Showing posts with label Kevin DuBrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin DuBrow. Show all posts

Randy Rhoads, Quiet Riot come into focus


Photographer releases new book, DVD on the original Quiet Riot

By Peter Lindblad


Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years
Red Match Productions
Kevin DuBrow took a liking to Ron Sobol right from the start. The Quiet Riot front man, now deceased, was a Humble Pie fan, and so was Sobol.

They were both budding photographers, although DuBrow would give up the camera for a chance at rock ‘n’ roll glory. Sobol, on the other hand, stuck with it, even going so far as to study film at the University of Southern California.

Before going to USC, though, Sobol was having the time of his life hanging out with Quiet Riot in the 1970s, taking behind-the-scenes photos and live video of the band whenever he had the chance. Randy Rhoads was in the band then, and he was already developing a reputation around Hollywood and Southern California as an unparalleled guitar slinger, an axe man of incredible dexterity, expression and imagination. His only competition: Eddie Van Halen. Yes, that Eddie Van Halen.

Unfortunately for Quiet Riot, it was Van Halen that scored the American record deal they coveted – though they did sign a Japanese deal for CBS/Sony. It wasn’t for lack of trying that Quiet Riot – at least the version featuring Rhoads, DuBrow, Kelly Garni and Drew Forsyth – failed to get that contract. Everyone around Quiet Riot tried to get the labels to notice them. Their management company, the Toby Organization, had connections. Warren Entner, one of the partners, had been in the Grass Roots, who had a number of hits in the 1960s. And the Toby Organization already had Angel, a band on the Casablanca label.

Despite their frustrations, that edition of Quiet Riot had a good time. And Sobol was part of it, serving as the band’s photographer, its lighting director and their friend. Now, Sobol has released a coffee table book that is packed to the rafters with tons of amazing images of the group and its wunderkind guitarist, who resembled Snoopy from the “Peanuts” cartoon. Titled “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” it takes readers on an incredible journey back in time, providing a colorful pictorial history of that era of Quiet Riot’s existence.

From the early rehearsals to the backstage parties, the electrifying concert performances at clubs like The Starwood, the Troubadour and other Sunset Strips institutions and the photo shoot for Quiet Riot II, Sobol captured it all. The boys liked to have fun. Mischievous and delightfully devious, they enjoyed playing pranks on each other. They were young and energetic, having the time of their lives in Southern California, and they had no idea what life had in store for them. Sobol reveals that side of the band, as well as their more serious issues – such as recollections from those closest to Rhoads and DuBrow, talking about how they felt about those two shooting stars and what it was like when they found out both had die – in this extravagant biography.

Relying less on words than he does on pictures, Sobol presents a fully realized portrait of four ambitious young men who wanted to make it all the way to the top. Real life would get in the way, however, as Rhoads left to join forces with Ozzy Osbourne in one of heavy metal’s most incredible reclamation projects. Hurt by Rhoads’s decision, DuBrow nevertheless carried on, and eventually, he experienced success beyond his wildest dreams when Quiet Riot’s Metal Health hit No. 1. Sobol stuck around for that, too.

In addition to the book – which also includes sketches for the band’s flamboyant stage clothing, various business documents, concert ephemera and newspaper articles – Sobol has also crafted an insightful and revealing documentary film that features more still images as well as his super 8mm films of Quiet Riot tearing it up in concert. Interviews with the likes of Forsyth, fan club president Lori Hollen, Rhoads’s guitar tech Brian Reason, Rhoads’s guitar tech, and the one-time Jodi Raskin, the girlfriend of both Rhoads and DuBrow who also functioned as their stylist, along with clothing designer/artist Laurie MacAdam.

Together, the two releases offer the most exhaustive and lively history of the original Quiet Riot that’s ever been packaged. Sobol talked about the book and the DVD, as well as his experiences with Quiet Riot, in a recent interview.

The amount of photos in the book is unbelievable. Do you have anything left?
Ron Sobol: I’ve probably got a few left, but not much.

Maybe you’ve got another book in mind?
RS: Well, originally, it was going to be a book with all of my rock pictures, and just a little bit of Quiet Riot. But then there was so much Quiet Riot it looked like it would be more interesting as a book about Randy Rhoads, the Quiet Riot years, and so it became that. I used to shoot for Japanese magazines, so I shot Led Zeppelin, I shot Queen, I shot Journey, Aerosmith … a lot of bands. And they ended up in magazines in Japan. So we were going to use a lot of those pictures, but, like I said, we decided to concentrate on Quiet Riot, or Randy with Quiet Riot.

It seems like that’s the story that’s closest to your heart, being so involved with Quiet Riot.
RS: Yeah, it is. I did their lights, and I took their photographs. I took their first promo picture … I did everything. I designed the logo that was on the drum set. It was like the most fun … those 10 years from ’75 to 1985 were the most fun years of my life. And I think I said this in the movie, but I’ll say it to you for the interview: After Randy passed away, that’s when Quiet Riot pretty much broke up, because he left, [and then] Kevin resurrected Quiet Riot, and I was still working with him so I got to go on tour, doing lights for the “Metal Health” tour, and the tour after that, “Condition Critical.”  

What struck me about the book and the movie is that it seemed like there was such a family atmosphere around Quiet Riot and how everybody around Quiet Riot was pulling for this version of the band to make it big. Was that the case?
RS: Yeah, it was exactly what you said. It was all for one and one for all. The record deal was always just around the corner and it never quite happened. They did get to put out two records in Japan, but that was all that happened.

What do you recall about meeting Kevin DuBrow for the first time? You had that shared interest in photography. What did you think of him?
RS: (laughs) He was a character. My brother [Stan Lee, guitarist for the punk band The Dickies] introduced us, because of our mutual interest in Humble Pie. So Kevin said, “Why don’t you come over and bring your stuff, and I’ll show you what I’ve got.” And I went over to his house and he was living – he was 17, I think – with his parents. And he’s living in this tiny little bedroom with his brother. I don’t know how many people might be interested in this, but his brother [Terry] became a plastic surgeon and did this TV show called “The Swan.” And his wife is on the “Real Housewives of Orange County” – sometimes he’s on the show. So anyway, he’s living in this little room with his brother, but basically, it was Kevin’s room, because Kevin’s drum set was in there, the wall was plastered with rock pictures – clippings from magazines. Kevin was really tall. He was 6-foot-4, and so he could be a little intimidating to little ol’ me at 5-foot-7. But he was just a great guy. And actually, after I left his house that day, I never thought I’d necessarily see him again, but he'd called me up and said, “Hey, what are you doing? Let’s hang out.” And we became best friends.

