presumes Ozzy heard more in Randy than just his sense of humor and his tuning-up.

Influences
Obvious: Randy had such a unique sound that its hard to pinpoint obvious influences other than classical guitar. There's one player who kind of stands out in Randy's approach and that is Edward Van Halen whose influence you can hear in Randy's two handed tapping lines. Both players were playing the same circuit in the mid 1970's and they were certainly aware of each other, but Eddie got famous first.

Not-So-Obvious: This is where Randy's stated influences come in. Randy said his first and major influences were Leslie West of Mountain, Mick Ronson of David Bowie fame. West's high speed pentatonic work can be heard occasionally in Rhoads playing, whilst the Ronson influence may be visual -- a similar blonde haircut and a white/cream Les Paul. However, it's unlikely a Bowie or Mountain fan would detect these influences in Randy's work on Blizzard or Diary. And stated or not, it's inconcieveable that Randy was oblivious to the way Blackmore and Schenker were using classical elements in heavy rock. Randy was also a fan of the early Alice Cooper albums.

Strengths
Riffs: Randy came up with so many classic riffs on just two albums that it still amazes. From the driving sixteenth note aggression of I Don't Know, to the demonic intro of Crazy Train, the syncopation of Steal Away (The Night) to the sheer coolness of S.A.T.O., Rhoads managed to combine catchy motifs with the power that makes you clench your fist and say "Yeah!".

Solos: Both Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman feature brilliant, and now classic, guitar solos. These solos are pretty much all composed, memorable, melodic stories within the song. The can be recalled and hummed from memory. And yet they are also plenty flashy and display quite accomplished chops. Each one is a true masterpiece. It's difficult to imagine anything else being played over these songs. Indeed, when guitarists play those songs, they don't mess with those solos. They play Randy's solos. Whether they're in cover bands or playing for Ozzy himself.

Focus and vision: Randy's work with Ozzy is consistently great. Every track shows Rhoads had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve on that track, and even the solo on Little Dolls which apparently is a rough scratch solo left on due to time constraints shows what Rhoads was capable of.

Randy's stellar guitar work, plus his death elevated him to legendary status. He left us with so little recorded work that we never had to endure down years, ill-concieved stylistic departures, blues albums, his hip-hop period, or the acoustic/classical guitar direction he was considering toward the end of his life.

Weaknesses
Does being a member of Quiet Riot count? If Randy had any playing weaknesses at all, they vanished between the time he recorded Blizzard and the time he recorded Diary. Whichever album you prefer, what's undeniable is that Randy had improved as a player between the two sessions. Sure, triple-tracking all those solos was anal as hell, but you can't argue with the results. One could point to the production on the Ozzy albums as being slightly lackluster but this was hardly Randy's fault, and does not detract any enjoyment from the music one iota.

As stated above Randy's stellar guitar work, plus his death elevated him to legendary status. We also never never got to enjoy anything wonderful Randy might have become freed from Ozzy's band. Great solo albums, well-concieved stylistic departures, etc. All we have is a handfull of tracks of Randy playing only one style of music. Fortunately it's metal. But we all know Randy had a lot more to offer. Whether we would have enjoyed it all is debateable.

Tone
Randy employed a pretty stock metal sound but he did achieve it slightly differently to other 'hot rod modders' of the time. Randy used stock Marshall heads, generally 100 watt Super Leads, one being an early 1970's non master volume and the other a late 70's master volume head (model # 1959). The amps were fed with several effects pedals. Distortion from an MXR Dist + coupled with a MXR EQ pedal (set to boost the mid range), other MXR pedals were used for colouring -- mainly on cleaner parts like Goodbye To Romance. Randy also used a wah pedal as a booster ala Michael Schenker for certain lead phrases - particularly live. In truth Randy's tone was quite trebly, yet it had balls. In the studio, tonal thicknesss and a natural harmonizer-like effect came from triple-tracking his guitar parts (panned left, center, and right in the stereo field). Live, he ran a stereo rig pretty wet with chorus.

Randy had three main guitars: A cream Gibson Les Paul Custom (stock), a Karl Sandoval custom Polka Dot Flying V with a vintage style tremolo, and a custom Jackson V variant (the design that evloved into the Jackson Randy Rhoads model). The custom instruments were fitted with Duncan Distortion pickups in the bridge position. The Les Paul was Randy's main instrument, whilst the Polka Dot V was used for tracks that required tremolo bar work (mainly live). The inlay to "Tribute" shows a couple of Strat's in Randy's arsenal but I have never seen any live pictures or read anything to suggest this was used on the Ozzy material.

