July 7, 2024 • 62 mins
How did a young guitarist from Los Angeles breathe new life into a rock legend's solo career? Join us as we explore the captivating story of Randy Rhoads, whose extraordinary talent transformed Ozzy Osbourne's music and left an indelible mark on rock and roll. We'll take you back to Randy's early years, nurtured by his mother's unwavering discipline and passion for music, setting the stage for his rise to stardom. Hear how icons like Alice Cooper and David Bowie shaped his musical journey, despite growing up in a household without a stereo.
From the formation of Quiet Riot to the pivotal moment when Kevin Dubrow joined as lead vocalist, we'll chart Randy's path through the LA music scene, filled with triumphs and tribulations. Gain insights into the behind-the-scenes dynamics that led him to Ozzy Osbourne's band, and the surprising challenges and anecdotes along the way, including the influence of Don Arden and Sharon Osbourne's affair with Jay Leno. Discover the chemistry between Ozzy and Randy, and how it created some of the most memorable moments in rock history, despite the chaos that surrounded their tours.
Tragically, Randy's promising career was cut short by a senseless airplane stunt, leaving the music community in mourning. We'll recount the harrowing details of the accident, featuring perspectives from Eddie Van Halen and a heartbroken Ozzy Osbourne. Despite his untimely death at just 25, Randy's legacy as a guitar virtuoso continues to inspire musicians around the globe. Join us as we remember the life and legacy of Randy Rhoads, a true rock legend whose influence endures in the annals of music history.
Death in Entertainment is hosted by Kyle Ploof, Alejandro Dowling and Ben Kissel.
New episodes every week!
https://linktr.ee/deathinentertainment
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Gather round rock and roll fans, because in this
episode we're tuning our stringsto the haunting story of a
guitar god whose riffs couldsummon the devil himself Randy
Rhoades.
In March 1982, the virtuoso whobreathed new life into Ozzy
Osbourne's solo career foundhimself in a twisted encore.
No one saw coming Strap in aswe unravel the bizarre chain of
(00:28):
events that led to Rhodes'tragic demise and an airplane
stunt gone horribly wrong.
That's today on Death inEntertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Live from Los Angeles 911,.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What is your emergency?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
in hollywood now two counts of murder injury and
death oh my god, shocking newdetails that has stunned the
entertainment world.
Um, this makes me a littlenervous.
The hair stood up on my armsjust like in the movies.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
what do you call this thing anyway?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Death in entertainment.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Greetings Ditto Universe.
Hello there, what's upeverybody?
My name's Kyle Plouffe and I'mAlejandro Dowling, and today we
have the wild ride of RandyRhodes, one of the most crazy
touring road stories of all timethat ended someone's life way
too early.
And yeah, I don't know ifanybody who doesn't know this
(01:29):
story.
I don't think you're preparedfor how crazy this gets.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I don't remember all the details, if any, except that
it's some sort of crazyairplane stunt that really
didn't need to happen.
Something like that.
Okay, did it involve a bit ofbeing a show-off?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
uh, not on his part oh, okay yeah, all right, I I'm
gonna just let you tell thisstory yes, and before we do tell
the story, we're gonna leteveryone know that's listening.
There is gonna be some comedyinvolved in this podcast, okay
what yes, we make light ofthings around here.
So if that's not your bag, ifyou don't like true crime comedy
(02:09):
podcasts, then get on anotherflight.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I agree, and without further ado, let's take two
tickets to paradise.
Yeah, baby all right, randallwilliam rhodes.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He was born december 6 1956 in santa monica,
california not too far, justdown the street, right down the
405 and an hour drive, yeah, onthe highway nine miles, two hour
drive.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Uh, both his mother and father were actually
musicians, so music was in hisblood much like dime bag.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yes, a lot of these legends come from musical
families.
Yeah, I've come to find, whichexplains why I don't have any
musical talent.
I can't think of anybody in myentire family tree that plays an
instrument.
Well, that plays itprofessionally yeah, I mean, you
know it's a tough gig um, butdon't you think there's
(03:26):
something to that theory thatit's in the blood?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think so, yeah I think any industry it's kind of
you know you get passed down.
Your father was a a janitor.
Your father's father was ajanitor, oh god yeah it's the
family business.
either a janitor or a rock androll star yeah exactly, but his
mother, dolores, actually playedprofessional piano or piano
(03:52):
professionally, and his dad wasa public school music teacher
who tried to perform as a soloact.
So, like I said, his blood typewas A minor.
It was.
His blood type was A minor itwas.
But when Randy was a year and ahalf old, his father left his
mother, remarried another womanand hit the bricks with a new
(04:12):
family.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
All right, Well, he didn't really earn that.
No, he wasn't a big music star.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He was a teacher At a public school and you can just
imagine his ego.
But in his head he's the star.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And so he can leave his wife, because that's what
they do in the rock and rollindustry.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Papa was a rolling stone and not one of the good
ones.
Yeah, that's main charactersyndrome.
When people just think thatthey're the man and they're
living in a movie and everybodyelse is just in it for the ride.
So that left his mother.
When people just think thatthey're the man and they're
living in a movie and everybodyelse is just in it for the ride,
so that left his mother,dolores, to raise Randy, his
brother Doug and his sisterKathy all three kids on her own
(04:53):
that is horrible.
Yeah, she graduated from UCLAwith a degree in music and also
opened her own music school.
In where else, but right herein North Hollywood, california,
really?
Yeah, I actually looked it up.
The address is one block awayfrom my place right now.
Shut up, it's still there.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Okay, we're adding it to the die tour we're going to
have to go.
Yeah, it would take a littlebit of explaining, but this is
Randy Rhoads' mom's old school.
Yeah, he died there.
No, no, but he spent someformative years playing music
there exactly now I heard thatshe was a bit of a
(05:35):
disciplinarian.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You would be correct, my friend, because she's a
successful, independent womanwho don't need no man for shit.
She's doing all this stuff onher own.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
She's raising a family um, you'd almost have to
be in that situation.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, um and I don't mean like disciplinarian in the
normal sense, that she was verytough on them but she kind of
was like she, um, you know,wanted to do everything by the
book and make sure her kids were, you know, on the right path,
and and I think she was justreally worried after the father
left that they might getdepressed or try to run away or
(06:12):
whatever.
So she was just making sure tobe right on them.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
It's a classic bridge to depression when there's a
divorce in the family, yeah, orkids acting out Exactly so.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
As soon as she started the, the school she was
bringing um randy there with her.
He was like six years old.
Uh, he was poking around themusic school called the musonia
school of music and musonia.
Wow, he opened a closet door.
Uh, that's like the Britannic.
Yeah, I love that name, the USSMusonia.
(06:48):
He opened a closet door andknocked over one of his
grandfather's acoustic guitarsand his mother ran in there and
was like what are you doing?
And he's like, well, I want toplay that now.
I don't know what that is, soit didn't break, no.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So at six years old.
He it just fell.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, didn't break no .
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So at six years old he just fell, and then it
started rattling like that wouldbe amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Uh, so yeah, at six years old he started getting
guitar lessons.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's the age, you have to start.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I tried it when I was a teenager.
Didn't exactly set the world onfire, not so good.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So yeah, he was playing music, playing guitar,
for six years.
At 12 years old his motherfinally got him to break and
take piano lessons, like shewanted him to, because, as good
as he was at guitar, he didn'teven know how to read music.
So she wanted him to learnmusic theory and know how to
actually read the notes andwhere they go on the scales and
(07:51):
all that stuff.
So he actually took up to thatreally easily and started
reading music quickly and thengot very bored of the piano
because his love for theelectric guitar was just shining
through.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That is sort of a deviation as well.
I would say that he learned allthe notes Because a lot of
those guitar gods like JimiHendrix didn't even know how to
read music.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, exactly.
I would say more don't than do.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So Dolores asked one of her in-house instructors to
teach randy the electric guitar,and just after a few weeks the
teacher was like I can't teachhim anything else because he
already knows everything that Iknow.
Like he's that good, um, keepin mind, he's had a knack for it
and had already been playingacoustic for about six years, so
it kind of came naturally to beable to.
(08:44):
It's not even switching over,it's just playing the same
instrument, um, and some peoplejust have it, uh, but it's nice
to see a grown adult teacherbeing like nah, he's good, like
he just needs to go off andreally start playing now.
To be honest about it, yeah,because some people will still
be like no, you're under mythumb and I'll teach you
everything and blah, blah, blah,right, so going from solo to
(09:09):
band play.
Now he was 14 years old.
He created his first band,violet fox, named after his
mother's middle name, violet.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's a nice tribute, yeah, and calling her a fox yeah
, that's a little weird foxyviolet some freudian stuff there
that's my mom.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, a little oedipus complex.
Oh yeah, oedipus, yeah, butfreud too.
Um, randy, he was playingguitar and his brother doug
played the drums, and they wouldcover the rolling stones alex,
alice, cooper, the beatles,david bowie and more.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Those were his biggest idols Alice Cooper and
David Bowie yes, specificallyMick Ronson, who was the
guitarist in Bowie's band in theZiggy Stardust days.
Right, and looking at Randy'spicture now that you have up, he
sort of looks like Mick Ronson.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I think he modeled his whole style after him right,
which is interesting because hewas no handed up being known as
the guy for that style too yeah, oh yeah.
A lot of people probablywouldn't know the name mick
ronson right, um, and, like yousaid, his mother was a
disciplinarian, so they createdall the music they could listen
(10:23):
to at home.
As weird as it sounds, randy'smother did not allow them to
have a stereo in the house, sothere was no radio.
Um, instead of listening allthe time, they were just
creating and perfecting theircraft together.
Come on, yeah they didn't listento other music well, that
doesn't mean they weren'tsneaking tapes and listening to
them when they could, but it wasjust hidden.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Because obviously he went and listened to Alice
Cooper and David Bowie.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, Like can you imagine living in a house where
your mom is a music teacher butdoesn't allow you to listen to
music?
That's abusive.
It's like a drug dealer thatdoesn't do their own drugs.
That's awful.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Because that's a house of just holding back,
that's a house where you're notgoing to fully enjoy yourself
the thing she creates iscontraband in the house, like I
don't.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I don't understand that, yeah, but can you argue
against it?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
it'd be like she sets up these writing workshops in
her basement for the kids andthen she's like but no books,
yeah, weekly book burning.
If I catch you reading MarkTwain, you're out of here,
you're going to have to writeabout it?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, but can you argue against what she created?
I mean, he became one of thegreatest rock guitarists of all
time in a very short amount oftime.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
One in a hundred turn out like Randy Rhodes.
Less than that.
The others are pushing shoppingcarts by Ralph.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Randy absolutely loved hearing live versions of
concerts and he preferred themover studio recorded music
because he noticed that theguitar players were not as
constrained by the format, whichis true when you go see a band
live.
You could hear the same song amillion times over the years,
but you'd hear a differentguitar solo every time too.
(12:12):
He just loved that, and hewould memorize all the different
iterations of guitar solos fromdifferent live albums and play
them live for people, and itwould just blow people away that
he knew them.
In July of 1971, when he was 14years old, he and his brother
went to see Alice Cooper at theLong Beach Auditorium, and it
changed his life forever.
(12:35):
School's out forever and everthe lights, the sounds, the
crowd, the aura, aura, thefeeling in the building.
Something just clicked where heknew he could work his way to
experiencing that same thing onstage, on stage, one day.
And he was right.
Less than two years later, hestarted a rock band that would
(12:59):
soon be world famous.
Oh, along with his childhoodbest friend, kelly Garney, he
started a band called LittleWomen.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
This is where the record scratcher.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Little Women.
Does that not sound familiar?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It doesn't.
I've heard of the book.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, Seen the movie.
Yeah, that's because that bandended up getting a couple new
members and becoming quiet riot.
Oh yes, uh, quiet riot.
The actual band name came froma quote from a british musician,
rick parfit, from the bandstatus quo.
(13:40):
Uh, he had just mentioned in aninterview that he thought quite
right would be a great bandname, but the guys in the band
were saying it in a Britishaccent, so they were saying
Quiet Riot and that's literallyhow that band name stuck.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Thank God they misheard it.
Quiet Riot, that's way betterthan Quite Right, yeah, quiet.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Riot.
Yeah, quite, right, I am Quite.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Right, I know, quiet, riot right, yeah, quiet riot,
yeah quite right, um, the bandcan?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I am quite right, I know quite right.