And he was a really good photographer, too. Did he carry on with that at all, or was it something he abandoned when the rock thing took off?
RS: Yeah, once he started with Quiet Riot, he was done taking pictures. He was my biggest critic (laughs). If there was anything slightly out of focus, he’d say, “What’s wrong with you?”

He was like that, too, with Randy I suppose. He really pushed and prodded him to greatness.
RS: He wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way … not that Randy stood in his way. You know, if it wasn’t for Kevin, Randy might still be playing in a garage. Randy needed somebody to push him along. It was his mother that pushed him to go to the Ozzy interview.

You have a favorite picture of Randy in the book that’s kind of a portrait of him. How did that shot come about and why do you like it so much?
RS: Well, there’s a couple … I’m not sure if you’re talking about the one on the inside where I think he’s got a white jacket, and then there’s one on the back of the book. Okay, the one with the white jacket was taken in my parents’ backyard, and if you look closely behind it, there’s the swimming pool.

I think that’s the one …
RS: Okay. And why do I like it? It’s just Randy … here’s the thing about when I took pictures of these guys. Since I’d been taking photos of these guys, just about from the very first rehearsal, they were used to me being around, so their guard was always down and you’d see the real them in the pictures. They weren’t posing for me.

That’s what definitely comes across. They’re all very natural, as if they’re not aware of you at all.
RS: Right, because they were so used to me being there.

Along those lines, behind the scenes, it seemed that Quiet Riot was always cutting up and having a good time. Was that really the way it was?
RS: They were complete practical jokers always looking to get a rise out of someone. I was frequently the butt of their jokes.

Oh, is that right?
RS: However, one time, I was living with Kevin … he actually got me to move out of my parents’ house. He was roommates with – if you remember in the movie – Kim McNair, Randy’s friend. Kim was living with Kevin, and then Kim moved out, and Kevin said, “Why don’t you move in with me?” And I go, “Oh, I’m going to school. Living with my parents is a lot easier when you’re in school. I don’t have to think about paying rent and stuff.” He was relentless in saying, “You’ve got to move out. We’re going to have fun. There’ll be girls,” and as soon as he said that, I go, “All right. Okay.” So Quiet Riot was trying to get signed, and Van Halen was on the scene and they got signed first. And their record came out, and then their second record came out, and Quiet Riot still didn’t have an American record deal. Well, you’ve heard of Tower Records?

Sure.
RS: Tower Records would have all this promo stuff they’d always be giving away. And there was a postcard they were giving away, like the little pictures on the back of the second Van Halen album. You can actually see in the book this picture of David Lee Roth jumping with his legs spread, and I cut it out and stuck it on the head of Kevin’s … well, it was our cat, Larry the Cat. And I stuck it on the cat’s head and took a picture. And so then, I forget who actually started this running little practical joke, but one of us took the David Lee Roth thing and stuck it in the butter tub, underneath the lid so when the person opened the tub of butter, there it was. And it just kept escalating, where if it was my turn, ‘cause I found it, I would take it and … for instance, like I took the toilet paper roll and unrolled it part way, and then stuck it on the toilet paper roll so that when he was going to the bathroom, he’d see it while he was going to the bathroom … stuff like that. But that actually escalated to the shows at the Starwood, and I would tape the picture of Roth to the microphone, and Randy’s roadie, Brian [Reason], would do the same thing with pictures of Eddie Van Halen. Finally, they had enough and they just screamed at us, bloody murder, that “if you ever do that again, you’re fired.” And we stopped (laughed).

What were those early days like as they were gearing up to play clubs? Did they rehearse all the time? I know Randy was so dedicated to his craft, but were they really intent on honing their sound before getting out there?
RS: Well, Randy would teach guitar lessons in the daytime, and then at night, they’d rehearse. And they rehearsed probably four nights a week. They had a place where they could keep their equipment. First, they were rehearsing in the garage of their first manager, Dennis [Wageman], and he actually turned the garage into a rehearsal/recording studio. And after they left him, they got a place in Hollywood, and that was like, you know … that was the place to go. When they played, there were always people watching them rehearse – almost like a total party atmosphere. They could get a lot of work done because people were respectful that they had to rehearse, but afterwards, there would be this big row where people would be drinking and smoking and doing whatever. I think there are actually some pictures in the book of Kevin and some girls, where they’d take their tops off and … you know, more than that went on, but that’s the only documentation you could really put in the book without getting in trouble. And you know, it was total fun, camaraderie. You could just see how Randy was at rehearsal. The producers of [Quiet Riot's first two] records really didn’t capture him, because the difference between what we saw live and in rehearsal was incredible.

And Drew [Forsyth, Quiet Riot’s first drummer] talks about that in the movie, too. He was really disappointed that the producers couldn’t capture their live sound.
RS: I guess they probably needed more money behind the band to hire a producer that could really do the trick, but it just never happened.

Take me back to those days at the Starwood and set the scene for me. What were those shows like? I know [Quiet Riot fan club president] Lori Hollen would bus in fans she knew. The shows must have been electric.
RS: They were pretty much selling the Starwood out, or the Whisky or wherever they were playing. They would get great crowds. One thing we were trying to do was they were trying to bring an arena atmosphere into a club, where we brought our own lights in and our own fog. We brought in strobe lights. There was an intro tape, which in the movie you can hear a little of the intro tape, and I believe there’s a special feature where you hear the whole thing – I haven’t really played the [DVD]. I worked on the thing for two years, so it’s not like I can keep watching it (laughs). But there’s an intro tape with a lot of police lights and then we had police lights, strobe lights, fog … it was a whole big deal to make it a special experience, not just jumping on a stage and start playing. We wanted to create an atmosphere of fun.

It sounds like the crowds really took to the band, too. What was the band like onstage? I know from watching some of the live footage in the movie you get a sense of it, but they just had great charisma and personality.
RS: Yeah, they were all class clowns, and they knew how to put on a good show. If you watch the movie, like during Randy’s solo, you can see on his face how much fun he’s having. And I haven’t seen too many people who could play as well as he did while moving around like he did at the same time.

Going back to how good a time Quiet Riot liked to have, some of the funniest shots in the book – I think it’s in the movie, too – had to do with one particular show when they went backstage after they were done and put on all those dresses.
RS: That was at a show they did … actually, they opened for Van Halen. I believe it was Glendale College … yeah it was the college, because I remember it was backstage of the auditorium, where they store all the clothes for school plays. There were a bunch of dresses. They decided to put them on, and I took pictures of it, and it was one of those fun things they did, and I had great pictures. I took movies of them wearing the clothes; that’s in the movie. Anything that was around that they could use as a prop, they would do.

Talk about shooting the cover for Quiet Riot II.
RS: Okay, well, somehow the concept was thought of – I can’t remember it exactly. Kevin wanted to call the record – it was their second record – 2nd and 10 – 10 songs on their second record. It was a football term. And I said, “Can I shoot it?” Here’s what we’ll do: We’ll have you guys in a locker room, with these football players, and the juxtaposition of you skinny guys with these huge football players might make an interesting picture. Kevin said, “Okay, let’s do it, but it’s on spec. You’ve got to pay for it. If we can’t use it, I’m sorry.” To me, it was worth the expense to try to get it done. So I rented all this equipment, and I paid the football players … I went to this school. I was going to Valley College at the time. It’s a junior college in Van Nuys, Calif. And first, I got permission to use the locker room, and then I asked the football coach if I could use the players. And he said, “Yep, that’s fine with me.” So I offered them $50 to be models. Four of them jumped on it right away. They said, “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.” And they were great. They did everything I wanted. And the band was great, too. So, we went to the locker room, and we spent about four hours in there that day shooting pictures. It came out great. And our concept was like the back cover has the baseball cards … football cards or baseball cards. That was our concept, too. Sent a mock-up of the thing to Japan, and it came back where they said, “Yeah, great.” The record comes back, like the finished copy, and it’s called Quiet Riot II. And we were going, “Why did they call it Quiet Riot II?” Well, because they don’t play football in Japan. So, 2nd and 10 meant nothing to them. It’s just one of those things that people don’t think about.

I particularly like the shot of that big lineman carrying Randy around.
RS: Yeah, everybody had a great time that day. It’s just like, hey, I never imagined when I was taking those pictures just for fun that they’d end up in a book. Kevin actually wanted to do a book with me, and he said, “Get your stuff together, we’ll write a book about the Quiet Riot years.” And then he called me back, and he goes, “You know, I found out it’s going to cost X amount of money to make these. I don’t know what we could sell them for. Plus, I have to go out on tour again with Quiet Riot …” You know, they were playing clubs. And so that idea got put by the wayside. And I got all the stuff together, and now it’s almost like Kevin was there with me doing this.

I was going to ask what it was that made you put out the book at this time.
RS: Well, you probably know about that other book [“Randy Rhoads,” by Andrew Klein and Steven Rosen]. I gave those guys pictures, and I called up Andrew Klein one day and asked, “What’s up with that book?” He said, “Oh, it’s done. Do you want to see it?” I said, “Yeah, okay.” So I meet him, and he has it on a computer disc. And I couldn’t believe it. I told him, “This is the best rock book I’ve ever seen.” Have you seen it?

Yeah, yeah. It’s great.
RS: Oh, you have it?

Yep.
RS: Is it one of the best rock books you’ve ever seen?

It was my rock book of 2012.
RS: Okay (laughs). I said, “Can you do that for my stuff? We’ll do ‘Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years.’” Because I still have more pictures. They thought I gave them all my pictures, but I didn’t. And they said, “Let’s do it.” And I think I already said this to you, we were originally going to do all my stuff. I mentioned that, right?

Yes.
RS: We were just going to do this, because there was so much stuff.

One of the really fun parts of the book and the movie has to do with the protests, where Quiet Riot supporters took to streets and picketed various record companies in an attempt to get them to sign the band. Talk about how that came about and what it was like to shoot that.
RS: The band was really frustrated about not getting a record deal, and they were sitting around saying, “What can we do? What can we do?” And Rudy [Sarzo, who had replaced Garni in Quiet Riot after Garni was kicked out for allegedly pulling a gun on Rhoads during an argument] says, “Well, maybe we can go protest at the record companies and picket the record companies. (laughs)” And Kevin goes, “That’s a great idea.” So we got the fan club president to rally the fans and we made t-shirts. Everybody got a t-shirt, so you can see this in the movie, where there are pictures from Kevin’s apartment where we were … well, it was mine and Kevin’s apartment. We silk-screened Quiet Riot t-shirts, gave ‘em out to all the kids, rented a flat-bed truck – which now we wouldn’t have gotten 10 feet on the street without getting arrested – piled all the kids in the truck, made a schedule to hit all the record companies, called local news to come out. But we kept missing the news, because when we went to Burbank to picket Warner Bros. Records, they said, “You can’t do this without a permit.” So, we had to leave and our whole schedule was off because of that. So, I decided, “Well, look. I’ve been taking pictures of everything else, why don’t I take pictures of this?” So I got those pictures.

Were you ever along for any of the [record label] showcases Quiet Riot played?
RS: Yeah, in the book there are pictures from those showcases. They would do a set, and then the guy would come in, so they would rehearse before they played for the record executive. So I think I had to leave the room. The pictures are from them doing it before the record executive came in, because they wouldn’t need me sitting there taking pictures and being distracting. I would take them before and then leave and find out later whether they got the deal or not. It was like a full dress rehearsal, where they would wear their stage clothes and do the whole show.

The DVD has such great live footage. What was your favorite live segment in the movie and was it difficult to edit that all together?
RS: Was it difficult to edit it all together? I think it was just like we started chronologically from the beginning. I guess it was difficult putting the music to the story – where to put which songs, but there was so much material that it just kind of organically … I kept giving the editor more stuff. Like, we had the interviews and we had the live footage, the Super 8 mm footage, and I had all this other footage. Like, there’s a part in there where Kevin was in a band with my brother, Stan Lee from The Dickies, before The Dickies started. The bass player in that little segment, if you remember in the movie, he was a member of The Dickies, and the drummer, his name was Danny Benair. He was in a band called The Three O’Clock. So, I shot that, and there are actually two movies, but for some reason, I’ve only got one. They were doing “Can’t Explain” [The Who] and then we had the tape of them doing it, and we’d sync it up, because back then there was no videotape – at least affordable videotape. And then they also did “Moonage Daydream,” but I don’t know where that is. So I had that, and I had all my films from when I went to USC film school, so you see a little bit of that. And then I have my “just joking around” films.

Yeah.
RS: For something like this, you need a really good editor, and we had a really good editor. His name is Matt McUsic. And he did a great job.

One of the really cool things I thought from the DVD was when Brian Reason [Randy’s guitar tech] was talking about Randy’s trademark solo. Was that planned or did he just start talking about it and it seemed like that would be a perfect thing for the movie?
RS: No, we wanted him to talk about the solo for the movie. That was definitely planned. We didn’t tell him what to say. We just asked him to describe being the guitar tech during Randy’s solo, and that’s my favorite part of the movie.

