On this day (March 19) in 1982, Randy Rhoads died in Leesburg, Florida, after an airplane stunt turned into a fiery crash that killed multiple people. While his career was relatively short, he left behind a genre-defining legacy. When Rhoads died, he was playing lead guitar for Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Before that, he co-founded Quiet Riot. More than four decades after his death, he continues to impress and inspire guitarists around the world.
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Rhoads grew up in a musical family. His mother, who raised him, his brother, and his sister alone, was a UCLA-educated professional pianist. After her husband left her with their three children, she opened the Musonia music school in North Hollywood, California, to make ends meet. Later, her children would take lessons there. Rhoads began at a young age, taking folk and classical guitar lessons. Additionally, he learned to read sheet music and had a firm grasp of music theory.
[RELATED: Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bone-Chilling” Reaction to Randy Rhoads’ Death in 1982]
According to Metal Voice, Rhoads met Kelly Garni in middle school and taught him to play bass. The pair played together at backyard parties and eventually joined and formed a long line of short-lived bands. They played songs by Mountain, Alice Cooper, and David Bowie. Later, they discovered marijuana and largely overlooked rock and roll, including early albums from German rockers Scorpions. More importantly, they discovered a wealth of live bootleg tapes. Hearing the differences between live and studio recordings helped inform Rhoads’ playing in the future.
On July 11, 1971, Rhoads and his brother, Kelle, attended an Alice Cooper concert. That night, Garni said, was a “game changer” for him. It showed him what he could do with his talent.
Metal Health Will Drive You Mad!
When Randy Rhoads was 16 years old, he and Kelly Garni formed a band called Little Women. Soon, they recruited Kevn DuBrow (vocals) and Drew Forsyth (drums), and changed the band’s name to Quiet Riot. The band became popular in the Los Angeles scene and landed a recording contract with Sony. Their first two albums–Quiet Riot and Quiet Riot II–were both released in 1978. exclusively in Japan.
During the recording of their second album, tensions in the band boiled over. More specifically, the tensions between Garni and DuBrow boiled over. Garni fired a handgun through the ceiling, got in a fight with Rhoads, and plotted to kill DuBrow. Eventually, Rhoads had to fire Garni from the band.
In 1979, Rhoads was ready to leave the band when Dana Strum contacted him with exciting news. Ozzy Osbourne, who had recently been booted from Black Sabbath, was in Los Angeles putting a band together.
Randy Rhoads Joins Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz
Bassist Rudy Sarzo recalled Randy Rhoads’ audition in his memoir, Off the Rails: Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz. The young guitarist entered the studio with a Gibson Les Paul and a practice amp. He plugged in and began to warm up, running through a handful of riffs. He had the job before he finished warming up.
In March 1980, the band convened at the Ridge Farm Studio in Rusper, England, to record Osbourne’s debut album, Blizzard of Ozz. They wrote the album collaboratively, except for one song. “Dee,” an instrumental track, was written by Rhoads as a tribute to his mother. The album dropped on September 12, 1980, and tracks like “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley” brilliantly showcased Rhoads’ talents.
The band kicked off the Blizzard of Ozz tour in Glasgow, Scotland, the day the album hit shelves. The trek spanned a year and a day, coming to a close in Daytona Beach, Florida, on September 13, 1981.
During breaks from the tour, they went back to Ridge Farm Studio and recorded Diary of a Madman. It dropped in October 1981. The tour supporting the album kicked off a month later. It would be the last album to feature Randy Rhoads.
The Death of a Legend
Randy Rhoads played his final concert with Ozzy Osbourne in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 18, 1982. After the show, they traveled to Leesburg, Florida, where they would take the day off while getting some repairs done on the tour bus, according to Live for Live Music.
Their bus driver, Andrew Aycock, was a former commercial pilot. During their break, he spotted a 1957 Beechcraft Bonanza plane at a nearby airfield. He first took the plane up with the band’s keyboardist, Don Airey, and tour manager, Jake Duncan. After a short flight, he landed and asked if anyone else wanted to go for a spin.
The night before, Rhoads and Osbourne had argued about the singer’s partying. Afterward, Osbourne went to sleep on the bus. When he boarded the small aircraft with Aycock, the former Black Sabbath singer was still asleep on the bus.
As the story goes, Rhoads thought it would be funny to buzz the tour bus. Aycock agreed and took three runs at the bus, flying lower each time. On the fourth pass, the wing clipped the bus at more than 150 miles per hour.
The plane came to a stop after smashing into a tree and the garage of a nearby home. Randy Rhoads, Rachel Youngblood, and Andrew Aycock died instantly.
Rhoads was 25 years old when his life came to an abrupt end. At that time, he was already considered one of the most talented guitarists on the planet, and he was still looking to expand his skills. It is impossible to say what heights he would have reached if things had gone differently that day.
Featured Image by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
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