The band consisted of drummerdrew forsyth joining randy and
kelly garney, and for somereason, an la based photographer
, kevin debrow, was hired as theleague vocalist and Dubrow
instantly became divisivebecause Randy didn't like him.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I don't think he minded him that much he wasn't
what he was looking for.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He wanted someone darker and more brooding, like
Alice Cooper, as the front man.
That's what he envisioned.
But Dubrow just would not goaway and Randy eventually was
just like all right, I like yourenthusiasm, all right, let's go
.
And they instantly became ahuge sensation in the LA music
scene.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
They were sneering at his musical skills.
Correct that.
Kevin wasn't the greatestsinger Right.
That's what really it was about.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, that's why they talk about him as a
photographer, but he was a hellof a performer.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
He's a showman.
I absolutely think he was oneof the best Wow, especially in
the glam rock era.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I saw a documentary about Quiet Riot.
Spoiler alert Kevin Dubrow died, oh wow.
When did he die In like2007-ish 11?
Of a drug overdose Cocaine oh2007,.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, how did I know that you probably just finished
the documentary?
No I didn't Please, I'm justthat good he died in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Nothing good happens in Vegas.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Accidental cocaine overdose.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I like how they say accidental.
Yeah, so there's a movie thatwas made about the band after
Kevin died trying to replace thelead singer.
Oh yeah, it's great.
You have to go see this.
I have not seen this oneBecause one of the guys that
they hire plays a few shows withhim and he forgets the lyrics
(16:01):
to Come On, Feel the Noise.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Oh, girls Rock your Voice, get wild, wild, wild.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And in the meeting afterwards they all look at the
guy and they say, dude, youcan't forget the lyrics to our
only hit song yeah, the hell'swrong with you.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, so Rhodes, even though he wasn't the front man,
he was the main guy in the band.
Uh, musically and visually, thepolka dot theme, as we can see
here, uh, which is on his guitar, became like his staple.
He would wear um a bow tie withpolka dots on it and like a, a
vest that he would keep open andhave like that v.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, he was not interested in being your
run-of-the-mill guitarist.
No, he related to that glamrock world.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, which is also what Pantera did before they
ended up becoming the realPantera.
They were like glam rock guyswith hairspray.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So is that what they wanted at first?
Do you think yeah, or they werejust trying to fit in.
They were just trying to fit in.
That wasn't their true selfyeah, exactly well, this is
randy rhodes true self.
Yes, glam, so it's the opposite.
Yeah, but there was anothersimilarity that you just
mentioned that I thought of dimebag.
What's that?
The dime bag was the star, eventhough he was not the lead
singer.
Right, that's true, not?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
easy to do.
No word was just getting outthat Rhodes was just like
blowing everybody off the stagelike there was no one as good as
him.
Uh, it's been said that him andEddie Van Halen are like very
comparable on the greatestguitarist of all time.
And did they have a feud?
They sure did.
In the 70s they developed afriendly but big rivalry,
(17:41):
frenemies, frenemies exactly,with Van Halen.
Uh, before either of them hadsigned a record deal, wow, van
halen signed to warner brothersin 1977 and released a debut
album that would achieve goldstatus.
Quiet riots contract with sonyonly got their first two albums
released in japan.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Whoa like what the hell?
Well, big in j in Japan, wherethat phrase comes from Better
than having no fans.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, this inability to get an American deal was
getting everybody pissed off andDubrow and Bassist Garney began
to cannibalize the band.
Garney said I was on a constantquest to get dubrow out of the
band and get a different singer.
I hated him, he hated me and wecould not find any way
(18:31):
whatsoever to get along, whichcaused a lot of tension in the
band and it put a lot of stresson randy to try to be neutral I
don't understand all thefighting, because wouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Don't you think that kevin dubrow would have been a
charismatic guy?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
well, just taking drugs having fun but then you
really start to sniff your ownass and believe your own hype
and uh, yeah, believe your ownbullshit.
Yeah, I suppose I can see howit happens where people who are
clearly more talented than youjust go shut the fuck up.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, and then you see others make it before you
that have less talent, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
There was a huge, almost deadly breaking point of
the band at this point.
This is in 1978.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Of Quiet Riot yes.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They were recording Quiet Riot 2, and Kelly Garney
got so drunk he robbed a bar andstole a bunch of liquor.
He went up to Randy and waslike we need to replace the
vocalist.
When Rhodes said no, garneydrunkenly fired a handgun
through the ceiling and a fightbetween him and Rhodes broke out
what the ceiling, and a fightbetween him and Rhodes broke out
(19:43):
what.
Garney then ran away and cameup with a plan to go across town
to where DeBrow was recordingthe vocals for Quiet Riot 2.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
And then they were going to cut a hole in the floor
around him and he was justgoing to fall into it Almost.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
His plan was to take that gun and go shoot him in the
head.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
oh my, fucking god yeah he really wanted to shoot
kevin dubrow and kill him.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He was gonna kill him .
Yeah well, he almost killedrandy.
They were fighting and justfucking bang.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
The gun goes off in the ceiling when you said deadly
, I thought it was a bit ofhyperbole not at all.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So on his way over he was so drunk, he was speeding
and swerving, and he wasarrested for drunk driving
before he reached the studio ohwow, yeah, well, lucky for her,
kevin.
Yeah, by the next year, 1979,.
(20:48):
Randy was just like I'm sick ofhow much you guys are fighting.
This is bullshit.
You know I didn't start thisband to be stressed out Like
we're trying to get a deal here.
Later that year, a man namedOzzy Osbourne steps up to the
plate and is looking for a newguitarist.
Dana Strum kept calling Randyand was like we have an opening,
(21:10):
keep coming, audition, audition, audition.
And he's like no, he's like Igot a band, we're trying to work
it out and Ozzy is fresh fromBlack Sabbath at this point.
Yeah, so I didn't realize.
I thought Ozzy was at the pointwhere he was getting so big
that he just left black sabbath.
It's the complete opposite.
The band was just like we'redone with you because he was
drinking and drugging like crazyand they just didn't want to do
(21:31):
it anymore.
So I always thought ozzy leftthem.
They left ozzy, they dumpedthem.
That's what I assumed too.
Yeah, so ozzy's like all right,I'll go do my own thing getting
a new tour together.
And randy is like fine,whatever, like I just want this
guy to stop, brings his guitarand sets up his amp and it's
(21:52):
just warming up in the otherroom, knowing that ozzy's, like
you know, getting ready orwhatever.
And through the wall ozzy waslike what the fuck is that?
Oh my god.
He didn't know if he was liketoo drunk and he was hearing it
better than it really was orwhat, but he was having a vision
he literally he was in his earshe was just warming up and Ozzy
(22:14):
came out and was like that wasthe best thing I ever heard.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You're hired.
Or it was more like oh my God,that's the best thing I ever
heard.
You got a bat.
You're hired, sharon.
And Randy was freaked outbecause he was just like you
didn't even hear my stuff yet Iwas just warming up.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Andy was like freaked out because he was just like
you, didn't even hear my stuffyet I was just warming up, which
is insane that his warm up isbetter than anybody else's
actual audition.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
How amazing would that be.
You show up for an audition andyou just start going Okay, let
me start.
And then they say wait, stopthe presses.
You got it, kid, we're signingyou to a six picture deal yeah,
(23:01):
so life changes immediately.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
He's no longer you know having to be stressed out
by a quiet riot and how perfectfor ozzy.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, he starting this solo endeavor.
And then you come across thegreatest guitarist in the world.
Yeah, yeah, sure, let's link up.
Come on down, come on, feel thenoise with me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Osbourne was telling the band that he recently met
one of the best guitarists inLos Angeles and his name's Randy
Rhodes.
He's going to be running aroundwith them, uh.
The new group's managementintended to keep the lineup all
british, uh, and was reluctantto hire an unknown american, but
manager don arden eventuallyrelented.
Who is don arden, by the way?
Speaker 3 (23:47):
a producer, yes, and a father of sharon osborne.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Did you know that I did?
I'm like how the fuck it's allnepotism I know I thought sharon
was like this unknown womanthat was in the crowd, just like
rocky and adrian nope, and shewas homely back in the 80s, yeah
.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So it was like a nice story, like oh, that's sweet,
as he could have been with allthese other groupies and he
picks this nice lady, yeah daddywas a record producer.
I had no idea until this crazydaddy wasn't the rolling stone
no he owned rolling stone yeahand he was married to someone
(24:33):
else at the time.
Ozzy, oh, was he at this point?
They started out as an affair,ooh, and then it got more
serious.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Hey, well, daddy's paying the bills.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
It better get serious , and I also heard a tasty rumor
that one night, after somedrinks, randy Rhoes and sharon
made out they had a shag.
Not a shag, just a couple ofsmooches, wow, well.
Well, you know how things geton tour it's incestuous sex,
(25:09):
drugs and rock and roll.
That's right, um.
And by the way, another truestory about Sharon she had sex
with Jay Leno.
No, I swear to God, thisAlejandro fake fact is coming
back again.
I know it sounds weird.
Why would I just make this up?
Because you do shit like that.
(25:29):
It's a true story.
Google it.
Wow, Everyone listening.
Just write it down.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Google it later just imagine the noises coming out of
that room.
Oh, you like that?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
oh yeah, jay, little lower please.
What right here is this it?
Hey, jay.
Hey kevin, you see this g spot.
Did you hear about this?
I'm about to come, I'm flappingher ass.
You see this?
I can't believe.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It smells like bleach oh well, randy didn't make it
easy to be hired either, whichis shows that they really,
really wanted him.
Um, he showed up to heathrowairport, was turned away because
he didn't have the necessarywork permit to actually go there
(26:20):
and start working as a musician, which he should have been on
top of.
Yes, um, they threw him in aholding cell and handcuffed him,
put him back on a plane to theus and they had to really work
it out, getting the paperworkdone over the next couple weeks,
um, because they needed tostart going on the road.
Yeah, uh, and rehearsing umbull rush cottage was, um a
(26:45):
rehearsal space back in london.
Um, and it was there that roadslived with Osborne and his then
wife, thelma.
That's right, so Ozzy had twoother kids, you mean besides
that, kelly and Jack.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Besides Kelly and Jack, yeah, well, there was one
that refused to appear on thereality show.
I knew there was a third onethat just didn't want any part
of the spotlight.
What the amy?
I believe amy osborne.
Jessica elliot kingsley lewisosborne gee, where was their
(27:22):
reality show?
He could have had a couplegoing at the same time.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
The uk version, the osbornes too, yeah uh, on his
wikipedia it says he has five,including amy, kelly and jack.
So there's, yeah, the other twothat he had with them and then
the other two listed.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
That's crazy the other two that he never talks to
.
He even started a podcast withkelly and jack.
Yeah, sharon, that's why I'm so.
What about the other kids?
Fuck, where's their podcast?
Sheesh, wow, um.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
They're probably the grip osborne stated in his
autobiography that he didn'tunderstand why a musician as
talented as roads would want toget involved with a quote
bloated alcoholic wreck likehimself so he was self
deprecating yeah, and that's whythey were trying so hard to
make sure his paperwork gotcleared.
(28:20):
And you know we're stealing himfrom another band and really it
wasn't easy for them to get himand, uh, they wanted to make it
work because they knew howtalented he was.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Because on some level Quiet Riot is not fully
established yet.
So perhaps in Randy's mind he'drather be with an original band
and come up with them Right,Rather than join forces with an
already established entertainerlike Ozzy.
Yeah, and he was not a fan ofBlack Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Randy wasn't.
No, oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Not at all, holy shit , which is insane if you think
about it.
Yeah, usually they hire theperson.
That is like groveling at theirfeet, like, oh my god, you are
the best?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
yeah, because then you can pay him less.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
He's just happy to be there because he didn't like to
play Black Sabbath songs ontour.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So they were off and running man.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, crazy Train is a great song to kickstart it.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, which I always thought Crazy Train was Sabbath,
sabbath.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Same, it's not.
It's not.
Wow, it's Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay, so that is all, randy Rhodes.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, wow.
By the way, sharon Osbournerevealed the Jay Leno story on
the Talk.
Yeah, I see the article here.
They had one of those gimmickyepisodes where everyone tells a
secret.
Oh, and that was hers Next upon the Yuck.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
How can you show your face after?
Speaker 3 (29:53):
that Boy.
I had sex with Jay Leno, whowants to imagine that we already
did Okay.
So where are we?
Crazy train.
