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The Randy Rhoads Legacy
According to his siblings, Kathy and Kelly
It's too long to repost the whole thing here, but there's a two-part article that popped up on Gibson.com, Pt II that's pretty cool, and has some (new-ish) VH content. Of particular interest is Kelly's assertion as to the rumored EVH/Rhoads "competition" - there was none. There was only mutual respect. Also confirmed is something I've always heard from those in the know, they both looked up to George Lynch.
The Gibson Interview: The Randy Rhoads Family
by Michael Wright
On March 19, 1982, a horrible tragedy struck the rock world. Randy Rhoads, the trail- (and fret!) blazing guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, died in an airplane crash in Leesburg, Florida. For the music world, it was the loss of a unique and virtuosic talent. For the Rhoads family in North Hollywood, California, the loss was much more personal. Randy was the baby of the family: beloved son to his mother Delores (serenaded as “Dee” on the Blizzard of Ozz album) and kid brother to elder brother Kelly and sister Kathy.
The Rhoads family were — and are — a tight-knit bunch. For the past 28 years, even as they have thrived with the family music school, Kelly’s own musical pursuits and Kathy’s successful vineyard, they have always dedicated time, attention and love to Randy’s legacy. With Gibson paying tribute to Randy Rhoads this week with the release of the Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom, Gibson.com sat down with Kelly and Kathy to talk about Randy’s life and that ever-growing legacy.
What was the age separation between the three of you?
Kelly: I am the eldest and Kathy is the middle child and Randy was the baby.
What was your household like growing up? I presume it was very musical.
Both: Yes, it was.
Kathy: We had no stereo, believe it or not.
Kelly: We didn’t have a record player because my mom wouldn’t buy us one.
Kathy: Everybody played their own music around our house.
Kelly: We had to do our own; we were our own record player.
You can read the rest of the background stuff there, but here's one cool VH (and Lynch)-relevant bit, picked up right around the VH/Quiet Riot pre-signing mid-70s club era:
Were they a pretty good band right from the start, or did it take a little bit of work to sort of move it into place? Or was it like lightning in a bottle right away?
Kelly: Certainly not that. They got better. It’s just that that was a power pop band. Even when they got management, they got molded into form. What the management wanted was to create another Sweet. They wanted another band like The Sweet, and Randy and Kelly, especially when Randy and I played together, we were into hard, heavy rock like Sabbath type of stuff. Ironically, Randy didn’t like Black Sabbath at all. I was the Sabbath fan. In fact, that was the first question I asked him after his first audition. "Did you see those letters on his hand that say ‘OZZY’?" And Randy goes, "Yeah!" I said, "Did you crack up?" And Randy goes, "Yeah!" He didn’t like Sabbath, but I did.
Was he doing stuff – like with finger-tapping – before Van Halen came out?
Kelly: Yeah.
Was it a little disappointing for him to have someone else kind of...
Kelly: No. And that’s something I’m glad you brought up. A lot of people try to invent this competition. Randy thought Eddie was a good player. He thought he was really good, and he liked him. He wasn’t like in any kind of competition or contest with him at all.
Kathy: He always thought Eddie had his own style, and Randy thought he had his own style, and he didn’t think it was fair to compare them because he thought they were different and unique within themselves.
Kelly: If you asked Randy back then who the hot guitar player in L.A. was, he wouldn’t have said himself or Eddie. He would have said George Lynch. Randy really looked up to him. He thought he had a tremendous amount of talent.
George Lynch is a heck of a player. Yeah, that’s true – I had forgotten he was part of that scene as well.
Kelly: Randy really liked him, and if you asked Randy what guitar player in this town is really hot, the first thing he would say was George Lynch. When he left to go play with Ozzy, George Lynch took over his students at Musonia.
If anything can be said of Rhoads' legacy, it is that even today he is held in nearly if-not equal reverence as Edward Van Halen among guitarists despite a fraction of the recorded output, and that ain't a bad thing.
