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Randy Rhoads The Tragic Death Of Ozzy Osbourne & Quiet Riot Guitarist

Rock N' Roll True Stories | May 9, 2026



Randy Rhoads: The Guitarist’s Tragic Death.
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#randyrhoads #ozzyosbourne #quietriot

This has been a story that’s been requested by quite a few people and it’s one of the most tragic stories in rock n’ roll. Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads would die in a horrific plane crash on March 19, 1982, The details of exactly what happened still aren’t clear to this day, but lets talk about what we do know and some of the theories over what happened that fateful day. Stay tuned for the full story.

Ozzy Osbourne has had to reinvent himself numerous times in his career. Ozzy first came onto people’s radar as the frontman for metal pioneer’s Black Sabbath but along with success came addictions and in-fighting which ultimately led to his firing in 1979.

His dismissal from Back Sabbath led Ozzy to reinvent himself as a solo artist, something which he had a tremendous amount of success with. That success wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Ozzy meeting guitarist Randy Rhodes. Ozzy’s would tell A&E “I knew instinctively that he was something extra special referring to Rhods,” “He was like a gift from God. Randy and I were like a team.” Ozzy’s wife and manager would recall how Randy gave the Prince of Darkness a much needed shot in the arm when it came to his creativity revealing As soon as he found Randy, it was like night and day,” Sharon says. “He was alive again. Randy was a breath of fresh air, funny, ambitious, just a great guy.”

Randy’s story began on December 6, 1956, in Burbank, California. The youngest of three, Randy was surrounded by musical talent as his mother and father were both music teachers. His mother founded the Musonia Music School which Rhodes and his two siblings attended. Rhodes was taught by an instructor at the school named Scott Shelly who at one point went to Randy’s mother and told her he could no longer teach her son as Rhoads’ knowledge of guitar had surpassed his own.

By the age of 16 Rhoads was teaching music at the very school which he attended and he would also start a band with longtime friend Kevin Garni and recruit singer Kevin Dubrow and drummer Drew Forsyth. They would call themselves Little Women before changing their name to Quiet Riot. Soon enough Quiet Riot became one of the hottest bands on the LA Club scene inking a deal to CBS Records. Despite the fact that the band was one of the more popular groups in LA at the time their label opted to release their first two records in japan only frustrating rhodes. According to Rhodes CBS Records thought Van Halen already was the “LA Band” and they didn’t think there should be another LA band releasing albums in the states. Also adding to problems was the detriorating relationship between the members that resulted in drunken fistfights and death threats. Frustrated, Rhoads left the band to pursue other opportunities in 1979 . The same year, Ozzy Osbourne was out of Black Sabbath and in LA attempting to form a band to support his solo career. An acquaintance of Rhoads’ from the LA club scene , future Slaughter bassist Dana Strum, got in touch with Rhoads insisting he audition. Rhoads apparently wasn’t interested but reluctantly agreed to get Strum to stop bothering him.

The day before Ozzy was set to head to England, Rhoads had his audition. The audition would take place at a studio in LA. Using a gibson les paul and a practice amp the guitarist entered the room and started to warm up. Ozzy was heavily intoxicated. According to Rhoads he never met ozzy during the audition, it was his friend Strum who came out of hte control room to tell him he got the job. Rhoads wouldn’t meet ozzy until the next day when he stopped by his hotel room in the early hours of the morning. Rhoads would look back at his audition “I just tuned up and did some riffs, and he said, ‘You’ve got the gig’; I had the weirdest feeling, because I thought, ‘You didn’t even hear me yet’”. What’s funny is that ozzy’s management wanted his whole lineup to be british so the idea of hiring an american like Rhoads seemed out of the question. Once Ozzy’s manager Don Arden was blown away after seeing Rhoads play.

Rhoads soon enough left his mark on Ozzy’s career and the world of rock playing on the seminal records 1980’s Blizzard of Oz and 1981’s Diary of a Madman.

Readers of Guitar Player Magazine in December of 1981, voted Rhoads the “Best New Talent” while readers of Sounds Magazine voted him the “Best Heavy Metal Guitarist”.

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Written by Rock N' Roll True Stories

Comments

This post currently has 45 comments.

  3. @heathenwarrior2522

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    Sucks because Randy Rhodes was a real right guy. He didn't claim to know it all in guitar. Dude was still taking lessons with different styles. He didn't drink or do drugs which says a lot about the guy. His guitar was his drug. Plus he was a teacher who had patience to work with Ozzy who I believe may have had a touch of autism with ADHD and ADD. I know because I have these issues too and I learn different than the average person. May Randy rest in peace.