We're on a crazy train.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, we're on a crazy train out of Sharon
Osbourne's ass and going back tothe band.
Pretty insane that Sharon wasthere.
She would always go on tourwith them.
Um, I don't know exactly when.
I guess I'll look it up now,because I didn't realize there
was such drama with sharon andthelma.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
It makes sense, though, if you think about it,
she's the manager, so they'retogether all the time.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, and for all the things that usually the spouse
isn't a part of the crazy trainof shows and touring and parties
and yeah, so Thelma and Ozzyhad Jessica and Louis, and they
adopted Elliot Kingsley, whichis Thelma's five-year-old son
(30:50):
from a previous relationship,who was born in 66.
So he really has six kids,because he has Amy, jack and
Kelly and Elliot, louis andJessica, who I don't know if
anyone's ever heard of.
I certainly haven't.
No, their divorce was in 1982,which is a year we're heading to
(31:15):
right now anyway.
So let's get into it Yay, yay,yay.
Ozzy admitted that his strugglewith alcohol and substance abuse
was the main reason behindtheir separation.
But it doesn't seem just that.
It seems that also SharonOsbourne, being on the tour bus
with them all the time Throwingherself at him, may have had
something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Getting closer to 1982, 1981, we have a clip here
of Mr Randy Rhodes Randy onbehalf of the over half million
readers of Guitar PlayerMagazine in the US and in 70
countries throughout the world,I'd like to present you with the
1981 Best New Talent Award.
Congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ooh.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Give him a kiss, ozzy .
Oh, there's Sharon.
I've got a lot of work to doand it makes you realize there's
a lot of responsibility andthis tour.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I want to really get myself together and work harder,
you know, because I'm reallyproud and honored and I don't
want to stop here, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, why stop there?
You don't stop there.
The way Sharon was throwingsmooches on him, she looks like
Susan.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Boyle, exactly like Susan Boyle.
Oh, that's not a compliment.
No, it's not, she did level up.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well, yeah, when she got her face carved up, yeah she
got a bit of lipo, got someplastic surgery, got a couple
more hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Got a giant Boston-based chin up her ass.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
That was before, though How's that feel.
That was the 70s.
Oh, that was the 70s.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, this is post-Jay Leno.
Oh, so she was banging himbefore.
He was even really Jay Leno, hewas just a guy with a chin and
a microphone.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yep.
And a lot less cars, but seeingher in that clip with him, I
wonder if they had threesomes.
Ugh, maybe I'm bringing up alot of gross stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
What does that room smell?
Like Not good.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
War pigs yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Oh boy, all right, let's see Ozzy live with Randy.
Yeah, oh boy, all right, let'ssee Ozzy live with Randy.
Ooh, see him shred with thatcustomized polka dot guitar.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Oh hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, a little, mr Crowley, for you.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
They had a great rapport with each other.
You can tell from that clip ohyeah, Much more you know,
playful.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
And yet could deliver .
Yeah, exactly yeah, you couldfeel that they have more going
on than quiet riot did with thebro for sure they have more than
just come feel the noise, which, by the way, quiet ride,
finally blew up in the early 80swith metal health.
The album, yeah, and come on,feel the noise.
(34:49):
But did you know that theydidn't even write that song?
Really, that was from slade in1973.
Oh wow, it was a cover I didnot know that yeah, wow.
So now do you think even lessof kevin dubrow?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
yes, oh my goodness.
Well, all the success ishappening it's a successful time
.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
It's a good time to be alive.
Yes, if you're a guitarvirtuoso yeah, absolutely,
things are looking up.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
You're on tour with, you know, one of the biggest
rock names of all time.
You're a rock god yourself.
I have a question though Imight have an answer.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Was ozzy acting better in this time?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
no, he, he didn't tone it down at all.
No, and randy um, the lastthing he ever said to him was
you're gonna kill yourself.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Before he got off the bus I guess I was just thinking
that to achieve all thesemilestones you'd have to be
somewhat with it, Nope?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Nope, I mean Ozzy is known for being that guy where
he stumbles out and, you know,still puts on a good show, but
behind the scenes he's a goddamnwreck.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, that is exactly what he's known for.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And portrayed as because in that movie I've told
you about before decline ofwestern civilization, part two
yeah which is about heavy metal.
Um, what's her name?
The penelope spheras, whodirected wayne's world.
She was the director of thisdocumentary and she interviews
ozzy in it and he's talking toher in his kitchen and then she
(36:31):
cuts to a close-up of his handpouring orange juice into a
glass, and then the hand startsshaking like this oh yeah, and
the orange juice goes all overthe counter.
I've seen that yeah she lateradmitted that that was fake.
Oh, it was inserted later.
Oh, jesus, but that tells youwhat his public persona was.
(36:51):
Yeah, that they wanted to dothat, because everyone's
expecting that from ozzy right,yeah, I mean ozzy.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
He went into a record label and bit the head off a
bat.
He was just out of his mind.
He did that on stage.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
I thought no, it was in uh executive's office that
might have been a dove in theexecutive's off executive office
, let me see, but he did itother times.
I believe the bat, though, wason stage, and randy rhodes was
not a fan of those kind ofantics oh, this was in concert
(37:25):
on uh on the road in des moines.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, the bat was.
He thought it was a rubber bat.
I picked it up, put it in mymouth, crunched down bit into
bit into it, being the clownthat I am, In Des Moines it was
yeah, All right.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
So in Wisconsin the bat bites you.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And in Iowa you bite the bat Words and photos emerged
saying that he'd bitten theheads off of two white doves at
the CBS sales sales conventionin los angeles.
The plan had been for ozzy togive a speech of thanks to his
audience and then release threesymbolic doves at peace, but he
ate two of them.
Okay, what?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
an animal, wow, and randy absolutely hated that.
Yeah, I wouldn't be, he justwanted to be glam rock now.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Let's play some fucking music, put some
hairspray in our hair and have agood time.
You don't?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
need to kill birds or rodents with wings uh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So, ozzy, like you were asking, he was drinking
heavily.
He even um fired the entireband after a show.
Well, he was shit-faced, had nomemory of doing it.
Uh, so they just kept on playingon the road god almighty, yeah
uh, he kept saying to randy thatfrank zappa and gary moore were
(38:43):
going to replace him on theroad and was just fucking with
him at this point.
It's like dude, you begged forhim to come to your band and
he's there and now you'retreating him like shit.
It's crazy.
So they're going on the road.
They played Thursday, march 18,1982 at the Knoxville Civic
(39:03):
Coliseum.
The next day the band wasscheduled to play the Rock Super
Bowl, which is a festival inOrlando, florida.
That was happening for quitesome time in the 70s and 80s.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
What is it about?
It has nothing to do withfootball, right?
No?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It's literally just the name of a festival, like
when we were a young festival orWoodstock or whatever.
It's not like the Rock puttingon a football game, it was just
the Rock Super Bowl.
And his final conversationOsborne remembers having with
(39:39):
Randy was Randy saying to himyou'll kill yourself, you know,
one of these days.
And then he got off the bus.
Why did he get off the bus?
After driving much of the night, the tour bus stopped at the
Flying Baron Estates in Leesburg, florida, to fix a
malfunctioning air conditionerWhile Osborne remained asleep.
You'd want?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
that in Florida.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Very humid hot.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Extremely humid.
It's so gross.
On the property owned by theCalhoun brothers there was an
airstrip with helicopters andsmall planes.
Without permission, the tourbus driver and private pilot,
andrew Aycock, took asingle-engine Beechcraft F-35
plane registered to Mike Partonand just stole it and went up
(40:26):
for a flight.
On the first flight, aycocktook keyboardist Don Airy and
tour manager Jake Duncan withhim as passengers.
Duncan later revealed thatAycock buzzed the bus in an
attempt to wake up the drummerTommy Aldridge.
The group then landed.
The second flight had Rhodes.
What a lunatic, yeah.
Second flight had Randy Rhodesand makeup artist and wardrobe
(40:49):
girl Rachel Youngblood on theflight.
Rhodes had tried to get thebassistblood on the flight.
Rhodes had tried to get thebassist Rudy Zarzo on the flight
and Zarzo was like hell.
No, I'm not going on thatfucking thing, and neither
should you.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Smart, it's called self-preservation.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, but the only reason Randy did is because he
knew that Rachel Youngblood hada really bad heart condition.
So ACOC was like listen, I knowabout her condition too.
I'm not gonna do that again.
I just want it to be a nice,you know flight.
We'll go up, take some picturesand just come down and land and
randy was like all right, fineso he thought that because she
(41:24):
was joining them, it was justgonna be a nice tranquil ride
yeah, why didn't the first twoguys that took the ride warn
anybody?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
You'd think they would be like that was awful,
you asshole.
You almost killed us.
Well, they were laughing.
Oh, they thought it was funnyto clip the bus and almost die.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well, they didn't clip it, they just went near it.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Well, they went near enough to rattle it.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, exactly, during the second flight, more
attempts were made to buzz thetour bus.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Oh, buzz, that's just flying over it.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
He succeeded in making two close passes but
botched the third attempt At 10am.
After being in the air forabout five minutes, one of the
plane's wings clipped the top ofthe tour bus, breaking the wing
into two parts, sending theplane spiraling.
The initial impact with the buscaused Rhodes and Youngblood's
(42:21):
heads to crash through theplane's windshield.
The plane then severed the topof a pine tree and crashed into
the garage of a nearby mansion,bursting into flames.
Randy Aycock and Youngblood,ages 25, 36, and 58,
respectively, were all killedinstantly.
All three bodies were burnedbeyond recognition and Rhodes
was identified by his jewelry.
He was that badly burned,according to Sharon Osbourne,
(42:47):
who was asleep on the bus andawoken by the crash, said they
were all in bits.
It was just body partseverywhere.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Like the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Sounds like worse.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
The band's keyboardist, don Airy, was the
only member of the band towitness the crash.
In his account he reported astruggle between Rhodes and
Aycock in the cockpit secondsbefore the crash.
So he thinks that he knew theuh tour bus driver was fucking
around and wanted him to stopand so he was like fighting for
the control of the plane.
(43:20):
Randy was yeah, and so uh donairy truly believes that had he
not done that, that more peoplewould have been dead because he
would have been even lowerbecause he saw them struggling
for control of the plane.
Also could be that thatstruggle is what caused them to
clip the fucking tour bus rightso it's hard to say could have
(43:43):
just been a buzzing.
Yeah, um, because he was takingpictures with his own camera.
He had like a telephoto lensand he could see through the
lens that there was a strugglegoing on board.
The wings were rapidly tippingfrom side to side and at one
point the plane was almostcompletely sideways, no more
than six feet off the ground.
That's when I put down mycamera and saw the plane right
(44:05):
in front of me.
I quickly crouched to avoidgetting hit and looked over my
shoulder and watched it clip thebus, crash into into the tree
and explode on impact into thegarage.
Could?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
you imagine being an eyewitness to that, and people
you know.
Terror, oh my God.
And Randy Rhoads, no less.
Yeah, a talent that is justbecoming itself.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Yeah, and all they could see was the manager came
out, Jake Duncan, who was on thefirst flight.
He was in the fetal positionjust screaming they're gone,
they're gone.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
And in his head he's thinking that could have been
him.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah, tommy Aldridge grabbed a fire extinguisher from
the bus and ran towards thecrash site in an attempt to put
out the fire, but it was justway too big.
Yeah, the entire house burntdown.
One of the guys ran in and tosee if anybody was inside the
house, and it was just one like80 something year old man and he
was deaf, so he didn't knowwhat happened.
He felt like a big oh and he'slooking and then all of a sudden
(45:06):
there's this stranger in hishouse screaming at him to get
the fuck out, and there's smokejust billowing through the house
.
He's like that, that poor guy.
He's like I don't know signlanguage.
Eventually someone was able tocommunicate to him what happened
, but he's like.
I feel so bad for him that thathappened on his property and to
his house and he didn'tcomprehend what was actually
happening until way later.
And lucky that he didn't die aswell.
(45:28):
Yeah, exactly, luckily theywent into the house to try to
find somebody.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
How terrifying luckily they went into the house
to try to find somebody.
How terrifying and luckily thefront door was open and the
moment that old man finallyunderstood oh god, and where was
the pilot sleeping?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
um, the actual owner of the plane.
Yeah, this was on a propertythat.
Oh, the plane was just there.
Every house had a plane outsideof it.
Yeah, but how did they get thekeys?
Oh, I think they just left theminside.
Yeah, they didn't think anyonewould just come by and be a
dumbass and the old honor wildride?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
yeah, the old honor system.
Yeah, this is why you need tohide the keys.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Don't let idiots near your plane yeah, I mean the,
the, the guy that didn't want togo on the flight.
What was his name?
Rudy Sarzo.
He knew that the bus driver,that dude Aycock, had been up
doing cocaine all night too anddrinking Like they didn't even
like that.
He was driving the tour bus,Never mind get on a flight with
him.
Right, they were like finallywe're here, we're safe.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Don't fuck with this guy anymore.
Let him sleep.
Uh-huh, didn't work.
There are characters like thatthat are completely out of
control.
They're irritating and you knowthey don't have a good ending,
right.
It's just a shame that theytake others with them.
Yeah, and remind me sharon andozzy, you said, were in a nearby
cabin.
They were on the bus, so theywere on the bus that the plane
(46:56):
was buzzing over, yeah, so theycould have been killed easily oh
, absolutely If the plane hadcrashed right into the bus
instead of just clipping it.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Yeah, if the plane, if the wing hit it like another
foot lower, it would have takenmore of the plane down
immediately instead of making itgo up.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Because they like barely clipped it.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
Ah, but still, but still.
That's not much, that's reallynot much space in the scheme of
things when it comes to anairplane.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, and especially if you're laying on the top bunk
.
It destroyed the top where ithit, so it could have easily
killed someone just from that.
But they were sleeping at thetime and they wake up to that
yeah, sarzo was making teabecause they woke him up to do
the plane plane ride with themand he was like no.
(47:44):
And then he got up and washaving his tea, said he was
pouring milk into his tea and itfelt like the tour bus exploded
and he had no idea whathappened.
he shit his pants and ran outyeah and that's when he saw uh
on the grass outside justrocking back and forth in the
fetal position saying they'regone, they're gone.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Because if you were in the bus and woke up to that,
I remember a couple summers ago,when there was an earthquake
here, I woke up in the middle ofthe night to all the shaking
and rumbling and I wasabsolutely terrified.
Yeah, all the shaking andrumbling and I was absolutely
terrified.
Yeah, imagine it's not just anearthquake that goes away within
seconds.
Imagine it actually issomething completely terrifying.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Just a huge explosion .
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Right over your head.
Yeah, Ozzy said.
Uh, he was awoken by a loudexplosion.
He immediately thought thatthey'd hit a vehicle on the road
.
Uh, he got out of bed screamingto hit a vehicle on the road.
He got out of bed screaming toSharon get off the bus.
Meanwhile she was screaming ateveryone to get off the bus too.
After getting out of the bus, Isaw a plane had crashed.
I didn't know who was on theplane.
(48:50):
When we realized that ourpeople were on the plane, I
found it very difficult to getassistance from anyone to help.
In fact, it took.
It took, he says, almost a halfhour before anyone arrived.
It was actually over two hoursshut up before first responders
got there how much in the middle?
of nowhere was this very much inthe middle of nowhere.
It was on like acres and acresby itself and the closest um
(49:15):
people were too far away andthey didn't have a phone, which
is why they all had planes intheir yeah driveways so it was,
you know, 9, 10 in the morningand that's why, um, it took
people seeing the smoke going upin the air to call 9-1-1 and be
like I think something happenedover there and they're like,
all right, we'll get around toit finally showed up.
(49:36):
They didn't realize there was aplane crash with three people
dead in an entire mansionburning to the ground.
Uh, randy rhodes girlfriendjody raskin was in her car when
she recalled hearing a block ofsongs from blizzard of oz on the
radio before the dj announcedthe accident and the news that
rhodes was killed.
That's to be crazy, figure out.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
Like oh cool, they're playing crazy train.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, and it's all exciting to hear and then they
come on saying he's dead, likethat's your partner.
That's crazy.
She said she was way toodistraught to continue driving,
had to pull over.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
That's so unimaginable.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah, when Eddie Van Halen learned about the crash,
he said that the pilot had tohave been fucked up.
When it happened In a 1982radio interview, he was saying
you don't fly that low and smashinto a crew bus and then hit
the house.
He said the pilot was jerkingoff.
That's just plain stupidity.
I feel so sorry for Randy.
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
It wasn't even a pilot error.
The guy was doing that onpurpose.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, a pilot error you could forgive right exactly
but he just thinks he's fuckinghilarious god, I hate those kind
of people the british rocksinger Ozzy Osbourne, formerly
with the group Black Sabbath,escaped injury when a plane made
two low passes over the housein Florida where he was staying
with his present band and thencrashed into it, but the group's
(51:10):
lead guitarist and make-upartist were killed.
Osbourne, who's from Birmingham, has achieved notoriety through
outrageous stage antics,including biting the heads off
birds.
Keith Hendel reports.
Speaker 4 (51:21):
A private plane buzzed the house in Leesburg,
florida, where the group wasstaying On the third pass.
The pilot clipped their tourbus parked outside and ploughed
into the house, killing thegroup's lead guitarist, randall
Rhodes, and the make-up artist,rachel Youngblood.
He also killed himself.
Ozzy Osbourne was sitting inthe bus at the time but somehow
(51:43):
survived unhurt.
All the other members of thegroup also escaped, even though
petrol from the wrecked planestarted a fierce fire and gutted
the house.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Somehow Leesburg Florida rolled off the tongue
well in British.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Leesburg Osborne admitted that Aycock had been
doing cocaine all night prior tothe crash.
It was confirmed that afterautopsy he tested positive for
cocaine, which I think is crazy,Like how can you be burnt that
much and still have any trace ofanything on?
Speaker 3 (52:20):
you.
I guess we learned that cocaineis very durable, I guess, so
inflammable uh rhodes toxicologytest.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Toxicology test revealed only nicotine uh.
The ntsb investigationdetermined that acock's aviation
medical certificate had expiredand it was reported.
Listen to this.
The most avoidable part of thisthing is acock had been the
pilot in another fatal crash inthe united arab emirates six
(52:54):
years earlier.
He killed somebody as a pilot ahelicopter pilot wow sharon had
known about the crash butdidn't inform anyone else on the
tour.
Sharon, sharon, sharon but shedidn't know he was going to jump
(53:15):
into a plane I mean, it doesn'tmatter if he's on a plane or
train or an automobile, that'sright.
I don't care if he's with johncandy all night he, uh, yeah.
In the moments after the crashhe started screaming at the tour
manager for allowing theirpeople on a plane with a pilot
(53:38):
who'd been using drugs all night, telling him don't you know?
That man had already killed oneof the calhoun's kids in a
helicopter crash.
So the people that owned thevery property that they're
staying on killed one of theirkids, like why would you even
bring that guy to one of theirproperties?
Speaker 3 (53:56):
huh that's very weird , yeah not good, not good.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
uh, the first lutheran church in burbank,
california, is where randy hadhis funeral and the pallbearers
were ozzy osbourne, aldridgesarzo and kevin debrow, if you
can imagine that, wow.
Speaker 3 (54:21):
That's pretty heavy, yep.
Not the coffin, just the weightof the story and relationship.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, he was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in San
Bernardino, california, and onhis tomb has been written an
inspiration for all young people.
Can you believe that he wasonly 25 years old when he?
Speaker 3 (54:46):
passed away same age as tupac.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
It's crazy, we have to start a 25 club, yeah but I
mean, his legacy is still aliveand, like I said, he's up there
with you.
Know, know people arguing inbars about either Randy Rhodes
or Eddie Van Halen being thebest guitarist of all time.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
So it's you know.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
Very much so, yeah, and for someone that is not
really affiliated with any onefamous band.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, I didn't realize about quiet riot and
randy rhodes.
I was like holy shit.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Randy rhodes is definitely a name that most
everyone knows.
Speaker 1 (55:28):
That's familiar with classic rock yeah he's really,
it's synonymous right guitarvirtuoso yeah it's just so
goddamn sad and frustrating thatthat's how it had to well
(55:48):
because this is so needless, youknow yeah just because some
dumb fuck high on cocaine thinksoh, we should be funny and wake
him up.
Yeah, it's like you already didit four times.
Why are you gonna do it thefifth time?
but also you have to questionwhy anyone would get in the
plane with them like I said, theonly reason he was coaxed on
was because, you know, the womanthat was going on with them,
(56:12):
the makeup and wardrobe lady,had a bad heart and the guy was
like listen, I know she has abad heart.
We're going to go up there andgo around the property a couple
times, we're just going up for alittle fun.
Speaker 3 (56:21):
That's not sufficient for me.
Yeah, so if the lady with a badheart jumped off a bridge, then
Randy Rhodes would too.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
The golden gate.
It's not a good reason to go upin a dangerous plane, I know,
but I could see how you could belike okay, I trust you.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
Never.
In fact, I'm never getting inany private plane or helicopter.
Helicopters definitely notPlanes.
I could get in a private planeno.
Have fun.
Yeah, I've gone skydiving a fewtimes.
Speaker 3 (56:51):
Say hi to JFK Jr.
Yeah, and you're crazy forgoing skydiving after your mom's
story.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
I went before my mom's story.
She went after me.
I haven't been since then.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
We talked about on a previous episode.
Kyle's mom had a skydivinginstructor and then she went
skydiving Two weeks later.
Two weeks later, her instructordied in a skydiving accident.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
With the person he had strapped to his back.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Never Yikes, never, ever, ever.
Diving accident with the personhe had strapped to his back.
Never yikes, never, ever, ever.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
yeah, and that brings us to final thoughts don't get
into planes with people who havebeen doing cocaine all night if
their nose is covered in whitestuff, go the other way.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Yeah, run if they.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
If someone is all tweaked out saying you want to
see something cool, say no yeah,also, if you know that someone
is responsible for pilotinganother person to death, I don't
care if it's in another country, don't allow them to drive or
pilot you in any way, shape orform.
That's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
That's awful Come on.
Sharon, there should have beenbetter quality control there,
majorly.
It's almost too bizarre tofathom why you would have that
person in your circle.
You want the best Van Halen.
They did that brown M&M thingfor a reason Because if they saw
one brown M&M in that ball,they knew that there were
(58:27):
corners that were cut.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
It goes for everything, not just the stage
show.
For the tour bus, for traveling, you have to be safe.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
You do.
You got to make sure everyone'staken care of.
The road's dangerous enough,you don't have to make it even
more.
Speaker 3 (58:48):
The Randy Road's dangerous enough, yeah.
But yeah, rest in peace theyshould have a Ben and Jerry
flavor.
Randy Road's, Rocky RandyRoad's.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah, all right, I'll work.
Jerry flavor, randy Rhodes,rocky.
Speaker 1 (59:02):
Randy Rhodes.
Yeah, all right, I'll work onit.
Randy Rocky.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
Rhodes.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
You've got mail From Tony Tomato Blue.
That said, I was up and downback and forth with my feelings
on your Farrah Fawcett MJepisode.
However, when Kyle gotteary-eyed over Paris Jackson, I
loved it.
The jokes about MJ and the kidswere rough, but I laughed some.
Thank you.
We got a few out there.
(59:29):
Well, thanks for sticking withus Tony.
Yeah, you know, you have an MJepisode.
There's going to be some jokesto be to be had yeah, and
there's also going to becontroversy yeah because some
people think one thing and otherpeople think another thing
exactly, and we're not allmonsters here, okay, no,
(59:53):
sometimes we can tear up alittle bit and we're all human.
Speaker 3 (59:56):
Yeah, I'm tearing up right now.
Yeah, I'm not, but I should trythat because you got a lot of
goodwill from that yeah, youknow it's just being human man.
Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
It is, we're all human.
Tell them that it's humannature.
Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
Shannon called the episode a masterpiece whoa,
where'd you say that?
on instagram oh shit, I did notsee that and then we're getting
some good words on youtube aswell.
Oh, very nice.
Another person said kyle almostcrying, totally got me to cry.
Oh, that was happy's funhouse.
(01:00:36):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And someone reminded us, ianO'Neill commented and then Billy
Mays died, which is correct.
Yeah, just a few days laterBilly Mays was the.
You know, they say deaths comein threes, but sometimes it's
(01:00:56):
just a bunch.
Yeah, like a bunch of coconutson merv griffin's back lovely
bunch of coconuts okay, well, wehad a good time here, yeah, you
know.
Thanks for joining us again.
Go listen to some ozzy.
Yeah, celebrate the sound ofrandy rhodes absolutely.
And all roads lead to thispodcast.
(01:01:17):
Death and entertainment yes.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Youtube instagram, tiktok wherever you want at
death and entertainment.
Spotify, apple, google podcastis closing down, but wherever
else you get your podcast, youknow where to find us and don't
forget about our patreon.
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
We just posted a very special bonus episode about the
carter family.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yes, Nick and Aaron Carter.
There's a lot to be discussedover there.
Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
There was a lot to unpack there, mm-hmm.
And we did it, we did, and wealso did this.
Yes, we did, and this is it.
And until next week, don't godying on us, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
You have just heard a true Hollywood murder mystery.
I have never seen anything likethis before.
Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
A place that manufactures nightmares.
Okay, everybody, that's a wrapGood night.
Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Please drive home carefully and come back again
soon.
Gather round rock and roll fans, because in this
episode we're tuning our stringsto the haunting story of a
guitar god whose riffs couldsummon the devil himself Randy
Rhoades.
In March 1982, the virtuoso whobreathed new life into Ozzy
Osbourne's solo career foundhimself in a twisted encore.
No one saw coming Strap in aswe unravel the bizarre chain of
(00:28):
events that led to Rhodes'tragic demise and an airplane
stunt gone horribly wrong.
That's today on Death inEntertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Live from Los Angeles 911,.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What is your emergency?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
in hollywood now two counts of murder injury and
death oh my god, shocking newdetails that has stunned the
entertainment world.
Um, this makes me a littlenervous.
The hair stood up on my armsjust like in the movies.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
what do you call this thing anyway?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Death in entertainment.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Greetings Ditto Universe.
Hello there, what's upeverybody?
My name's Kyle Plouffe and I'mAlejandro Dowling, and today we
have the wild ride of RandyRhodes, one of the most crazy
touring road stories of all timethat ended someone's life way
too early.
And yeah, I don't know ifanybody who doesn't know this
(01:29):
story.
I don't think you're preparedfor how crazy this gets.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I don't remember all the details, if any, except that
it's some sort of crazyairplane stunt that really
didn't need to happen.
Something like that.
Okay, did it involve a bit ofbeing a show-off?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
uh, not on his part oh, okay yeah, all right, I I'm
gonna just let you tell thisstory yes, and before we do tell
the story, we're gonna leteveryone know that's listening.
There is gonna be some comedyinvolved in this podcast, okay
what yes, we make light ofthings around here.
So if that's not your bag, ifyou don't like true crime comedy
(02:09):
podcasts, then get on anotherflight.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I agree, and without further ado, let's take two
tickets to paradise.
Yeah, baby all right, randallwilliam rhodes.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He was born december 6 1956 in santa monica,
california not too far, justdown the street, right down the
405 and an hour drive, yeah, onthe highway nine miles, two hour
drive.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Uh, both his mother and father were actually
musicians, so music was in hisblood much like dime bag.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yes, a lot of these legends come from musical
families.
Yeah, I've come to find, whichexplains why I don't have any
musical talent.
I can't think of anybody in myentire family tree that plays an
instrument.
Well, that plays itprofessionally yeah, I mean, you
know it's a tough gig um, butdon't you think there's
(03:26):
something to that theory thatit's in the blood?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I think so, yeah I think any industry it's kind of
you know you get passed down.
Your father was a a janitor.
Your father's father was ajanitor, oh god yeah it's the
family business.
either a janitor or a rock androll star yeah exactly, but his
mother, dolores, actually playedprofessional piano or piano
(03:52):
professionally, and his dad wasa public school music teacher
who tried to perform as a soloact.
So, like I said, his blood typewas A minor.
It was.
His blood type was A minor itwas.
But when Randy was a year and ahalf old, his father left his
mother, remarried another womanand hit the bricks with a new
(04:12):
family.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
All right, Well, he didn't really earn that.
No, he wasn't a big music star.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He was a teacher At a public school and you can just
imagine his ego.
But in his head he's the star.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And so he can leave his wife, because that's what
they do in the rock and rollindustry.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Papa was a rolling stone and not one of the good
ones.
Yeah, that's main charactersyndrome.
When people just think thatthey're the man and they're
living in a movie and everybodyelse is just in it for the ride.
So that left his mother.
When people just think thatthey're the man and they're
living in a movie and everybodyelse is just in it for the ride,
so that left his mother,dolores, to raise Randy, his
brother Doug and his sisterKathy all three kids on her own
(04:53):
that is horrible.
Yeah, she graduated from UCLAwith a degree in music and also
opened her own music school.
In where else, but right herein North Hollywood, california,
really?
Yeah, I actually looked it up.
The address is one block awayfrom my place right now.
Shut up, it's still there.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Okay, we're adding it to the die tour we're going to
have to go.
Yeah, it would take a littlebit of explaining, but this is
Randy Rhoads' mom's old school.
Yeah, he died there.
No, no, but he spent someformative years playing music
there exactly now I heard thatshe was a bit of a
(05:35):
disciplinarian.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You would be correct, my friend, because she's a
successful, independent womanwho don't need no man for shit.
She's doing all this stuff onher own.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
She's raising a family um, you'd almost have to
be in that situation.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, um and I don't mean like disciplinarian in the
normal sense, that she was verytough on them but she kind of
was like she, um, you know,wanted to do everything by the
book and make sure her kids were, you know, on the right path,
and and I think she was justreally worried after the father
left that they might getdepressed or try to run away or
(06:12):
whatever.
So she was just making sure tobe right on them.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
It's a classic bridge to depression when there's a
divorce in the family, yeah, orkids acting out Exactly so.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
As soon as she started the, the school she was
bringing um randy there with her.
He was like six years old.
Uh, he was poking around themusic school called the musonia
school of music and musonia.
Wow, he opened a closet door.
Uh, that's like the Britannic.
Yeah, I love that name, the USSMusonia.
(06:48):
He opened a closet door andknocked over one of his
grandfather's acoustic guitarsand his mother ran in there and
was like what are you doing?
And he's like, well, I want toplay that now.
I don't know what that is, soit didn't break, no.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So at six years old.
He it just fell.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, didn't break no .
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So at six years old he just fell, and then it
started rattling like that wouldbe amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Uh, so yeah, at six years old he started getting
guitar lessons.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's the age, you have to start.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I tried it when I was a teenager.
Didn't exactly set the world onfire, not so good.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So yeah, he was playing music, playing guitar,
for six years.
At 12 years old his motherfinally got him to break and
take piano lessons, like shewanted him to, because, as good
as he was at guitar, he didn'teven know how to read music.
So she wanted him to learnmusic theory and know how to
actually read the notes andwhere they go on the scales and
(07:51):
all that stuff.
So he actually took up to thatreally easily and started
reading music quickly and thengot very bored of the piano
because his love for theelectric guitar was just shining
through.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That is sort of a deviation as well.
I would say that he learned allthe notes Because a lot of
those guitar gods like JimiHendrix didn't even know how to
read music.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, exactly.
I would say more don't than do.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So Dolores asked one of her in-house instructors to
teach randy the electric guitar,and just after a few weeks the
teacher was like I can't teachhim anything else because he
already knows everything that Iknow.
Like he's that good, um, keepin mind, he's had a knack for it
and had already been playingacoustic for about six years, so
it kind of came naturally to beable to.
(08:44):
It's not even switching over,it's just playing the same
instrument, um, and some peoplejust have it, uh, but it's nice
to see a grown adult teacherbeing like nah, he's good, like
he just needs to go off andreally start playing now.
To be honest about it, yeah,because some people will still
be like no, you're under mythumb and I'll teach you
everything and blah, blah, blah,right, so going from solo to
(09:09):
band play.
Now he was 14 years old.
He created his first band,violet fox, named after his
mother's middle name, violet.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's a nice tribute, yeah, and calling her a fox yeah
, that's a little weird foxyviolet some freudian stuff there
that's my mom.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, a little oedipus complex.
Oh yeah, oedipus, yeah, butfreud too.
Um, randy, he was playingguitar and his brother doug
played the drums, and they wouldcover the rolling stones alex,
alice, cooper, the beatles,david bowie and more.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Those were his biggest idols Alice Cooper and
David Bowie yes, specificallyMick Ronson, who was the
guitarist in Bowie's band in theZiggy Stardust days.
Right, and looking at Randy'spicture now that you have up, he
sort of looks like Mick Ronson.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I think he modeled his whole style after him right,
which is interesting because hewas no handed up being known as
the guy for that style too yeah, oh yeah.
A lot of people probablywouldn't know the name mick
ronson right, um, and, like yousaid, his mother was a
disciplinarian, so they createdall the music they could listen
(10:23):
to at home.
As weird as it sounds, randy'smother did not allow them to
have a stereo in the house, sothere was no radio.
Um, instead of listening allthe time, they were just
creating and perfecting theircraft together.
Come on, yeah they didn't listento other music well, that
doesn't mean they weren'tsneaking tapes and listening to
them when they could, but it wasjust hidden.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Because obviously he went and listened to Alice
Cooper and David Bowie.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, Like can you imagine living in a house where
your mom is a music teacher butdoesn't allow you to listen to
music?
That's abusive.
It's like a drug dealer thatdoesn't do their own drugs.
That's awful.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Because that's a house of just holding back,
that's a house where you're notgoing to fully enjoy yourself
the thing she creates iscontraband in the house, like I
don't.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I don't understand that, yeah, but can you argue
against it?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
it'd be like she sets up these writing workshops in
her basement for the kids andthen she's like but no books,
yeah, weekly book burning.
If I catch you reading MarkTwain, you're out of here,
you're going to have to writeabout it?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, but can you argue against what she created?
I mean, he became one of thegreatest rock guitarists of all
time in a very short amount oftime.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
One in a hundred turn out like Randy Rhodes.
Less than that.
The others are pushing shoppingcarts by Ralph.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Randy absolutely loved hearing live versions of
concerts and he preferred themover studio recorded music
because he noticed that theguitar players were not as
constrained by the format, whichis true when you go see a band
live.
You could hear the same song amillion times over the years,
but you'd hear a differentguitar solo every time too.
(12:12):
He just loved that, and hewould memorize all the different
iterations of guitar solos fromdifferent live albums and play
them live for people, and itwould just blow people away that
he knew them.
In July of 1971, when he was 14years old, he and his brother
went to see Alice Cooper at theLong Beach Auditorium, and it
changed his life forever.
(12:35):
School's out forever and everthe lights, the sounds, the
crowd, the aura, aura, thefeeling in the building.
Something just clicked where heknew he could work his way to
experiencing that same thing onstage, on stage, one day.
And he was right.
Less than two years later, hestarted a rock band that would
(12:59):
soon be world famous.
Oh, along with his childhoodbest friend, kelly Garney, he
started a band called LittleWomen.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
This is where the record scratcher.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Little Women.
Does that not sound familiar?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It doesn't.
I've heard of the book.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, Seen the movie.
Yeah, that's because that bandended up getting a couple new
members and becoming quiet riot.
Oh yes, uh, quiet riot.
The actual band name came froma quote from a british musician,
rick parfit, from the bandstatus quo.
(13:40):
Uh, he had just mentioned in aninterview that he thought quite
right would be a great bandname, but the guys in the band
were saying it in a Britishaccent, so they were saying
Quiet Riot and that's literallyhow that band name stuck.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Thank God they misheard it.
Quiet Riot, that's way betterthan Quite Right, yeah, quiet.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Riot.
Yeah, quite, right, I am Quite.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Right, I know, quiet, riot right, yeah, quiet riot,
yeah quite right, um, the bandcan?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I am quite right, I know quite right.
The band consisted of drummerdrew forsyth joining randy and
kelly garney, and for somereason, an la based photographer
, kevin debrow, was hired as theleague vocalist and Dubrow
instantly became divisivebecause Randy didn't like him.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I don't think he minded him that much he wasn't
what he was looking for.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He wanted someone darker and more brooding, like
Alice Cooper, as the front man.
That's what he envisioned.
But Dubrow just would not goaway and Randy eventually was
just like all right, I like yourenthusiasm, all right, let's go
.
And they instantly became ahuge sensation in the LA music
scene.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
They were sneering at his musical skills.
Correct that.
Kevin wasn't the greatestsinger Right.
That's what really it was about.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, that's why they talk about him as a
photographer, but he was a hellof a performer.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
He's a showman.
I absolutely think he was oneof the best Wow, especially in
the glam rock era.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I saw a documentary about Quiet Riot.