I think it’s mine, too. It’s amazing how meticulously thought out it was. Maybe sometimes we as rock fans don’t think about that when we're hearing a guitarist do a solo.
RS: Yeah, I mean he was obviously an improviser in the solo, and it was very night to night. But, you know, that was pretty much what he did – depending on the crowd, as it is with any other artist or musician, they feed off the crowd, but that was just an unbelievably great solo he did. I think it was better than the solo he did … he kind of took parts of it for the Ozzy solo he did, but I think this is way better and I’m pretty sure it’s longer.

I wanted to ask you, too, about Kelly Garni and the incident that happened where the two were arguing and he's alleged to have pulled a gun on Rhoads. Were people pretty willing to talk about that?
RS: Yeah, yeah. Even he talked about it. Kelly is not shy about talking about it.

It’s such a rough part of the movie seeing two childhood friends grow apart. It’s a really tragic part of the movie.
RS: Yeah, well, Kelly … you know, has that little problem, drinking. I would say that as far as Quiet Riot goes, that was his undoing. Stuff happens and people live and learn, and I’m sure he probably somewhere regrets it.

As far as the end of that stage of Quiet Riot’s existence, when Randy left, did you have any inkling that he was going to leave at some point?
RS: We had no clue. I didn’t think he was going to go do that. We couldn’t believe that he left. We couldn’t believe he took the gig because he wasn’t like a Black Sabbath fan or anything. And obviously, at that point, having been kicked out of Black Sabbath, somebody was probably considering him washed up and somebody believed in him, and it worked out great for Randy for him to go play in that band.

What about the day that Randy died? What do you remember about talking to Kevin about it and how he dealt with it?
RS: Well, I was driving in my car listening to the radio, and they played two Ozzy songs in a row, or Blizzard of Ozz songs in a row. Usually when they do that, at least back then, it meant something bad had happened. Nobody played two songs in a row and they said, “That’s dedicated to the late, great Randy Rhoads, who died in a plane crash today.” Well, I hadn’t heard of any airliner going down, so I called Kevin and I said, “What is this?” He goes, “There was a small plane crash. Randy’s dead.” I went over to his house and we were crying and hugging each other and tried to deal with it. I mean, who could believe something like that would happen? I’ve actually been up in a small plane. Now, I would never do it again, but when you’re young, you just do stuff and you don’t think about it. There’s no explanation for it. It’s just one of those crazy, weird life things.

Did you go to the funeral, too?
RS: Yes.

That must have been, as any funeral would be, an unbelievable scene.
RS: There were a lot of people there, and it was just tragic. I still can’t believe that happened.

What is your favorite memory of Randy? You talked about what a generous guy he was in the book, especially with his time in helping young guitarists.
RS: Well, I can give you a couple. One, like you were talking about, has to do with him teaching guitar. He was actually teaching me stuff on the guitar. He taught me my favorite Quiet Riot song, which was “It’s Not So Funny.” He taught me how to play that. And then when he came back from Ozzy, he taught me how to play “Crazy Train.” He was always teaching, like, “Yeah, sure. Here’s how to play that.” I would have to say a special memory was … it was pretty much a few months after I met him and the band had started, I got pneumonia. And I was in the hospital for a week and him and Kevin came to the hospital to cheer me up. I thought that was really special because who wants to go visit somebody in the hospital. So that was kind of a special thing, where it was like, “Yeah, we’re friends.”

During Quiet Riot’s Metal Health days, what was your favorite memory of that time? You got to see that band finally get the exposure that they deserved.
RS: Um, I would say the US Festival was pretty special. When John Cougar Mellencamp dropped out, and Quiet Riot got to fill his spot, they had to fly out special. I think we were in Minnesota or somewhere when they got the call to do it. I can’t remember exactly, but it was somewhere [around] the Mississippi, and they were going to play in the daytime, so they didn’t need me to do lights, ‘cause I was out on tour with them doing lights. But they took me anyways, so I got to go. And what was there – four hundred thousand, five hundred thousand people there watching that show?

One of the cool things about Quiet Riot was their look, too, with their clothes made by I believe Laurie MacAdam?
RS: Lori was designing the clothes, and then Jodi [Raskin, the one-time girlfriend of both DuBrow and Rhoads] would sew clothes.

How was that to work as their lighting director? I mean, they must been such a visually cool band anyway.
RS: Yeah, well, I got to bring in extra spotlights, and we brought in strobe lights and fog, so they let me do whatever I wanted, which was great. I knew the songs … here’s how I started doing the lights for them. What happened was, the lights would always be so dim or poor for photographs. I’m looking at my pictures and I didn’t like to shoot with a flash. I wanted to capture what they really looked like, but the lights were so poor for photographs that I said, “You know what? Let me start doing the lights. I know the songs.” And they said, “Go for it.” So that’s how I started doing the lights, because I knew all the songs anyways, so it was just natural.

What do you want people to glean from this book and the DVD?
RS: You can see what it was like to be an up-and-coming band in the late ‘70s and what it took to either make it or not. And you see the trials and tragedies and then eventual worldwide domination – two guys that had a dream who went their separate ways and got big in two separate ways. They had this one-for-all and all-for-one theme of everybody working together.

You can really get a sense of what it was like being young and living in California at that time.
RS: Yeah, it was great. I mean, that 10 years – I think I said it – were the best 10 years of my life and everything you’ve ever heard, when I got to tour with Quiet Riot during the Metal Health tour, everything you’ve heard about stuff that happens in a rock band happened. 

That’ll be in the next book, huh?
RS: Yeah. That’d be a good one: “Quiet Riot – the Metal Health Years.”

Click Here for Additional Information: Red Match Productions

Lost in Translation: Shooting the cover of 'Quiet Riot II'


How a good idea went wrong

By Peter Lindblad

Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years Red Match Productions
Chasing an American record deal was ultimately a dispiriting experience for the first version of Quiet Riot, featuring the late, great Randy Rhoads on guitar.

Time after time, Quiet Riot, through its management company the Toby Organization, had opportunities to perform showcases for various record label executives, and they got a few nibbles, but they just could not land that big fish.

This despite having Warren Entner of The Grass Roots in their corner, pushing them to create a flamboyant, pre-glam look that would surely attract a great deal of attention. He was a part owner of the Toby Organization and he had connections. They represented Angel, who was on Casablanca Records. Still, he could not get anybody interested in Quiet Riot, despite the fact that they were playing to crowded houses at famed Sunset Strip rock and roll haunts like the Whisky-A-Go-Go and, their home away from home, The Starwood – that is except for label called Buddha. But, Buddha had financial problems, and so, even though they’d signed with them, when Buddha went under, their deal was null and void.

Being the resourceful types, the Toby Organization did secure a deal for Quiet Riot in Japan with CBS/Sony, and the band put out its first record there – basically on the strength of its cover, it did well, although the band was not thrilled with the production, as is explained by original drummer Drew Forsyth in the engrossing new documentary “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” directed by longtime Quiet Riot photographer Ron Sobol, who has also authored an accompanying coffee table book of the same title.

Though they still dreamed of getting that elusive American record deal, Quiet Riot had obligations in Japan – namely, they had a second record to make. And they did it, and when the time came to do the artwork for it, Sobol, the band’s photographer, lighting director and good friend, had an idea for the cover.

Quiet Riot II 1978
“Somehow the concept was thought of – I can’t remember it exactly. Kevin [DuBrow] wanted to call the record – it was their second record – 2nd and 10 – 10 songs on their second record,” remembers Sobol. “It was a football term. And I said, ‘Can I shoot it? Here’s what we’ll do: We’ll have you guys in a locker room, with these football players, and the juxtaposition of you skinny guys with these huge football players might make an interesting picture.’ Kevin said, ‘Okay, let’s do it, but it’s on spec. You’ve got to pay for it. If we can’t use it, I’m sorry.’”

Undeterred, Sobol set the whole thing up.

“To me, it was worth the expense to try to get it done,” says Sobol. “So I rented all this equipment, and I paid the football players … I went to this school. I was going to Valley College at the time. It’s a junior college in Van Nuys, Calif. And first, I got permission to use the locker room, and then I asked the football coach if I could use the players. And he said, ‘Yep, that’s fine with me.’ So I offered them $50 to be models. Four of them jumped on it right away. They said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.’ And they were great. They did everything I wanted. And the band was great, too. So, we went to the locker room, and we spent about four hours in there that day shooting pictures. It came out great. And our concept was like the back cover has the baseball cards … football cards or baseball cards. That was our concept, too.”

There was only one problem: It did not occur to them that in Japan, nobody knew what 2nd and 10 meant, being mostly unfamiliar with American football vernacular in the Land of the Rising Sun.

“We sent a mock-up of the thing to Japan, and it came back where they said, ‘Yeah, great,’” recalls Sobol. “The record comes back, like the finished copy, and it’s called Quiet Riot II. And we were going, ‘Why did they call it Quiet Riot II?’ Well, because they don’t play football in Japan. So, 2nd and 10 meant nothing to them. It’s just one of those things that people don’t think about.”

A bit deflated by the packaging of their second album, the men of Quiet Riot were not too upset, and neither was Sobol. After all, they’d had a blast at the photo session, and they could only laugh about the mix-up. Looking back on it now, Sobol has only fond memories of Quiet Riot’s pre-Metal Health days, although, having been good friends with DuBrow from the start, he was around for the band’s meteoric rise in the early-‘80s, when Metal Health became the first heavy metal record to shoot all the way to No. 1 in the States.

There are great candid shots from that photo session in Sobol’s book, including one of a huge lineman carrying Rhoads around as the guitarist, wearing a flashy, colorful bow tie, vest and flared pants, clutched a stuffed Snoopy toy – “Snoopy” being one of Rhoads’s nicknames. And at one time, there was talk of DuBrow doing a book on Quiet Riot with Sobol, but it never came to fruition.

Yeah, everybody had a great time that day. It’s just like, hey, I never imagined when I was taking those pictures just for fun that they’d end up in a book,” says Sobol. “Kevin actually wanted to do a book with me, and he said, ‘Get your stuff together, we’ll write a book about the Quiet Riot years.’ And then he called me back, and he goes, ‘You know, I found out it’s going to cost X amount of money to make these. I don’t know what we could sell them for. Plus, I have to go out on tour again with Quiet Riot.” You know, they were playing clubs. And so that idea got put by the wayside. But I got all the stuff together, and now it’s almost like Kevin was there with me doing this.”

Stay tuned for a more extensive Q&A with Sobol coming this week.

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Book/DVD Review: Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years


Book/DVD Review: Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years
Red Match Productions
All Access Review: A-
Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years
Red Match Productions

Ron Sobol’s access was unlimited. Having befriended Kevin DuBrow, after the two bonded over a shared interest in photography and Humble Pie, Sobol eventually became part of the Quiet Riot family – as the band’s personal shutterbug, as its lighting director, and simply as somebody they would pal around with. Along for the ride, through all the ups and downs, Sobol watched the early version of Quiet Riot, featuring a young Randy Rhoads on guitar, tear up the Sunset Strip and garner a following rivaled locally only by Van Halen.
 
This was long before Metal Health made Quiet Riot a worldwide phenomenon, however. Back in the late 1970s, Rhoads and Quiet Riot – despite their colorful stage garb and charismatic live shows – couldn’t get any American record label to take a chance on them. The showcases they performed for label executives led to nothing but false promises. Even the well-publicized demonstrations they organized outside record companies in Los Angeles, where supporters pleaded for them to sign the band with well-meaning placards and chants even as the police tried to silence them, fell on deaf ears. Sobol had his camera trained on Quiet Riot, and the circus surrounding them, the whole time.
 
For years, Sobol, the ultimate band insider, has been sitting on a mountain of hundreds of behind-the-scenes still photos and mountains of super 8mm concert footage he compiled while running with DuBrow and the rest of the Quiet Riot pack. And it’s all here in “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” undoubtedly the most comprehensive and candid biography of that period in Quiet Riot’s history that’s ever been compiled. Packaged together as a vividly illustrated coffee table book plus an illuminating DVD, Sobol’s collective work – he directed the DVD and authored the book – revisits the halcyon days when Quiet Riot ruled The Starwood and other Hollywood hot spots, such as the Whisky A-Go-Go and The Troubadour, while also performing before thousands of people who showed up to bask in their pre-glam metal glow at local colleges and festivals. And yet, that major American record label deal eluded them.
 
The frustration was palpable, as Sobol’s documentary illustrates in such heartbreaking fashion. Everybody associated with Quiet Riot were pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to break this band. Fan club president Lori Hollen did her part, hauling a boatload of friends to go see Quiet Riot, and Jodi “Raskin” Vigier, the one-time girlfriend of both Rhoads and DuBrow, and Laurie MacAdam worked on livening up the band’s image – MacAdam’s fashion sketches for the band’s dazzling, completely over-the-top stage clothes are shown in both the film and the book. Then, along came Ozzy Osbourne, and the party was over, as he took Rhoads to be his new guitarist and his musical salvation. Unfortunately, that meant the original Quiet Riot, fronted by the indomitable DuBrow and Rhoads, his very close friend, would never hit the big time together, as they’d hoped they would.
 