  8. @Darren-r8l

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    Imagine Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen and Dave mustaine forming a band with Anthrax's lead singer that sang the song Only or Bad company's lead singer or the lead singer Lane from Alice in Chains or the lead singer from Tesla.They could also get the bass guitarist from Heart.That would be one of the greatest bands of all time.♥️What would've made them phenomenal also if they were all clean and sober not even cigarette smokers.

  9. @markosmarkos7978

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    What's even more tragic about it all is how Ozzy and Sharon ripped Randy Rhoades off with basically paying him dishwashing wages. As far as I'm concerned about Ozzy and Sharon… get the hell out of America. You people are pathetic..

  12. @raider7829

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    It sounds like Randy saved everyone on the bus!! Wow I can't imagine how scared Randy was in that stupid plane! He didn't like flying to begin with. Rip Randy

  15. @пнввпн

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    When I started listening to rock music back in the distant mid-80s, then somewhere around 1990, I knew that Ozzy had a guitarist who died in a plane crash. But I didn’t pay much attention to it, then in 1990 I saw a video of Crazy Train and I was amazed by this polka dotted gatara flying over the rails, but I also wasn’t very interested because I was young.
    but now, around the year 2022, I learned this story about Randy Rhoаds and it turns out he played for Ozzy and it was his polka dot guitar that flew over the rails.
    Mind-shaking history.
    I don't know why I didn't know about this before, although I knew a lot of information about rock bands.
    Randy Rhoads is the best guitarist.

  18. @Timferrari-ui8mu

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    All Lies from day 1…..Massive cover up to what actually happened…stay tuned Christmas present this year…the actual truth …..The Osbourne's can hoard the live videos that I and many others want to see……The time is near…..40 years to shut their mouths up…..the whole lot of them ought to be ashamed of themselves…..no respect for any of them.

  22. @LMC3-p9t

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    I’m grateful to have ever heard randy Rhoads guitar playing . His live guitar playing is exponentially better than the studio recordings , playing live is so difficult and on top of that he always changed his solos and fills and it was always flawless. And it actually sounded good and well thought out and executed. This is why he is the greatest of all time when it comes to playing guitar . If you don’t think that go listen the Taunton Odeon from October 1980, or Chelmsford Odeon October 1980 , Milwaukee 1982 , Kalamazoo, Chicago , Minnesota, Cardiff (1981) , king biscuit flower hour , after hours . Or any bootleg really , the audio quality is less than great but Randy’s playing makes it worth it .

  24. @FrostedSeagull

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    Little known story.

    Rainbow with Joe Lynn Turner were also touring at the time.

    The story goes that about 10 – 14 days before Randy died, JLT and Ritchie Blackmore sacked the bus driver/pilot that killed him.

    JLT walked out of a motel and saw this guy. He said he caught a horrible vibe.
    JLT then asked Ritchie to check this guy out.
    Blackmore apparently stared at this guy for about 5 minutes straight.

    Ritchie then allegedly said ' yeah, get rid off him Joe.
    Lets spend another night here and get a new guy in the morning.'

    JLT freaked out when he heard the news on the Rainbow tour bus about the plane crash.
    . He grabbed Ritchie and made him listen to the breaking news the next hour.
    Blackmore turned white it is reported, when he heard the news.

    POSTSCRIPT
    Ritchie Blackmore like Jimmy Page was heavily into the occult back rhen. Dio reference s the seances they performed with Ritchie during the making of the Long Live Rock'n'Roll album.

  25. @CheapSushi

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    Life has a lot of weird ironies and contradictions. Randy lived a short life in comparison to Ozzy even though Ozzy was the one that risked it more than anything. It's just so strange that it happens that way.

  28. @AndrewJones-cx6kl

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    This is just a theory of mine. Being a pilot, I still think to this day Andrew Ayecock had a medical moments before the wing hit the bus, and I believe Ayecock might have slumped over the controls, and Randy was simply trying to move his body and get Ayecock off the controls to somehow possibly gain some control over the airplane. The V-35 Bonanza only had one set of controls. If you wanted the other pilot in the opposite seat to fly you had to hit a release and rotate the control column to the other side.
    1) Ayecock was stressed about his marriage.
    2) Ayecock drove from Atlanta Georgia to Knoxville Tennessee on March 17th, what time did he leave? Trip was 214 miles or 3 + