I can't seem to upload any more pictures - I reached a limit of sorts. Some interesting tidbits.. Kevin DuBrow claims they, "Blew Van Halen Away."
QUIET RIOT SPEAKS
Describe Quiet Riot's relationship with Van Halen, since you were both coming up at the same time. (Kelly Garni)
KG: We first heard about Van Halen when they were still known as Mammoth. They were playing parties down in Pasadena, which is like another world from Burbank - it's about 20 miles away. We'd hear rumors of how there was this great, loud band down there and Randy eventually got his girlfriend to drive him down to one of the parties to hear them. I asked him how they were when he came back but all he would say was they were "pretty good." Later, we played a gig with them at the Glendale College Auditorium after they had become Van Halen.
And even though they became the house band playing at Gazzarri's, which admittedly was a nicer place than the Starwood and got a better class of people, they were still playing mostly cover tunes while we did mostly originals. And despite the rumors, Randy didn't mind it when his students would come in and ask to learn Van Halen licks. In fact, he always thought that he learned more from giving lessons than the students [did]. Of course, Randy was a very popular teacher and had about 60 students at one point.
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(Kevin DuBrow)
E.C.: I was also surprised when I read that in the ‘70s Quiet Riot had such great attendance records compared to some other bands at the time like Van Halen…
Kevin: Yeah, we blew them away…
E.C.: But YOU didn’t get signed first, Van Halen did…
Kevin: Van Halen had better songs that we did…but we were a prettier band in the ‘70s. You know who the biggest band was? There were three bands in that time…there was us, Van Halen and a band called “Wolfgang”. Wolfgang later turned into “Autograph”. They were the biggest draw of all of them. They blew all of us out of the water in terms of local draw.
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5/18/77 – VAN HALEN PLAYS GLENDALE COLLEGE WITH QUIET RIOT
“The very first time Randy Rhoads saw Van Halen, he took his girlfriend Jan with him. Jan told us that Randy was ‘devastated’ after the show. Here he was, the king of Burbank. Everyone was always telling him how great he was. Then he saw Eddie and it opened his eyes and he got a major reality check. It was healthy for him. He was inspired. He thought Eddie was great. He wanted to be great also. I know they met at least four times.
Quiet Riot and Van Halen played on the same bill at Glendale College in April 1977. Quiet Riot opened, Van Halen was the headliner. Randy once approached Eddie and asked him how he was able to keep his guitar in tune without a locking nut for his tremolo. Eddie refused to tell him and said it was his own secret. Randy couldn’t comprehend because he was a teacher at his core. He loved to help others and he was always willing to share anything he knew. He would teach anyone anything they wanted to learn. So, he was quite disappointed in Eddie’s treatment of him.”
(Andrew Klein – Randy Rhoads Biographer)
“Randy and his good friend Lori Hollen were in the parking lot behind the Whisky loading his gear into this car. Eddie and Dave (DLR) pulled up alongside of them in a white Mercedes diesel and began harassing him. Lori quickly put a stop to it and actually slapped Dave across his face. Quiet Riot’s drummer, Drew Forsyth, has said that the Eddie/Randy rivalry has been made up to be so much more than it was. He also said that Eddie used to come watch Randy play way more than Randy used to go see Eddie play. They were both great, and I’m sure there was an immense amount of mutual respect. Randy told journalist John Stix that he does a lot of Eddie’s licks live, and it kills him that he does that. But he added that it’s just flash, and that’s what the kids want to see. That’s what impresses them. He also said that it kills him because he believes in the importance of finding your own voice and style. He thought the worst thing a guitar player could do was copy someone else.
Finally, when Randy was home on break from the Ozzy tour, he decided to drive to his local music store to buy some classical albums. Randy said that when he walked into the record store, Eddie Van Halen was standing on line at the register purchasing the Diary of a Madman album. Imagine that scene. Can you imagine walking into a record store on any given day and seeing both Eddie and Randy in there at the same time?”
6: Can you tell me about Randy’s famous polka dot guitar and how it came to be?
Every guitar player in LA started to build or design their own custom guitar. There were guys all over town building these guitars for them. George Lynch and Eddie Van Halen had guitars made by Karl Sandoval who was working for Charvel at the time, which was owned by Grover Jackson. Randy was hanging out backstage with George Lynch. Randy picked up George's custom guitar, which was a white star, and asked him who made it. George proceeded to give Randy Karl's phone number, and Randy called him. Kevin DuBrow drove to Karl's shop with Randy on July 3rd 1979.
Randy had sketched out the main ideas, which consisted of the flying V shape, the polka dots and the arrow head / harpoon, head stock. The rest of the details were left to Karl to sort out. Randy was not too particular other than the fact that he wanted small fret wire, and a wide, flat neck, much like a classical neck shape. He also wanted a tremelo unit, which was a stock Fender. Randy had all kinds of tuning problems with that guitar. One of the 3 Jacksons that were being made for Randy in 1982 was equipped with a Floyd Rose. Randy would have loved it. That guitar ultimately was given to Vinnie Vincent. When Randy took possession of the polka dotted V in October of 1979, he only had it for a day before it had to go back to Karl. On the first night of rehearsal with the V, Randy took his hands off the guitar and the strap came loose. The guitar fell to the ground and the neck cracked in half. From that day forward, Randy learned the value of installing strap locks on his guitars (laughs).
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Originally Posted by Jetstream