Watching and reading “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” it’s impossible not to get a full sense of the abject disappointment everyone associated with this version of Quiet Riot felt when their career stalled. In a DVD full of wide-ranging, completely open interviews, drummer Drew Forsyth – with some bitterness – relates how a disinterested producer torpedoed the band’s first album, 1977’s Quiet Riot, and details how management failed them on numerous occasions. And there was drama within Quiet Riot, as DuBrow knocked heads with bassist Kelly Garni, which caused tension between DuBrow and Rhoads, who’d been friends with Garni since childhood. Garni’s time in the band ended rather abruptly, however, when in a drunken rage he pulled out a gun during an argument with Rhoads, an incident thoroughly hashed out in a film that captures the youthful joie de vivre and DIY spirit of Quiet Riot and its closest allies. At the same time, it deals with the crushing disillusionment that comes with seeing one’s dreams go unfulfilled, this despite scintillating footage of a swaggering Quiet Riot knocking them dead in exciting live performances. Big issues, such as Rhoads feeling stifled creatively by DuBrow, drive the story and make it a gripping yarn, but there are other individual moments of greatness, including a thorough dissection of the mind-blowing solo Rhoads used to play at Quiet Riot gigs from his guitar tech Brian Reason. And this is just half the story.
 
Edited and laid out skillfully, with particular attention paid to attaching bite-sized pieces of text with compelling graphics, the book is jam packed with beautifully shot color and black and white images, augmented by scraps of memorabilia as well as moving tributes from its senior editor – and one of Rhoads’ guitar students – Peter M. Margolis and DuBrow’s mother. Among the treasures from Sobol’s archives are mesmerizing portraits of Rhoads, leftover pictures of the band taken during a football locker room photo shoot for the Quiet Riot II cover, stolen scenes of backstage high jinks – including one section with the boys parading around in dresses – and an endless stream of highly visceral, electrifying close-ups of the band’s two lightning rods, Rhoads and DuBrow, giving it their all onstage. Accompanied by an informative, if somewhat skeletal narrative, the photography jumps off the page, and it’s not just because there is so damn much of it to sift through. The product of inspired intuition, fly-on-the-wall observations and a true cause – namely, the advancement of Quiet Riot – Sobol’s images catch members of the band and their entourage at their leisure, having a fantastic, carefree time in sunny Southern California before they lost their innocence.