Spoiler alert Kevin Dubrow died, oh wow.
When did he die In like2007-ish 11?
Of a drug overdose Cocaine oh2007,.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, how did I know that you probably just finished
the documentary?
No I didn't Please, I'm justthat good he died in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Nothing good happens in Vegas.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Accidental cocaine overdose.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I like how they say accidental.
Yeah, so there's a movie thatwas made about the band after
Kevin died trying to replace thelead singer.
Oh yeah, it's great.
You have to go see this.
I have not seen this oneBecause one of the guys that
they hire plays a few shows withhim and he forgets the lyrics
(16:01):
to Come On, Feel the Noise.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Oh, girls Rock your Voice, get wild, wild, wild.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And in the meeting afterwards they all look at the
guy and they say, dude, youcan't forget the lyrics to our
only hit song yeah, the hell'swrong with you.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, so Rhodes, even though he wasn't the front man,
he was the main guy in the band.
Uh, musically and visually, thepolka dot theme, as we can see
here, uh, which is on his guitar, became like his staple.
He would wear um a bow tie withpolka dots on it and like a, a
vest that he would keep open andhave like that v.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, he was not interested in being your
run-of-the-mill guitarist.
No, he related to that glamrock world.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, which is also what Pantera did before they
ended up becoming the realPantera.
They were like glam rock guyswith hairspray.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So is that what they wanted at first?
Do you think yeah, or they werejust trying to fit in.
They were just trying to fit in.
That wasn't their true selfyeah, exactly well, this is
randy rhodes true self.
Yes, glam, so it's the opposite.
Yeah, but there was anothersimilarity that you just
mentioned that I thought of dimebag.
What's that?
The dime bag was the star, eventhough he was not the lead
singer.
Right, that's true, not?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
easy to do.
No word was just getting outthat Rhodes was just like
blowing everybody off the stagelike there was no one as good as
him.
Uh, it's been said that him andEddie Van Halen are like very
comparable on the greatestguitarist of all time.
And did they have a feud?
They sure did.
In the 70s they developed afriendly but big rivalry,
(17:41):
frenemies, frenemies exactly,with Van Halen.
Uh, before either of them hadsigned a record deal, wow, van
halen signed to warner brothersin 1977 and released a debut
album that would achieve goldstatus.
Quiet riots contract with sonyonly got their first two albums
released in japan.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Whoa like what the hell?
Well, big in j in Japan, wherethat phrase comes from Better
than having no fans.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, this inability to get an American deal was
getting everybody pissed off andDubrow and Bassist Garney began
to cannibalize the band.
Garney said I was on a constantquest to get dubrow out of the
band and get a different singer.
I hated him, he hated me and wecould not find any way
(18:31):
whatsoever to get along, whichcaused a lot of tension in the
band and it put a lot of stresson randy to try to be neutral I
don't understand all thefighting, because wouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Don't you think that kevin dubrow would have been a
charismatic guy?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
well, just taking drugs having fun but then you
really start to sniff your ownass and believe your own hype
and uh, yeah, believe your ownbullshit.
Yeah, I suppose I can see howit happens where people who are
clearly more talented than youjust go shut the fuck up.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, and then you see others make it before you
that have less talent, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
There was a huge, almost deadly breaking point of
the band at this point.
This is in 1978.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Of Quiet Riot yes.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They were recording Quiet Riot 2, and Kelly Garney
got so drunk he robbed a bar andstole a bunch of liquor.
He went up to Randy and waslike we need to replace the
vocalist.
When Rhodes said no, garneydrunkenly fired a handgun
through the ceiling and a fightbetween him and Rhodes broke out
what the ceiling, and a fightbetween him and Rhodes broke out
(19:43):
what.
Garney then ran away and cameup with a plan to go across town
to where DeBrow was recordingthe vocals for Quiet Riot 2.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
And then they were going to cut a hole in the floor
around him and he was justgoing to fall into it Almost.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
His plan was to take that gun and go shoot him in the
head.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
oh my, fucking god yeah he really wanted to shoot
kevin dubrow and kill him.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He was gonna kill him .
Yeah well, he almost killedrandy.
They were fighting and justfucking bang.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
The gun goes off in the ceiling when you said deadly
, I thought it was a bit ofhyperbole not at all.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So on his way over he was so drunk, he was speeding
and swerving, and he wasarrested for drunk driving
before he reached the studio ohwow, yeah, well, lucky for her,
kevin.
Yeah, by the next year, 1979,.
(20:48):
Randy was just like I'm sick ofhow much you guys are fighting.
This is bullshit.
You know I didn't start thisband to be stressed out Like
we're trying to get a deal here.
Later that year, a man namedOzzy Osbourne steps up to the
plate and is looking for a newguitarist.
Dana Strum kept calling Randyand was like we have an opening,
(21:10):
keep coming, audition, audition, audition.
And he's like no, he's like Igot a band, we're trying to work
it out and Ozzy is fresh fromBlack Sabbath at this point.
Yeah, so I didn't realize.
I thought Ozzy was at the pointwhere he was getting so big
that he just left black sabbath.
It's the complete opposite.
The band was just like we'redone with you because he was
drinking and drugging like crazyand they just didn't want to do
(21:31):
it anymore.
So I always thought ozzy leftthem.
They left ozzy, they dumpedthem.
That's what I assumed too.
Yeah, so ozzy's like all right,I'll go do my own thing getting
a new tour together.
And randy is like fine,whatever, like I just want this
guy to stop, brings his guitarand sets up his amp and it's
(21:52):
just warming up in the otherroom, knowing that ozzy's, like
you know, getting ready orwhatever.
And through the wall ozzy waslike what the fuck is that?
Oh my god.
He didn't know if he was liketoo drunk and he was hearing it
better than it really was orwhat, but he was having a vision
he literally he was in his earshe was just warming up and Ozzy
(22:14):
came out and was like that wasthe best thing I ever heard.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You're hired.
Or it was more like oh my God,that's the best thing I ever
heard.
You got a bat.
You're hired, sharon.
And Randy was freaked outbecause he was just like you
didn't even hear my stuff yet Iwas just warming up.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Andy was like freaked out because he was just like
you, didn't even hear my stuffyet I was just warming up, which
is insane that his warm up isbetter than anybody else's
actual audition.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
How amazing would that be.
You show up for an audition andyou just start going Okay, let
me start.
And then they say wait, stopthe presses.
You got it, kid, we're signingyou to a six picture deal yeah,
(23:01):
so life changes immediately.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
He's no longer you know having to be stressed out
by a quiet riot and how perfectfor ozzy.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, he starting this solo endeavor.
And then you come across thegreatest guitarist in the world.
Yeah, yeah, sure, let's link up.
Come on down, come on, feel thenoise with me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Osbourne was telling the band that he recently met
one of the best guitarists inLos Angeles and his name's Randy
Rhodes.
He's going to be running aroundwith them, uh.
The new group's managementintended to keep the lineup all
british, uh, and was reluctantto hire an unknown american, but
manager don arden eventuallyrelented.
Who is don arden, by the way?
Speaker 3 (23:47):
a producer, yes, and a father of sharon osborne.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Did you know that I did?
I'm like how the fuck it's allnepotism I know I thought sharon
was like this unknown womanthat was in the crowd, just like
rocky and adrian nope, and shewas homely back in the 80s, yeah
.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So it was like a nice story, like oh, that's sweet,
as he could have been with allthese other groupies and he
picks this nice lady, yeah daddywas a record producer.
I had no idea until this crazydaddy wasn't the rolling stone
no he owned rolling stone yeahand he was married to someone
(24:33):
else at the time.
Ozzy, oh, was he at this point?
They started out as an affair,ooh, and then it got more
serious.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Hey, well, daddy's paying the bills.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
It better get serious , and I also heard a tasty rumor
that one night, after somedrinks, randy Rhoes and sharon
made out they had a shag.
Not a shag, just a couple ofsmooches, wow, well.
Well, you know how things geton tour it's incestuous sex,
(25:09):
drugs and rock and roll.
That's right, um.
And by the way, another truestory about Sharon she had sex
with Jay Leno.
No, I swear to God, thisAlejandro fake fact is coming
back again.
I know it sounds weird.
Why would I just make this up?
Because you do shit like that.
(25:29):
It's a true story.
Google it.
Wow, Everyone listening.
Just write it down.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Google it later just imagine the noises coming out of
that room.
Oh, you like that?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
oh yeah, jay, little lower please.
What right here is this it?
Hey, jay.
Hey kevin, you see this g spot.
Did you hear about this?
I'm about to come, I'm flappingher ass.
You see this?
I can't believe.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It smells like bleach oh well, randy didn't make it
easy to be hired either, whichis shows that they really,
really wanted him.
Um, he showed up to heathrowairport, was turned away because
he didn't have the necessarywork permit to actually go there
(26:20):
and start working as a musician, which he should have been on
top of.
Yes, um, they threw him in aholding cell and handcuffed him,
put him back on a plane to theus and they had to really work
it out, getting the paperworkdone over the next couple weeks,
um, because they needed tostart going on the road.
Yeah, uh, and rehearsing umbull rush cottage was, um a
(26:45):
rehearsal space back in london.
Um, and it was there that roadslived with Osborne and his then
wife, thelma.
That's right, so Ozzy had twoother kids, you mean besides
that, kelly and Jack.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Besides Kelly and Jack, yeah, well, there was one
that refused to appear on thereality show.
I knew there was a third onethat just didn't want any part
of the spotlight.
What the amy?
I believe amy osborne.
Jessica elliot kingsley lewisosborne gee, where was their
(27:22):
reality show?
He could have had a couplegoing at the same time.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
The uk version, the osbornes too, yeah uh, on his
wikipedia it says he has five,including amy, kelly and jack.
So there's, yeah, the other twothat he had with them and then
the other two listed.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
That's crazy the other two that he never talks to
.
He even started a podcast withkelly and jack.
Yeah, sharon, that's why I'm so.
What about the other kids?
Fuck, where's their podcast?
Sheesh, wow, um.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
They're probably the grip osborne stated in his
autobiography that he didn'tunderstand why a musician as
talented as roads would want toget involved with a quote
bloated alcoholic wreck likehimself so he was self
deprecating yeah, and that's whythey were trying so hard to
make sure his paperwork gotcleared.
(28:20):
And you know we're stealing himfrom another band and really it
wasn't easy for them to get himand, uh, they wanted to make it
work because they knew howtalented he was.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Because on some level Quiet Riot is not fully
established yet.
So perhaps in Randy's mind he'drather be with an original band
and come up with them Right,Rather than join forces with an
already established entertainerlike Ozzy.
Yeah, and he was not a fan ofBlack Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Randy wasn't.
No, oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Not at all, holy shit , which is insane if you think
about it.
Yeah, usually they hire theperson.
That is like groveling at theirfeet, like, oh my god, you are
the best?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
yeah, because then you can pay him less.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
He's just happy to be there because he didn't like to
play Black Sabbath songs ontour.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So they were off and running man.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, crazy Train is a great song to kickstart it.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, which I always thought Crazy Train was Sabbath,
sabbath.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Same, it's not.
It's not.
Wow, it's Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay, so that is all, randy Rhodes.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, wow.
By the way, sharon Osbournerevealed the Jay Leno story on
the Talk.
Yeah, I see the article here.
They had one of those gimmickyepisodes where everyone tells a
secret.
Oh, and that was hers Next upon the Yuck.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
How can you show your face after?
Speaker 3 (29:53):
that Boy.
I had sex with Jay Leno, whowants to imagine that we already
did Okay.
So where are we?
Crazy train.
We're on a crazy train.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, we're on a crazy train out of Sharon
Osbourne's ass and going back tothe band.
Pretty insane that Sharon wasthere.
She would always go on tourwith them.
Um, I don't know exactly when.
I guess I'll look it up now,because I didn't realize there
was such drama with sharon andthelma.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
It makes sense, though, if you think about it,
she's the manager, so they'retogether all the time.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, and for all the things that usually the spouse
isn't a part of the crazy trainof shows and touring and parties
and yeah, so Thelma and Ozzyhad Jessica and Louis, and they
adopted Elliot Kingsley, whichis Thelma's five-year-old son
(30:50):
from a previous relationship,who was born in 66.
So he really has six kids,because he has Amy, jack and
Kelly and Elliot, louis andJessica, who I don't know if
anyone's ever heard of.
I certainly haven't.
