Randy Rhoads

In December 2019, Ozzy Osbourne offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of several pieces of equipment, most of it once belonging to Rhoads, stolen from the premises of Musonia music school on the night of November 28, 2019. 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 Fresh Besson trumpet originally owned by Delores Rhoads, as well as numerous gifts from fans, memorabilia, all photos of Rhoads, and other "miscellaneous instruments".

On January 18, 2017, Rhoads was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for defining heavy metal lead guitar.

Rhoads' mother Delores Rhoads died on November 11, 2015, at the age of 95.

After a short search, drummer Lee Kerslake completed the new band, then known as The Blizzard of Ozz. The group headed into the studio to record their debut album, titled Blizzard of Ozz. Rhoads' guitar playing had changed due to the level of freedom allowed by Osbourne and Daisley and he was encouraged to play what he wanted. His work with Quiet Riot had been criticized as being "dull" and did not rely on classical scales or arrangements. Propelled by Rhoads' neo-classical guitar work, the album proved an instant hit with rock fans, particularly in the US. They released two singles from the album: "Mr. Crowley" and the hit "Crazy Train". 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." Following a UK tour the band recorded another album, Diary of a Madman. During a break before leaving for their first US tour, both Kerslake and Daisley were suddenly fired by Sharon Arden, the band's manager and Osbourne's future wife. For the US tour, ex-Black Oak Arkansas drummer Tommy Aldridge and bassist Rudy Sarzo – who had been Rhoads' bandmate in Quiet Riot – were hired. Diary of a Madman was released soon after in October 1981, and since Kerslake and Daisley were already out of the band, Aldridge and Sarzo's names and photos appeared on the album sleeve. Disputes over royalties performance and other intellectual property rights became a source of future court battles. Kerslake has maintained that Rhoads almost left Osbourne's band in late 1981 due to his displeasure with the firing of Kerslake and Daisley. "He didn't want to go [on tour with Osbourne]. We told him we were thrown out. He said he was going to leave the band as he did not want to leave us behind. I told him not to be stupid but thanks for the sentiment", the drummer later recalled.

I was already sitting at the bar when Bob Daisley came into the bar. I turned and looked at Bob and said, 'Fuck, you have gone all white. What is wrong?' Bob said, 'Lee, there was a plane crash this morning and Randy was in it ... and he is dead.' That was it. Oh God, to hear that – I just turned and cried my eyes out. Bob and me were crying our eyes out over him, cause we loved him. He was such a lovely guy.

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, which includes unreleased Rhoads video footage.

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. 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.

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.

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. It was at this time that Rhoads was beginning to receive recognition for his playing. Just before his death Jackson Guitars created a signature model, the Jackson Randy Rhoads (though Rhoads had originally called his white pinstriped V "the Concorde"). Rhoads received one prototype – a black offset V hardtail that is the basis of today's RR line of Jackson guitars – but died before the guitar went into production. Rhoads also received the Best New Talent award from Guitar Player magazine. 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 quite strained. Already drinking heavily, Osbourne's drinking increased 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 unstable and confrontational 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.

Rhoads played his last show on Thursday, March 18, 1982, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. The next day, the band was heading to a festival in Orlando, Florida. Osbourne recalls his final conversation with Rhoads that night on the bus involved the guitarist admonishing him over his heavy drinking. The last thing Rhoads said to him that night was, "You'll kill yourself, you know? One of these days."

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on Friday, March 19, 1982, I was awoken from my sleep by a loud explosion. I immediately thought that we'd hit a vehicle on the road. I got out of the bed, screaming to my fiancée, Sharon, 'Get off the bus.' Meanwhile, she was screaming to everyone else to get off the bus. After getting out of the bus, I saw that a plane had crashed. I didn't know who was on the plane at the time. When we realized that our people were on the plane, I found it very difficult to get assistance from anyone to help. In fact, it took almost a half-hour before anyone arrived. One small fire engine arrived, which appeared to squirt three gallons of water over the inferno. We asked for further assistance, such as telephones, and didn't receive any further help. In the end, we finally found a telephone and Sharon phoned her father.

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 tour bus and then hit the house. (The pilot) was jerking off. That's just plain stupidity. I feel so sorry for (Rhoads)."

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 Magazine 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.