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      –   Peter Lindblad

The life and times of Randy Rhoads


A Q&A with the writer of a new biography on the guitar icon
By Peter Lindblad
"Randy Rhoads" - 2012 Photo by Neal Preston
Thirty years have passed since the death of Randy Rhoads, and for some, the shock hasn’t completely subsided. That day in 1982 when Rhoads died in a plane crash that could have easily been avoided he took a little piece of heavy metal’s soul with him.
He was beloved for having played a major role in rescuing a self-destructive Ozzy Osbourne from himself and helping revive his stalled career. Other guitarists worshipped the searing fretwork he branded into the skin of such classic albums as Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, and yet, Rhoads wasn’t satisfied as an artist. His voracious appetite for learning everything he could about the instrument he played – and classical music in particular – burned so intensely that he was willing to throw away his newfound fame and fortune, things he never really cared about to begin with, to seek pure knowledge in the world of academia.
Everybody figured he’d return from his studies one day and unveil his masterpiece, but Rhoads never got the chance. And that is a tragedy. Gone, but not forgotten, Rhoads’ memory has been kept alive by the fans and admirers who have never stopped celebrating his unique genius. Now comes an extravagant and comprehensive new biography, simply titled “Randy Rhoads,” (available at http://velocitybooks.org/shop/randy-rhoads/) that is sure to stoke the embers of their memories. Stuffing hundreds of rare, never-before-seen images from various stages in Randy’s life and incendiary career into more than 400 pages, “Randy Rhoads” – fashioned into a thick, colorfully rendered coffee table book – provides the definitive account of the guitarist’s all-too-brief time on this planet.
In painting their vibrant and illuminating portrait of Rhoads, writers Andrew Klein and Steven Rosen cast their nets wide, interviewing everybody from family members to childhood friend and assorted musical collaborators to compile a multi-faceted look at this legendary guitarist who was really a teacher at heart. Though it doesn’t make him out to be a saint, the exhaustively researched book – packed with details about the studio sessions that birthed his most famous works and engaging stories that reveal much about his character – is honest and sympathetic towards its subject. All of this makes for an engrossing tribute and essential reading.
Recently, Klein took time out to discuss the book with us.
What is it that makes Randy Rhoads such a compelling character, even all these years after his death?
Andrew Klein: Randy was very different than other legends who have left us too soon, such as Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. They were amazing guitar players. Randy was an exceptionally gifted musician as well. But the strong interest in Randy 30 years after his passing is attributed to several factors.
For starters, he left us just after he made it big. It was a time when we couldn’t wait to hear what would be coming next. Sadly, he passed away and left us hanging and wanting so much more. There is virtually no video of him. This adds to his mystique. We, as fans, want so much more than we were given – more music, more video, more photos. We want more of all things Randy! We just can’t let him go. He was so charismatic. We just can’t get enough of him.
All the information that has been released about Randy prior to our book was very on the surface. There hadn’t been anything released that explored and documented who he was. Our book is filled with stories as told by his closest friends who knew him best. They introduce us to the part of Randy that we’ve always wanted to know.
His dedication to learning his instrument, even at a young age, is remarkable. What struck you most about his musical education?
Randy Rhoads with his guitars - Photo by John Stix
AK: Well, you nailed it. It was his dedication to learning and furthering himself that we find the most inspiring and remarkable. Even Ozzy was struck by this. When Randy informed Ozzy he was quitting the rock and roll lifestyle in favor of pursuing a master’s degree in classical music, Ozzy asked him to wait a little longer. Ozzy said, “One more year and you can buy your own university. You have to strike while you are hot.” Randy didn’t care about any of that. He made up his mind and nothing was going to persuade him otherwise.
There again, it’s that dedication to his beliefs that we find so inspiring. Furthering himself musically was at the top of his priority list. Anyone else would have relished in what he was experiencing. Selling out the world’s biggest arenas and stadiums got old for him rather quick. He got a taste of it and desperately wanted to move on to something else. That was Randy. He had a long list of things he wanted to accomplish.
Randy really did go his own way, dressing as he did in high school and even getting into trouble occasionally. What do you think it was that fuelled his individualism?
AK: Randy was one in a billion. He didn’t try to be different. He was born different. I don’t think he dressed that way because his goal was to be different. He wore what he wanted to wear. He used to take his first girlfriend, Jan, with him when he shopped for shoes. He preferred the girl’s shoes, and he would have her try them on for him.
Clearly, he was embarrassed to buy them for himself, and he knew he would get grief for wearing them. It didn’t matter to him. He was very committed to doing what he wanted to do. Sometimes it did get him into a lot of trouble, especially at school. He constantly had jocks wanting to beat him up. They called him names. It didn’t affect him. Randy may have been frail, but he was emotionally strong. It took more than names to rattle him. He just laughed at them.
Do you think there was anything about his childhood that prepared him for life as a metal guitar idol?
AK: Both of his parents were accomplished musicians. Despite the fact there wasn’t a stereo in his house, he grew up in a house full of music. Had he never found an Army-Navy acoustic in his mother’s closet, an instrument would have eventually found its way into his hands. It was his destiny and beyond his control. Music ran through his blood. I’m not sure any of these elements prepared him to be a metal guitar idol. Even as a child, he was on a path toward become a virtuoso musician. Randy didn’t like heavy metal music. He didn’t listen to it and he didn’t own those kinds of records. Ozzy presented him with an opportunity to further himself. Randy obviously did a great job of maturing into that role. It was a ticket out of Hollywood and onto the world’s stage. That’s all it was for him. But when he got there, he didn’t want to be there. He thought he would make a record, tour, and then resume his life where he left off. He didn’t have future plans because there were so many opportunities being presented to him. He didn’t know what to do.
He had made up his mind to leave Ozzy’s band so that he could figure it out. Sadly, we’ll never know what he would have done. What we do know is that it would have been amazing. The Diary of a Madman album was recorded 15 months before he passed away. The subsequent year he spent touring, brought him a wealth of experience, and his playing improved immensely. The height of his abilities he had yet to reach are unimaginable.
One of the really interesting portions of the book deals with the rivalry between Randy and Eddie Van Halen, and the competitive nature of the L.A. music scene. It doesn’t seem like there was any real acrimony between the two and perhaps they didn’t really have much of a personal relationship at all. How much did they influence each other?
AK: It’s hard to say given that neither have ever spoken publicly about it. The very first time Randy 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.
Randy Rhoads with his dog - Photo by William Hames
Randy and his good friend Lori Hollen were in the parking lot behind the Whisky loading his gear into this car. Eddie and Dave 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?
Did Randy see Eddie as an equal? It does seem that even though Van Halen had a much larger profile nationally, music observers in L.A. didn’t see Randy as a lesser talent.
AK: There were some fans that were lucky enough to meet Randy that told him they thought he was just copying Eddie. It’s hard to say how that made Randy feel. I’m sure he didn’t appreciate it. Our Senior Editor, Peter, took lessons from Randy. Peter wanted to learn all the Van Halen songs. Randy would go home and learn the songs in his free time, just so he could teach them to Peter. I’ve heard those lesson tapes. It’s really cool to listen to. Randy charged $8 for a lesson. His students really got way more than their money’s worth. Randy thought Eddie was great. He wasn’t shy about saying so, but he hated the comparison.
In Quiet Riot, according to the book, Randy was frustrated by Kevin DuBrow’s domineering personality, and yet, it was Kevin who pushed Randy to step out of the shadows and become a star. How would you characterize the relationship between them? Could either have become the star they were without each other?
AK: Well, you can argue that one didn’t need the other to become a star. They both became stars separately from each other. But the dream was they were going to do it together. Randy and Kevin were the best of friends. Very close. Like brothers. They remained good friends even while Randy was with Ozzy. Kevin attended all the local Ozzy concerts and was invite to after-parties at the Osbournes’ house.
Kevin was domineering and Randy hated that. Randy tolerated it because he knew that that component of Kevin’s personalithy was the reason why they were so successful, locally. Those who knew Randy said that if not for Kevin, no one outside of Randy’s garage would have ever heard him play. Kevin was the driving force. Randy was not a go-getter. He just wanted to play and leave the details to others. He was also non-confrontational, which is why he put up with Kevin. It was easier for Randy to say nothing than to argue. Toward the end of 1979, Randy saw the writing on the wall. Music was changing. Disco, Punk, and New Wave had taken over. Randy and Kevin never really saw eye to eye musically. When he finally got settled in with Ozzy, he was happier because he felt he had more musical freedom. Ozzy was constantly telling him to “go out there and be the best Randy Rhoads you can be.” Ozzy wanted Randy to be a guitar hero. He wanted that explosive playing all over his records. Kevin stifled Randy and preferred poppy, catchy songs because he thought that’s what would ultimately get them a record deal.