No, their divorce was in 1982,which is a year we're heading to
(31:15):
right now anyway.
So let's get into it Yay, yay,yay.
Ozzy admitted that his strugglewith alcohol and substance abuse
was the main reason behindtheir separation.
But it doesn't seem just that.
It seems that also SharonOsbourne, being on the tour bus
with them all the time Throwingherself at him, may have had
something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Getting closer to 1982, 1981, we have a clip here
of Mr Randy Rhodes Randy onbehalf of the over half million
readers of Guitar PlayerMagazine in the US and in 70
countries throughout the world,I'd like to present you with the
1981 Best New Talent Award.
Congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ooh.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Give him a kiss, ozzy .
Oh, there's Sharon.
I've got a lot of work to doand it makes you realize there's
a lot of responsibility andthis tour.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I want to really get myself together and work harder,
you know, because I'm reallyproud and honored and I don't
want to stop here, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, why stop there?
You don't stop there.
The way Sharon was throwingsmooches on him, she looks like
Susan.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Boyle, exactly like Susan Boyle.
Oh, that's not a compliment.
No, it's not, she did level up.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well, yeah, when she got her face carved up, yeah she
got a bit of lipo, got someplastic surgery, got a couple
more hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Got a giant Boston-based chin up her ass.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
That was before, though How's that feel.
That was the 70s.
Oh, that was the 70s.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, this is post-Jay Leno.
Oh, so she was banging himbefore.
He was even really Jay Leno, hewas just a guy with a chin and
a microphone.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yep.
And a lot less cars, but seeingher in that clip with him, I
wonder if they had threesomes.
Ugh, maybe I'm bringing up alot of gross stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
What does that room smell?
Like Not good.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
War pigs yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Oh boy, all right, let's see Ozzy live with Randy.
Yeah, oh boy, all right, let'ssee Ozzy live with Randy.
Ooh, see him shred with thatcustomized polka dot guitar.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Oh hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, a little, mr Crowley, for you.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
They had a great rapport with each other.
You can tell from that clip ohyeah, Much more you know,
playful.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
And yet could deliver .
Yeah, exactly yeah, you couldfeel that they have more going
on than quiet riot did with thebro for sure they have more than
just come feel the noise, which, by the way, quiet ride,
finally blew up in the early 80swith metal health.
The album, yeah, and come on,feel the noise.
(34:49):
But did you know that theydidn't even write that song?
Really, that was from slade in1973.
Oh wow, it was a cover I didnot know that yeah, wow.
So now do you think even lessof kevin dubrow?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
yes, oh my goodness.
Well, all the success ishappening it's a successful time
.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
It's a good time to be alive.
Yes, if you're a guitarvirtuoso yeah, absolutely,
things are looking up.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
You're on tour with, you know, one of the biggest
rock names of all time.
You're a rock god yourself.
I have a question though Imight have an answer.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Was ozzy acting better in this time?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
no, he, he didn't tone it down at all.
No, and randy um, the lastthing he ever said to him was
you're gonna kill yourself.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Before he got off the bus I guess I was just thinking
that to achieve all thesemilestones you'd have to be
somewhat with it, Nope?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Nope, I mean Ozzy is known for being that guy where
he stumbles out and, you know,still puts on a good show, but
behind the scenes he's a goddamnwreck.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, that is exactly what he's known for.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And portrayed as because in that movie I've told
you about before decline ofwestern civilization, part two
yeah which is about heavy metal.
Um, what's her name?
The penelope spheras, whodirected wayne's world.
She was the director of thisdocumentary and she interviews
ozzy in it and he's talking toher in his kitchen and then she
(36:31):
cuts to a close-up of his handpouring orange juice into a
glass, and then the hand startsshaking like this oh yeah, and
the orange juice goes all overthe counter.
I've seen that yeah she lateradmitted that that was fake.
Oh, it was inserted later.
Oh, jesus, but that tells youwhat his public persona was.
(36:51):
Yeah, that they wanted to dothat, because everyone's
expecting that from ozzy right,yeah, I mean ozzy.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
He went into a record label and bit the head off a
bat.
He was just out of his mind.
He did that on stage.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
I thought no, it was in uh executive's office that
might have been a dove in theexecutive's off executive office
, let me see, but he did itother times.
I believe the bat, though, wason stage, and randy rhodes was
not a fan of those kind ofantics oh, this was in concert
(37:25):
on uh on the road in des moines.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, the bat was.
He thought it was a rubber bat.
I picked it up, put it in mymouth, crunched down bit into
bit into it, being the clownthat I am, In Des Moines it was
yeah, All right.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
So in Wisconsin the bat bites you.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And in Iowa you bite the bat Words and photos emerged
saying that he'd bitten theheads off of two white doves at
the CBS sales sales conventionin los angeles.
The plan had been for ozzy togive a speech of thanks to his
audience and then release threesymbolic doves at peace, but he
ate two of them.
Okay, what?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
an animal, wow, and randy absolutely hated that.
Yeah, I wouldn't be, he justwanted to be glam rock now.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Let's play some fucking music, put some
hairspray in our hair and have agood time.
You don't?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
need to kill birds or rodents with wings uh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So, ozzy, like you were asking, he was drinking
heavily.
He even um fired the entireband after a show.
Well, he was shit-faced, had nomemory of doing it.
Uh, so they just kept on playingon the road god almighty, yeah
uh, he kept saying to randy thatfrank zappa and gary moore were
(38:43):
going to replace him on theroad and was just fucking with
him at this point.
It's like dude, you begged forhim to come to your band and
he's there and now you'retreating him like shit.
It's crazy.
So they're going on the road.
They played Thursday, march 18,1982 at the Knoxville Civic
(39:03):
Coliseum.
The next day the band wasscheduled to play the Rock Super
Bowl, which is a festival inOrlando, florida.
That was happening for quitesome time in the 70s and 80s.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
What is it about?
It has nothing to do withfootball, right?
No?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It's literally just the name of a festival, like
when we were a young festival orWoodstock or whatever.
It's not like the Rock puttingon a football game, it was just
the Rock Super Bowl.
And his final conversationOsborne remembers having with
(39:39):
Randy was Randy saying to himyou'll kill yourself, you know,
one of these days.
And then he got off the bus.
Why did he get off the bus?
After driving much of the night, the tour bus stopped at the
Flying Baron Estates in Leesburg, florida, to fix a
malfunctioning air conditionerWhile Osborne remained asleep.
You'd want?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
that in Florida.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Very humid hot.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Extremely humid.
It's so gross.
On the property owned by theCalhoun brothers there was an
airstrip with helicopters andsmall planes.
Without permission, the tourbus driver and private pilot,
andrew Aycock, took asingle-engine Beechcraft F-35
plane registered to Mike Partonand just stole it and went up
(40:26):
for a flight.
On the first flight, aycocktook keyboardist Don Airy and
tour manager Jake Duncan withhim as passengers.
Duncan later revealed thatAycock buzzed the bus in an
attempt to wake up the drummerTommy Aldridge.
The group then landed.
The second flight had Rhodes.
What a lunatic, yeah.
Second flight had Randy Rhodesand makeup artist and wardrobe
(40:49):
girl Rachel Youngblood on theflight.
Rhodes had tried to get thebassistblood on the flight.
Rhodes had tried to get thebassist Rudy Zarzo on the flight
and Zarzo was like hell.
No, I'm not going on thatfucking thing, and neither
should you.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Smart, it's called self-preservation.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, but the only reason Randy did is because he
knew that Rachel Youngblood hada really bad heart condition.
So ACOC was like listen, I knowabout her condition too.
I'm not gonna do that again.
I just want it to be a nice,you know flight.
We'll go up, take some picturesand just come down and land and
randy was like all right, fineso he thought that because she
(41:24):
was joining them, it was justgonna be a nice tranquil ride
yeah, why didn't the first twoguys that took the ride warn
anybody?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
You'd think they would be like that was awful,
you asshole.
You almost killed us.
Well, they were laughing.
Oh, they thought it was funnyto clip the bus and almost die.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well, they didn't clip it, they just went near it.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Well, they went near enough to rattle it.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, exactly, during the second flight, more
attempts were made to buzz thetour bus.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Oh, buzz, that's just flying over it.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
He succeeded in making two close passes but
botched the third attempt At 10am.
After being in the air forabout five minutes, one of the
plane's wings clipped the top ofthe tour bus, breaking the wing
into two parts, sending theplane spiraling.
The initial impact with the buscaused Rhodes and Youngblood's
(42:21):
heads to crash through theplane's windshield.
The plane then severed the topof a pine tree and crashed into
the garage of a nearby mansion,bursting into flames.
Randy Aycock and Youngblood,ages 25, 36, and 58,
respectively, were all killedinstantly.
All three bodies were burnedbeyond recognition and Rhodes
was identified by his jewelry.
He was that badly burned,according to Sharon Osbourne,
(42:47):
who was asleep on the bus andawoken by the crash, said they
were all in bits.
It was just body partseverywhere.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Like the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Sounds like worse.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
The band's keyboardist, don Airy, was the
only member of the band towitness the crash.
In his account he reported astruggle between Rhodes and
Aycock in the cockpit secondsbefore the crash.
So he thinks that he knew theuh tour bus driver was fucking
around and wanted him to stopand so he was like fighting for
the control of the plane.
(43:20):
Randy was yeah, and so uh donairy truly believes that had he
not done that, that more peoplewould have been dead because he
would have been even lowerbecause he saw them struggling
for control of the plane.
Also could be that thatstruggle is what caused them to
clip the fucking tour bus rightso it's hard to say could have
(43:43):
just been a buzzing.
Yeah, um, because he was takingpictures with his own camera.
He had like a telephoto lensand he could see through the
lens that there was a strugglegoing on board.
The wings were rapidly tippingfrom side to side and at one
point the plane was almostcompletely sideways, no more
than six feet off the ground.
That's when I put down mycamera and saw the plane right
(44:05):
in front of me.
I quickly crouched to avoidgetting hit and looked over my
shoulder and watched it clip thebus, crash into into the tree
and explode on impact into thegarage.
Could?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
you imagine being an eyewitness to that, and people
you know.
Terror, oh my God.
And Randy Rhoads, no less.
Yeah, a talent that is justbecoming itself.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Yeah, and all they could see was the manager came
out, Jake Duncan, who was on thefirst flight.
He was in the fetal positionjust screaming they're gone,
they're gone.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
And in his head he's thinking that could have been
him.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah, tommy Aldridge grabbed a fire extinguisher from
the bus and ran towards thecrash site in an attempt to put
out the fire, but it was justway too big.
Yeah, the entire house burntdown.
One of the guys ran in and tosee if anybody was inside the
house, and it was just one like80 something year old man and he
was deaf, so he didn't knowwhat happened.
He felt like a big oh and he'slooking and then all of a sudden
(45:06):
there's this stranger in hishouse screaming at him to get
the fuck out, and there's smokejust billowing through the house
.
He's like that, that poor guy.
He's like I don't know signlanguage.
Eventually someone was able tocommunicate to him what happened
, but he's like.
I feel so bad for him that thathappened on his property and to
his house and he didn'tcomprehend what was actually
happening until way later.
And lucky that he didn't die aswell.
(45:28):
Yeah, exactly, luckily theywent into the house to try to
find somebody.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
How terrifying luckily they went into the house
to try to find somebody.
How terrifying and luckily thefront door was open and the
moment that old man finallyunderstood oh god, and where was
the pilot sleeping?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
um, the actual owner of the plane.
Yeah, this was on a propertythat.
Oh, the plane was just there.
Every house had a plane outsideof it.
Yeah, but how did they get thekeys?
Oh, I think they just left theminside.
Yeah, they didn't think anyonewould just come by and be a
dumbass and the old honor wildride?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
yeah, the old honor system.
Yeah, this is why you need tohide the keys.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Don't let idiots near your plane yeah, I mean the,
the, the guy that didn't want togo on the flight.
What was his name?
Rudy Sarzo.
He knew that the bus driver,that dude Aycock, had been up
doing cocaine all night too anddrinking Like they didn't even
like that.
He was driving the tour bus,Never mind get on a flight with
him.
Right, they were like finallywe're here, we're safe.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Don't fuck with this guy anymore.
Let him sleep.
Uh-huh, didn't work.
There are characters like thatthat are completely out of
control.
They're irritating and you knowthey don't have a good ending,
right.
It's just a shame that theytake others with them.