Guitar Style
Randy came from the "schooled" group of guitar players. He was a guitar teacher, and well-versed in music theory, harmony and music history (it helps when your parents run a music shop and school). For all intents and purposes Randy Rhoads had it all -- exceptional guitar facility, exotic colourations and tangents, plus a highly individualised view of how rock and classical elements could merge in harmony. But beyond the theory, his style possesed a soul and persona that defies categorizations. Rhoads was continually refining and revitalizing his musicality with interesting, and for the time, daring ideas. He had an openness in his playing, fuelled by his insatiable appetite for knowledge, and a perfectionist attitude. Yet the knowledge never got in the way of him playing with great feeling and emotion.

As stated, Randy actually had a lot larger vocabulary than he actually used in Ozzy. The fact that his rhythm work with Ozzy was mostly pretty standard power chord fare shows that he could make even the most basic guitar parts come alive with little fills and nuances that made them special. For example, a briefly executed series of pull offs and hammer ons I Don't Know nearly always derived from the tonal center of the chord progression being a favourite. Randy knew how to compose in both major and minor keys -- often within the same song. Crazy Train begins in F# minor before moving to its relative major of A for the verse riff. Classical influence can be heard frequently in the Rhoads repertoire -- pedal points and arpeggios, the cycle of fifths in the solo sections of Mr. Crowley, the dark mysticism of Diary Of A Madman and this was always backed up confident solos, not to mention the beautiful classical instrumental Dee.

Randy pretty much blew everyone's mind when they first heard him; and his lead work is just as impressive today as when it was released 20 years ago. Combining Pentatonic work with phrases from Aeolian, Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian show what a master was at scale combining in the hard rock genre. He was particularly known for bringing the Diminished scale to Heavy Metal. However, Randy not only had the theory side down, but also the technique. Rapid fire alternate picking, superb left hand strength for hammer on/pull off licks that had authority and gave Randy's work its own unique sound. A uncanny knack for creating special effects with harmonics and manipulation of the pickup selector. Randy also brought a new sound to the two handed tapping technique. Eddie Van Halen mainly stuck to single note taps (combined with single hammer on's and pull offs), Rhoads upped the stakes by employing two taps in quick succession with the right hand followed by a double hammer on with the left ring or pinky. This technique gave the impression of more speed, but in truth is no more difficult than Van Halen's style. However, it made Randy sound different from Eddie; and if Eddie was the first guy you ever heard tapping, Randy was probably the second.

Vibrato: Randy normally employed a fast, stinging, medium pitch vibrato, similar to Tony Iommi's in some ways but sounding a lot more confident. It's a bit more even and controlled on Diary than it was on Blizzard, but Randy always knew when to use it to its full potential to add sizzle to a note -- often at the end of a fast line. Some of the best examples of this vibrato can be heard on Randy's sublime outro solo on Tonight.

Recommended Listening
Quiet Riot

The Randy Rhoads Years - V V V (More to see how quickly he developed than for the material on offer).

Ozzy Osbourne

Blizzard Of Ozz - V V V V V
Diary Of A Madman - V V V V V
Tribute - V V V V V

Thanks for the added info RRfan. Some of it is wrong, like you said, and some questionable, depending on where you heard it. There are so many variations out there on some events, like how he got into Ozzy's band in the first place. I take it all in stride, and am simply thankful we got what little he could give us in the time he was allowed. :)

One of the greatest guitar players who ever walked the face of this Earth. A man who lived for his instrument. My first and foremost influence on the axe alongside my second Mr. Steve Stevens. Who knows the extent Randy would have gone with his art had he lived. 80s guitar may have evolved a whole different way. RIP Mr. Rhoads.

BTW, I got to meet his Mother in '84 who has a music school in The SF Valley named Musonia. A very nice lady indeed. I actually saw the room he taught in and it hadn't been touched since the last he left it before his death down to cups still sitting on tables. It was eerie but awe inspiring.

Actually BC, 80's guitar - at least where metal or rock is concerned - would have probably stayed the same. Ozzy has said numerous times that Randy was talking about quitting after that tour to focus on classical guitar. While he as a player would have reached SERIOUS heights, the rock world was set to lose him even if he had lived.

The man was amazing....

Actually BC, 80's guitar - at least where metal or rock is concerned - would have probably stayed the same. Ozzy has said numerous times that Randy was talking about quitting after that tour to focus on classical guitar. While he as a player would have reached SERIOUS heights, the rock world was set to lose him even if he had lived.

The man was amazing....

Yeah, I thought about mentioning that also but didn't because I really think that if he would have left to pursue his College Degree in music and pursued the purest classical music he would've eventually returned to high energy rock like a lot of guitarists do (while not leaving the classics behind, though). They branch out and diversify but usually return to what brought them were they were professionally. If I made sense. Don't think he'd have returned full time with the Oz, though but maybe a reunion tour or such.