Randy Rhoads

Rhoads (1980)

Randall William "Randy" Rhoads (* 6. December 1956 in Santa Monica , California ; † 19th March 1982 in Leesburg , Florida ) was an American rock - and heavy metal - guitarist and played for Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne . Working with Ozzy Osbourne he gained international fame and has since been considered one of the most influential heavy and neo-classical metal guitarists who had a lasting impact on rock music. His playing style influenced many guitarists who are now among the best in their genre. These include Alexi Laiho , Nuno Bettencourt , Buckethead , Dimebag Darrell , Paul Gilbert , Yngwie Malmsteen and Zakk Wylde .

In 1981 Randy Rhoads received the "Best New Talent" award from Guitar Player magazine .

In 2004, Guitar World magazine voted him number 4 of the 100 greatest heavy metal guitarists of all time . In 2011, Rolling Stone listed him as 36th of the 100 best guitarists of all time .

In 2010, the Randy Rhoads Museum in Corona, California opened near his grave.

Life

The first years

Randall William Rhoads was born on December 6, 1956 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His parents separated very early. When Rhoads was 17 months old, his father, who was a clarinet teacher, left the family. Randy Rhoads attended First Lutheran Day School through sixth grade. Eventually he went to Burbank High School, but where he devoted his time more to music than schooling. With the help and consent of his mother, Dolores Rhoads, he switched to night school. This allowed him to study music during the day and graduate from school in the evening.

The enthusiasm for music was awakened by his mother. She founded the Musonia School of Music , a music school with a small music shop, in Burbank in 1949 . After graduating from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in music , Dolores Rhoads taught trumpet in Los Angeles before working as a professional musician for a while and eventually opening music school. When Randy Rhoads was older, he also taught himself at his mother's music school.

Randy Rhoads received a solid basic musical education from childhood. When he was six and a half, he got a used Gibson "Army-Navy" acoustic guitar that belonged to his grandfather. He also received piano and music theory lessons from his mother and guitar lessons from a local guitar teacher who has also taught in Musonia. When he was young, Randy Rhoads played in a small band at the music school, which was organized like a small school orchestra and led by his mother. At the age of 14 he founded the band Violet Fox with his brother Kelle Rhoads . The name was derived from his mother's middle name, Violet .

When he attended an Alice Cooper concert in 1971 , it was clear to him that he wanted to be a rock musician. Before that, Randy Rhoads had mainly played folk , classical and little pop .

Quiet riot

In 1975 Randy Rhoads and Kevin DuBrow founded the band Quiet Riot , which developed into a locally successful band in the Los Angeles area with regular appearances, its own manager and recordings. In 1979 Rhoads left the band, which was to celebrate great success in the USA in the 1980s.

Ozzy Osbourne

In 1979 Ozzy Osbourne was looking for a lead guitarist for his new solo project. After being unsuccessful in New York, he came to Los Angeles. A local bass player drew his attention to Randy Rhoads. Ozzy called Randy, who was teaching at his mother's school until 10:30 PM that day. Despite initial uncertainty and the opinion that audition would not work out anyway, his mother was able to convince him to give it a try at least once. He took his guitar and his little practice amplifier and set off after his last lesson around 10:45 p.m.

When he got to audition, it took less than two minutes to warm up on the guitar to convince Ozzy Osbourne of his potential. A "You've got the job!" von Ozzy secured him a record and tour deal. For the next (and last) three years of his life, Randy Rhoads spent most of his time recording and touring concerts. During the tours, Randy would often search the Yellow Pages for local classical guitar instructors to take lessons from them. Among them was a professor from the University of London. At that point it was no longer a secret that he was aiming for a master's degree in classical guitar in Europe.

He also tutored the guitarists in the support bands and taught them better, faster technique. In an interview shortly after Rhoads' death, Osbourne said that he was "perhaps the best guitarist among many great string wizards I have dealt with so far, and a huge source of inspiration that has pulled me out of my depression!"

Accidental death

Beechcraft Bonanza, a similar model to the one in which Rhoads died

On a bus ride to the next Ozzy Band concert ("Saturday's Rock Superbowl XIV" opening show in Orlando , Florida ), the tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, took a break on March 19, 1982 at around 8 a.m. in his home town of Leesburg , Florida. to repair the air conditioning of the tour bus and to drop his ex-wife Wanda there. Aycock lived in the Flying Baron Estates, which consist of a building complex, an aircraft hangar and a runway.