Yeah, and remind me sharon andozzy, you said, were in a nearby
cabin.
They were on the bus, so theywere on the bus that the plane
(46:56):
was buzzing over, yeah, so theycould have been killed easily oh
, absolutely If the plane hadcrashed right into the bus
instead of just clipping it.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Yeah, if the plane, if the wing hit it like another
foot lower, it would have takenmore of the plane down
immediately instead of making itgo up.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Because they like barely clipped it.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
Ah, but still, but still.
That's not much, that's reallynot much space in the scheme of
things when it comes to anairplane.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, and especially if you're laying on the top bunk
.
It destroyed the top where ithit, so it could have easily
killed someone just from that.
But they were sleeping at thetime and they wake up to that
yeah, sarzo was making teabecause they woke him up to do
the plane plane ride with themand he was like no.
(47:44):
And then he got up and washaving his tea, said he was
pouring milk into his tea and itfelt like the tour bus exploded
and he had no idea whathappened.
he shit his pants and ran outyeah and that's when he saw uh
on the grass outside justrocking back and forth in the
fetal position saying they'regone, they're gone.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Because if you were in the bus and woke up to that,
I remember a couple summers ago,when there was an earthquake
here, I woke up in the middle ofthe night to all the shaking
and rumbling and I wasabsolutely terrified.
Yeah, all the shaking andrumbling and I was absolutely
terrified.
Yeah, imagine it's not just anearthquake that goes away within
seconds.
Imagine it actually issomething completely terrifying.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Just a huge explosion .
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Right over your head.
Yeah, Ozzy said.
Uh, he was awoken by a loudexplosion.
He immediately thought thatthey'd hit a vehicle on the road
.
Uh, he got out of bed screamingto hit a vehicle on the road.
He got out of bed screaming toSharon get off the bus.
Meanwhile she was screaming ateveryone to get off the bus too.
After getting out of the bus, Isaw a plane had crashed.
I didn't know who was on theplane.
(48:50):
When we realized that ourpeople were on the plane, I
found it very difficult to getassistance from anyone to help.
In fact, it took.
It took, he says, almost a halfhour before anyone arrived.
It was actually over two hoursshut up before first responders
got there how much in the middle?
of nowhere was this very much inthe middle of nowhere.
It was on like acres and acresby itself and the closest um
(49:15):
people were too far away andthey didn't have a phone, which
is why they all had planes intheir yeah driveways so it was,
you know, 9, 10 in the morningand that's why, um, it took
people seeing the smoke going upin the air to call 9-1-1 and be
like I think something happenedover there and they're like,
all right, we'll get around toit finally showed up.
(49:36):
They didn't realize there was aplane crash with three people
dead in an entire mansionburning to the ground.
Uh, randy rhodes girlfriendjody raskin was in her car when
she recalled hearing a block ofsongs from blizzard of oz on the
radio before the dj announcedthe accident and the news that
rhodes was killed.
That's to be crazy, figure out.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
Like oh cool, they're playing crazy train.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, and it's all exciting to hear and then they
come on saying he's dead, likethat's your partner.
That's crazy.
She said she was way toodistraught to continue driving,
had to pull over.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
That's so unimaginable.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah, when Eddie Van Halen learned about the crash,
he said that the pilot had tohave been fucked up.
When it happened In a 1982radio interview, he was saying
you don't fly that low and smashinto a crew bus and then hit
the house.
He said the pilot was jerkingoff.
That's just plain stupidity.
I feel so sorry for Randy.
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
It wasn't even a pilot error.
The guy was doing that onpurpose.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, a pilot error you could forgive right exactly
but he just thinks he's fuckinghilarious god, I hate those kind
of people the british rocksinger Ozzy Osbourne, formerly
with the group Black Sabbath,escaped injury when a plane made
two low passes over the housein Florida where he was staying
with his present band and thencrashed into it, but the group's
(51:10):
lead guitarist and make-upartist were killed.
Osbourne, who's from Birmingham, has achieved notoriety through
outrageous stage antics,including biting the heads off
birds.
Keith Hendel reports.
Speaker 4 (51:21):
A private plane buzzed the house in Leesburg,
florida, where the group wasstaying On the third pass.
The pilot clipped their tourbus parked outside and ploughed
into the house, killing thegroup's lead guitarist, randall
Rhodes, and the make-up artist,rachel Youngblood.
He also killed himself.
Ozzy Osbourne was sitting inthe bus at the time but somehow
(51:43):
survived unhurt.
All the other members of thegroup also escaped, even though
petrol from the wrecked planestarted a fierce fire and gutted
the house.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Somehow Leesburg Florida rolled off the tongue
well in British.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Leesburg Osborne admitted that Aycock had been
doing cocaine all night prior tothe crash.
It was confirmed that afterautopsy he tested positive for
cocaine, which I think is crazy,Like how can you be burnt that
much and still have any trace ofanything on?
Speaker 3 (52:20):
you.
I guess we learned that cocaineis very durable, I guess, so
inflammable uh rhodes toxicologytest.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Toxicology test revealed only nicotine uh.
The ntsb investigationdetermined that acock's aviation
medical certificate had expiredand it was reported.
Listen to this.
The most avoidable part of thisthing is acock had been the
pilot in another fatal crash inthe united arab emirates six
(52:54):
years earlier.
He killed somebody as a pilot ahelicopter pilot wow sharon had
known about the crash butdidn't inform anyone else on the
tour.
Sharon, sharon, sharon but shedidn't know he was going to jump
(53:15):
into a plane I mean, it doesn'tmatter if he's on a plane or
train or an automobile, that'sright.
I don't care if he's with johncandy all night he, uh, yeah.
In the moments after the crashhe started screaming at the tour
manager for allowing theirpeople on a plane with a pilot
(53:38):
who'd been using drugs all night, telling him don't you know?
That man had already killed oneof the calhoun's kids in a
helicopter crash.
So the people that owned thevery property that they're
staying on killed one of theirkids, like why would you even
bring that guy to one of theirproperties?
Speaker 3 (53:56):
huh that's very weird , yeah not good, not good.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
uh, the first lutheran church in burbank,
california, is where randy hadhis funeral and the pallbearers
were ozzy osbourne, aldridgesarzo and kevin debrow, if you
can imagine that, wow.
Speaker 3 (54:21):
That's pretty heavy, yep.
Not the coffin, just the weightof the story and relationship.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, he was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in San
Bernardino, california, and onhis tomb has been written an
inspiration for all young people.
Can you believe that he wasonly 25 years old when he?
Speaker 3 (54:46):
passed away same age as tupac.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
It's crazy, we have to start a 25 club, yeah but I
mean, his legacy is still aliveand, like I said, he's up there
with you.
Know, know people arguing inbars about either Randy Rhodes
or Eddie Van Halen being thebest guitarist of all time.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
So it's you know.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
Very much so, yeah, and for someone that is not
really affiliated with any onefamous band.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, I didn't realize about quiet riot and
randy rhodes.
I was like holy shit.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Randy rhodes is definitely a name that most
everyone knows.
Speaker 1 (55:28):
That's familiar with classic rock yeah he's really,
it's synonymous right guitarvirtuoso yeah it's just so
goddamn sad and frustrating thatthat's how it had to well
(55:48):
because this is so needless, youknow yeah just because some
dumb fuck high on cocaine thinksoh, we should be funny and wake
him up.
Yeah, it's like you already didit four times.
Why are you gonna do it thefifth time?
but also you have to questionwhy anyone would get in the
plane with them like I said, theonly reason he was coaxed on
was because, you know, the womanthat was going on with them,
(56:12):
the makeup and wardrobe lady,had a bad heart and the guy was
like listen, I know she has abad heart.
We're going to go up there andgo around the property a couple
times, we're just going up for alittle fun.
Speaker 3 (56:21):
That's not sufficient for me.
Yeah, so if the lady with a badheart jumped off a bridge, then
Randy Rhodes would too.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
The golden gate.
It's not a good reason to go upin a dangerous plane, I know,
but I could see how you could belike okay, I trust you.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
Never.
In fact, I'm never getting inany private plane or helicopter.
Helicopters definitely notPlanes.
I could get in a private planeno.
Have fun.
Yeah, I've gone skydiving a fewtimes.
Speaker 3 (56:51):
Say hi to JFK Jr.
Yeah, and you're crazy forgoing skydiving after your mom's
story.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
I went before my mom's story.
She went after me.
I haven't been since then.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
We talked about on a previous episode.
Kyle's mom had a skydivinginstructor and then she went
skydiving Two weeks later.
Two weeks later, her instructordied in a skydiving accident.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
With the person he had strapped to his back.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Never Yikes, never, ever, ever.
Diving accident with the personhe had strapped to his back.
Never yikes, never, ever, ever.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
yeah, and that brings us to final thoughts don't get
into planes with people who havebeen doing cocaine all night if
their nose is covered in whitestuff, go the other way.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Yeah, run if they.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
If someone is all tweaked out saying you want to
see something cool, say no yeah,also, if you know that someone
is responsible for pilotinganother person to death, I don't
care if it's in another country, don't allow them to drive or
pilot you in any way, shape orform.
That's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
That's awful Come on.
Sharon, there should have beenbetter quality control there,
majorly.
It's almost too bizarre tofathom why you would have that
person in your circle.
You want the best Van Halen.
They did that brown M&M thingfor a reason Because if they saw
one brown M&M in that ball,they knew that there were
(58:27):
corners that were cut.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
It goes for everything, not just the stage
show.
For the tour bus, for traveling, you have to be safe.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
You do.
You got to make sure everyone'staken care of.
The road's dangerous enough,you don't have to make it even
more.
Speaker 3 (58:48):
The Randy Road's dangerous enough, yeah.
But yeah, rest in peace theyshould have a Ben and Jerry
flavor.
Randy Road's, Rocky RandyRoad's.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah, all right, I'll work.
Jerry flavor, randy Rhodes,rocky.
Speaker 1 (59:02):
Randy Rhodes.
Yeah, all right, I'll work onit.
Randy Rocky.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
Rhodes.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
You've got mail From Tony Tomato Blue.
That said, I was up and downback and forth with my feelings
on your Farrah Fawcett MJepisode.
However, when Kyle gotteary-eyed over Paris Jackson, I
loved it.
The jokes about MJ and the kidswere rough, but I laughed some.
Thank you.
We got a few out there.
(59:29):
Well, thanks for sticking withus Tony.
Yeah, you know, you have an MJepisode.
There's going to be some jokesto be to be had yeah, and
there's also going to becontroversy yeah because some
people think one thing and otherpeople think another thing
exactly, and we're not allmonsters here, okay, no,
(59:53):
sometimes we can tear up alittle bit and we're all human.
Speaker 3 (59:56):
Yeah, I'm tearing up right now.
Yeah, I'm not, but I should trythat because you got a lot of
goodwill from that yeah, youknow it's just being human man.
Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
It is, we're all human.
Tell them that it's humannature.
Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
Shannon called the episode a masterpiece whoa,
where'd you say that?
on instagram oh shit, I did notsee that and then we're getting
some good words on youtube aswell.
Oh, very nice.
Another person said kyle almostcrying, totally got me to cry.
Oh, that was happy's funhouse.
(01:00:36):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And someone reminded us, ianO'Neill commented and then Billy
Mays died, which is correct.
Yeah, just a few days laterBilly Mays was the.
You know, they say deaths comein threes, but sometimes it's
(01:00:56):
just a bunch.
Yeah, like a bunch of coconutson merv griffin's back lovely
bunch of coconuts okay, well, wehad a good time here, yeah, you
know.
Thanks for joining us again.
Go listen to some ozzy.
Yeah, celebrate the sound ofrandy rhodes absolutely.
And all roads lead to thispodcast.
(01:01:17):
Death and entertainment yes.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Youtube instagram, tiktok wherever you want at
death and entertainment.
Spotify, apple, google podcastis closing down, but wherever
else you get your podcast, youknow where to find us and don't
forget about our patreon.
Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
We just posted a very special bonus episode about the
carter family.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yes, Nick and Aaron Carter.
There's a lot to be discussedover there.
Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
There was a lot to unpack there, mm-hmm.
And we did it, we did, and wealso did this.
Yes, we did, and this is it.
And until next week, don't godying on us, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
You have just heard a true Hollywood murder mystery.
I have never seen anything likethis before.
Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
A place that manufactures nightmares.
Okay, everybody, that's a wrapGood night.
Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Please drive home carefully and come back again
soon.
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