It's too long to repost the whole thing here, but there's a two-part article that popped up on Gibson.com, Pt II that's pretty cool, and has some (new-ish) VH content. Of particular interest is Kelly's assertion as to the rumored EVH/Rhoads "competition" - there was none. There was only mutual respect. Also confirmed is something I've always heard from those in the know, they both looked up to George Lynch.
The Gibson Interview: The Randy Rhoads Family
by Michael Wright
On March 19, 1982, a horrible tragedy struck the rock world. Randy Rhoads, the trail- (and fret!) blazing guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, died in an airplane crash in Leesburg, Florida. For the music world, it was the loss of a unique and virtuosic talent. For the Rhoads family in North Hollywood, California, the loss was much more personal. Randy was the baby of the family: beloved son to his mother Delores (serenaded as “Dee” on the Blizzard of Ozz album) and kid brother to elder brother Kelly and sister Kathy.
The Rhoads family were — and are — a tight-knit bunch. For the past 28 years, even as they have thrived with the family music school, Kelly’s own musical pursuits and Kathy’s successful vineyard, they have always dedicated time, attention and love to Randy’s legacy. With Gibson paying tribute to Randy Rhoads this week with the release of the Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom, Gibson.com sat down with Kelly and Kathy to talk about Randy’s life and that ever-growing legacy.
What was the age separation between the three of you?
Kelly: I am the eldest and Kathy is the middle child and Randy was the baby.
What was your household like growing up? I presume it was very musical.
Both: Yes, it was.
Kathy: We had no stereo, believe it or not.
Kelly: We didn’t have a record player because my mom wouldn’t buy us one.
Kathy: Everybody played their own music around our house.
Kelly: We had to do our own; we were our own record player.
You can read the rest of the background stuff there, but here's one cool VH (and Lynch)-relevant bit, picked up right around the VH/Quiet Riot pre-signing mid-70s club era:
Were they a pretty good band right from the start, or did it take a little bit of work to sort of move it into place? Or was it like lightning in a bottle right away?
Kelly: Certainly not that. They got better. It’s just that that was a power pop band. Even when they got management, they got molded into form. What the management wanted was to create another Sweet. They wanted another band like The Sweet, and Randy and Kelly, especially when Randy and I played together, we were into hard, heavy rock like Sabbath type of stuff. Ironically, Randy didn’t like Black Sabbath at all. I was the Sabbath fan. In fact, that was the first question I asked him after his first audition. "Did you see those letters on his hand that say ‘OZZY’?" And Randy goes, "Yeah!" I said, "Did you crack up?" And Randy goes, "Yeah!" He didn’t like Sabbath, but I did.
Was he doing stuff – like with finger-tapping – before Van Halen came out?
Kelly: Yeah.
Was it a little disappointing for him to have someone else kind of...
Kelly: No. And that’s something I’m glad you brought up. A lot of people try to invent this competition. Randy thought Eddie was a good player. He thought he was really good, and he liked him. He wasn’t like in any kind of competition or contest with him at all.
Kathy: He always thought Eddie had his own style, and Randy thought he had his own style, and he didn’t think it was fair to compare them because he thought they were different and unique within themselves.
Kelly: If you asked Randy back then who the hot guitar player in L.A. was, he wouldn’t have said himself or Eddie. He would have said George Lynch. Randy really looked up to him. He thought he had a tremendous amount of talent.
George Lynch is a heck of a player. Yeah, that’s true – I had forgotten he was part of that scene as well.
Kelly: Randy really liked him, and if you asked Randy what guitar player in this town is really hot, the first thing he would say was George Lynch. When he left to go play with Ozzy, George Lynch took over his students at Musonia.
If anything can be said of Rhoads' legacy, it is that even today he is held in nearly if-not equal reverence as Edward Van Halen among guitarists despite a fraction of the recorded output, and that ain't a bad thing.
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