The Starwood really launched Quiet Riot, in the same way that the Whisky propelled Van Halen to fame and fortune. What was the Starwood like back then?
AK: The Starwood was the place to be. If you liked music or wanted to go see a live band, you would go to the Starwood. The Starwood was home for Quiet Riot. Their pictures covered the walls.
When they walked through the door on off nights, they were treated like celebrities. The VIP section was sanctioned for them and they were given all the free drinks they could handle. You could go see bands play at the Starwood seven out of seven nights per week. They also had multiple rooms and stages. You could walk into one room and watch a rock band, or go into another room and see a disco band playing at the same time.
The Starwood closed in the early 1980s. Things weren’t the same anymore. Punk bands had taken over and things became violent. Neighbors were complaining. The final straw was when someone, I think a bouncer, was stabbed. That was the end of the club and the end of a very important era of music on the Hollywood scene.
There are many great photos in the book, from Randy’s childhood through his teenage years and then into his professional life. How were you able to compile such a vast assortment of images? Also, what is your favorite and why?
The famous Paul Natkin photo 
AK: The bulk of the images were donated by Randy’s closest friends. The balance of the images were licensed by the respective photographers. I contacted each one of them and told them I was compiling a book and that I’d like to license their images. As I spent time with each photographer, I was able to see not only all of their images of Randy Rhoads, but also, their images that relate to the story. For example, when I visited with Jeffery Mayer, I asked him if I could see his Leslie West and Alice Cooper photos, as I knew I would need those, too. Then there’s another guy such as Jack Lue who shot everyone. He had to utilize the assistance of a hand-truck to bring all of his photos for us to see. We were able to license additional photos from him of peripheral characters such as Nikki Sixx, George Lynch, and Chris Holmes, as well as all of his amazing images of Randy.
It’s very difficult for me to pinpoint my favorites. Randy Rhoads was incredibly charismatic. All of his photos are endearing. One thing about Randy, he always looks different. If you think about it, the majority of the photos of him were taken over a two- to three-year period. Yet, he has so many different looks. He had a very animated face with lots of different expressions, especially while he was onstage.
There’s one photo that is very sentimental to me. I mentioned this in the book, during my prologue. It is the one taken by John Stix right after he interviewed Randy. It was the first real good photo published of Randy. It was in a section called Music Gear in the back a Circus magazine.
I stared at that photo for years! When I was given the opportunity to write this book that was the first photo I sought out. John was the first person I called. There was no way I could produce this book without that photo. I was very disappointed that it was printed backwards on the 1987 Tribute album cover. I never understood if it was printed backwards intentionally, or if there was no one paying attention to detail.
In addition to the Stix image, every photo John Livzey took is stunning. And, you have to add the famous Paul Natkin photo of Ozzy holding Randy up in the air. It is probably one of the most famous photos in all of music history. It’s so amazing to me that that moment was captured on video, considering that there is virtually no video of Randy. On the rare night that there happened to be a bootleg video shot, the most famous photo ever was taken. You can watch that moment on YouTube. It was in Chicago on the “Diary” tour, during “Mr. Crowley.” When I was with Paul, I was astonished that he didn’t know there was a video of that very show. He couldn’t believe it when I showed it to him. Interestingly, at that moment, you can see a flash go off in the crowd. However, it was not Paul’s camera. He told he didn’t use a flash. So, somewhere out there, some lucky fan has his own photo that was taken at almost the precise moment as Paul’s. I asked Paul why he snapped a photo at that moment. He then went on to talk about something called “That Decisive Moment.” This is all covered in Chapter 14 of the book. Paul explains why he took that photo at that moment. It’s really interesting stuff. I really like Paul a lot. He was super kind to me.
You go into great detail about Randy’s work on both Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman in the book and the making of both records in their entirety. Do you think that people truly understand not only how big a role Randy played in the creation of those records and how innovative he was, but also how much of a salvation Ozzy and Randy were to each other at this time?
AK: Yes, I do think Randy’s fans recognize the importance of his role, without a doubt. Those who were there made sure of it. Ozzy has been telling the world for 30 years all about what it was like to work with Randy. Ozzy has said numerous times that the guys in Sabbath had zero patience.
One of the things Ozzy loved about Randy was that he was a teacher at his core. He used to sit with Ozzy and help him. Randy would find the right key for songs so that Ozzy would feel more comfortable and within his singing range. They worked out melodies together. Ozzy would hum ideas to Randy, and he would, in turn, convert those melodies into songs. “Goodbye to Romance” was created this way. When Randy would noodle or test sounds, Ozzy would say, “What was that?” And Randy would say, “What?” Ozzy would say, “Play that again” – and sure enough, songs were born that way as well. “Suicide Solution” and “Diary of a Madman” were born that way
I know Randy was a salvation for Ozzy. Ozzy was really down on his luck. He had just been thrown out of Sabbath. He was broke, constantly drunk, and basically living in squalor. Then, Randy Rhoads walked into his life. I am not so sure Ozzy was a salvation for Randy. I think Randy could take it or leave it. His arm had to be twisted to go to the audition, and when he was given the job, he didn’t want it. He didn’t want to hurt Quiet Riot and his friend Kevin DuBrow. Although they were frustrated and going nowhere, he was prepared to stick it out. He was not one to seek auditions, and I don’t think he would have quit had he never met Ozzy. So, I would have to conclude that Ozzy needed Randy way more than Randy needed Ozzy. This is evident at the end of Randy’s life. He informed the Osbournes he was quitting the band. Ozzy went crazy over this and begged Randy to stay. Randy had made up his mind and nothing was going to change it. Ozzy knew what he had. When they first got together in 1979, Ozzy would introduce Randy to people by saying, “This is Randy, my secret weapon.” When they met producer Max Norman for the first time, Ozzy said to him, “Keep everything Randy records – don’t erase anything!” Ozzy Osbourne is no dummy. He knew what he had.
The politics within the Ozzy Osbourne band and the relationship its members had with Ozzy and especially Sharon Arden really ripped things apart. How did they manage to hold it together long enough to make those two records?
AK: The band had a great relationship with Ozzy. From the beginning, they were managed by Sharon’s brother, David Arden. He managed the band well. He was very attentive to their needs. It was ultimately David’s decision to bring Randy to England. David tried to convince Ozzy to find a guitarist in London who was local in order to make things easier. Ozzy begged and pleaded and said Randy was the only one he wanted. David acquiesced and sent Randy a ticket. When the band began working, they were all very close. Ozzy used to say to them, “Here’s my hand, here’s my heart, this band will never part.” They recorded the Blizzard of Ozz album, and then they began a U.K. tour.
It was at this time that David had to resign because his daughter had been born prematurely and he was needed at home. This is when Sharon stepped in to replace him. She immediately got cozy with Ozzy and everything changed. When they revisited Ridge Farm to record the Diary of a Madman album, she became notorious for emptying everyone’s suitcases and throwing their personal belongings into the pond outside. Everyone who was there said the vibe changed when she arrived. Ozzy began divorce proceedings with his wife, Thelma, and succumbed to severe depression. He stopped attending writing and rehearsal sessions and drowned his sorrows in drugs and alcohol. The Diary album was nearly complete before the real problems began. It was during these recording sessions that the decision was made to fire Bob [Daisley] and Lee [Kerslake] in favor of younger, greener musicians who wouldn’t challenge authority. When Rudy [Sarzo] and Tommy [Aldridge] were brought in, the band was no longer called the “Blizzard of Ozz” – it had now become an Ozzy Osbourne solo project, which is not what Randy signed up for. Randy expressed his displeasure with anyone who was willing to listen. Randy was no longer happy as a sideman. Add to that, Sharon placed Randy in a very uncomfortable position between herself and Ozzy, which she chronicles in her own book. This was about all he could take. He really just wanted to leave the band and that situation and move on with his life.
Most affecting of all, of course, are the accounts of what people were feeling in the immediate aftermath of Randy’s death and those remembrances people have of that day Randy died. What specifically hit you the hardest while writing about Randy’s tragic end?
AK: It was a senseless death. Three people died that should still be here with us today. Andrew Aycock was not the monster he’s been made out to be. I interviewed his entire family and some of his friends. Yes, it was incredibly irresponsible flying at treetop level. But he certainly wasn’t trying to kill anyone.
He had a family to live for, and he was planning on starting his own charter company. Rachel Youngblood had a huge family. They loved her very much, and she was every bit a part of the Arden family. Sharon had known Rachel all her life. She took care of the entire Arden family. She was like a second mom to Sharon. And then there’s Randy. How can we possibly quantify what we lost that day? Here was a kid barely into his 25th year of life with so much promise ahead of him – so much life to live and so much music to make. He wanted to marry Jodi [Raskin], buy a house, go back to school, make solo records, take lessons and teach. He was taken from us before he could even begin his life. I can’t think of anything more tragic than that.