Though their relationship was largely a professional one, Rhoads had a brief sexual relationship with manager Sharon Arden in 1981. Rhoads told bandmate and close friend Rudy Sarzo that he and Arden were having a few celebratory drinks together in a hotel one night and ended up sleeping together. At the time, Ozzy Osbourne was trying to save his marriage to first wife Thelma, and Sharon was just his manager.

Rhoads was an avid collector of toy trains, and traveled around England in search of them when he first arrived from the United States to record Blizzard of Ozz in 1980.

In 1979, ex-Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was in Los Angeles, attempting to form a new band. An acquaintance of Rhoads' from the LA club circuit, future Slaughter bassist Dana Strum, phoned Rhoads relentlessly to coax him into auditioning. Rhoads initially told Quiet Riot bandmate Rudy Sarzo that he was not really interested in auditioning, but finally agreed to go simply to get Strum off his back. Rhoads got the call for the audition just before his final show with Quiet Riot in September 1979. The day before Osbourne was scheduled to return to England, Rhoads agreed to audition for Osbourne at a Los Angeles studio with his Gibson Les Paul guitar and a practice amp and started warming up. 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 has maintained that he 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' ". After the audition, Rhoads returned to Musonia and told Sarzo that he had never actually met Osbourne, who was drunk and remained in the studio's control room the entire time. According to Rhoads' own account, it was Strum who emerged from the control room to inform him that he had the job. Rhoads was, however, scheduled to meet Osbourne the following night in his hotel room. In the years following, Osbourne has maintained that his first encounter with Rhoads and the subsequent audition took place the following day at the hotel, and it seems that, in his inebriated state, he combined the two events in his mind. The fact that Osbourne immediately began rehearsals with another guitarist upon returning to England, and did not mention Rhoads until after that guitarist had been fired, seems to confirm that his account of events is inaccurate.

Upon returning to England, Osbourne was introduced to ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley by a Jet Records employee named Arthur Sharpe in a pub, 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, Bulrush Cottage, 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.

Shortly before leaving Quiet Riot in 1979, Rhoads presented hand-drawn pictures of a polka-dot Flying V-style guitar to Karl Sandoval, a California luthier. The guitar Sandoval built for Rhoads became one of the guitarist's trademark instruments.

Quiet Riot quickly became one of the most popular acts on the Los Angeles club circuit, and by late 1976 were signed to CBS/Sony Records. Rhoads' "polka-dot theme" became the visual focal point of the band, as many fans began showing up at Quiet Riot shows wearing polka-dot bow-ties and vests, emulating what the guitarist wore on stage.

According to Garni, he and Rhoads frequently listened to Long Beach 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 neighbourhood friend with a high quality stereo and large record collection became a regular hangout for the pair, and there they smoked pot and listened to more obscure (at that time) 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 later when he returned home. 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 Kelle said "Randy was mesmerized. He was catatonic just staring at the stage. Later that night Randy said "I can do this. I can look like this. I can be this. Something clicked that night and I think that kind of showed him what he could do with his talent." Garni concurs, calling Rhoads' discovery of Alice Cooper "a game changer". Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper and Mick Ronson were two early rock influences on his playing.

Rhoads met future bandmate Kelly Garni while attending John Muir Middle School 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 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. With this band, Rhoads spent several months playing at backyard parties around the Los Angeles area in the mid-1970s. The pair formed a cover band called Violet Fox (after his mother's middle name, Violet), with his older brother Kelle on drums. Violet Fox, who were 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 featured a male lead vocalist who wore dresses on stage, a situation that typically did not go over well and at times led to violent reactions from the audience.

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."

As a tribute to Rhoads, Marshall Amplification released the 1959RR at NAMM 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.

Rhoads was born in Santa Monica, California. The youngest of three children, he had a brother named Doug and a sister named Kathy. Doug, who performed under the name "Kelle", is also a musician. Their parents, Delores and William, were both music teachers. In 1958, father William left the family when Randy was 1 year and 5 months old and remarried, and all three children were subsequently raised by Delores, who also opened a music school in North Hollywood called Musonia to support the family. Delores had received a bachelor's degree in music from UCLA and had played piano professionally.

Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. He died in a plane accident while on tour with Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career, Rhoads, who was a major influence on neoclassical metal, is cited as an influence by many guitarists. Rhoads is included in several "Greatest Guitarist" lists.