Words alone can never sufficiently describe the essence of an artist. This ultimately must rest on what he creates and his expression with his chosen instrument. This is particularly true of an artist as emotional and compelling as Randy Rhoads. Beyond his obvious talent of emotional guitar facility, there existed a soul and persona that defies categorization.
Randy Rhoads's music combined elements of traditional rock, blues, and heavy metal with classical influences and picturesque and evocative sound effects-electric, electronic and acoustic. His taste and sensibilities judiciously balanced and molded what may seem to be diverse and precarious components into a cohesive and visionary guitar style.
Randall William Rhodes was born December 6, 1956 in Santa Monica, California. When he was sixteen, he and Kevin Dubrow formed Quiet Riot. While recording with Quiet Riot, Randy came to the attention of Ozzy Osbourne, who had just been axed by Black Sabbath. Ozzy recruited the young Californian to be his guitarist. His work with Ozzy, especially Crazy Train, has made Randy Rhoads a "Guitar God."
Randy was intensely interested in classical guitar. At the time of his death, he was planning on giving up his Rock career in favor of pursuing his Master's degree in music.
On March 19,1982, Randy Rhoads was killed when the small aircraft in which he was travelling tried to "buzz" the tour bus in which Ozzy Ozbourne was traveling. Instead, the plane clipped the bus and promptly crashed.