While some of the band members slept on the bus and others stretched their feet, Aycock illegally took a 1955 Beechcraft Bonanza F35 propeller machine (license number: N567LT; the machine belonged to Mike Partin, a friend of his) from the hall and invited some bus passengers to a sightseeing flight a. Aycock had a pilot's license, but it was invalid because a medical certificate had expired at that time, which he kept silent. He had also been involved in a fatal helicopter crash six years earlier.

First, tour keyboardist Don Airey and the tour manager flew a few laps, then Randy Rhoads (despite his fear of flying) and the band's stylist, Rachel Youngblood, went on board. Aycock flew low over the tour bus several times until he finally got too low on the last overflight and his wing grazed the roof of the bus in which Ozzy and his future wife Sharon Arden, drummer Tommy Aldridge and bassist Rudy Sarzo were still sleeping. The wing tore off - the plane brushed a few trees and crashed into a garage behind, where it exploded. All three inmates were killed. Meanwhile, Don Airey stood in front of the bus and could watch the action. The passengers on the bus were woken up by the impact and initially thought they had been involved in a traffic accident. The forensic report later stated that Aycock was under the influence of cocaine at the time of the accident .

Further concerts of the band were canceled and Rhoads replaced a few months later (although Ozzy Osbourne initially wanted to break up the band) by the Irish guitarist Bernie Tormé . Rhoads was buried in San Bernardino , California .

His former band Quiet Riot dedicated the song Thunderbird to Randy Rhoads on the 1983 album Metal Health ; the Belgian band Black Widow the song Crazy Train Blues on the 1984 album Streetfighter . Gary Moore dedicated the title Sunset to it , released in 1983 on the album Rockin 'Every Night - Live in Japan .

Influences

Great musical influences for Randy Rhoads were Mick Ronson , the guitarist of David Bowie , and Glen Buxton , the guitarist of Alice Cooper .

The role played by his final solo of the Osbourne-piece Suicide Solution according resembles Robert Walser the basic gesture of the long harpsichord solos in the fifth Brandenburg Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Jackson Guitars

Jackson Randy Rhoads

In 1980, Grover Jackson, owner of Charvel Guitars, was asked by Randy Rhoads to jointly design a new electric guitar model. Before Christmas 1980 the two designed an asymmetrical Flying V with a continuous, glued-in neck. Rhoads named the guitar Concorde . Jackson wanted to minimize the negative effects of a possible failure for Charvel and as a precaution put the name Jackson on the headstock instead of Charvel .

After the accidental death of Randy Rhoads fifteen months later, the model became a success and has since been known under the name Jackson Randy Rhoads or Rhoads . It was the first guitar to be sold under the brand name Jackson Guitars .

equipment

Guitars

Randy Rhoads had four guitars that he used frequently during his time with Ozzy Osbourne. These included a white 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom (which he had received from the owner of the rehearsal rooms during the Quiet Riot times), a black Flying V with white dots (by Karl Sandoval) and two own model prototypes from Jackson Guitars.

amplifier

Randy Rhoads used Marshall Amplification amplifiers and cabinets on stage . In 1980 Randy Rhoads visited Jim Marshall's factory in Bletchley , Milton Keynes .

Effects devices

His pedalboard mainly consisted of an MXR 10-Band Graphic EQ, an MXR Distortion +, an MXR Flanger, an MXR Stereo Chorus and a VOX V847A Wah. Randy Rhoads used various delay pedals. These included a Korg Echo Unit, a Roland Tape Echo and a Yamaha Analog Delay.

For the recording of Blizzard Of Ozz and some gigs, Randy used a pedalboard made by Pete Holmes.

Discography

With Quiet Riot

• Quiet Riot (1977)
• Quiet Riot II (1978)
• The Randy Rhoads Years (1993)

With Ozzy Osbourne

• Blizzard Of Ozz (1980)
• Diary Of A Madman (1981)
• Tribute (1987)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ blabbermouth.net: GUITAR WORLD's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists Of All Time
2. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
3. ↑ songfacts.com:
4. ^ Robert Walser: Running with the Devil. Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown (Conn.) 1993.
5. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , p. 100.
6. ↑ guitarworld.com: Randy Rhoads: Flight of the Concordes ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

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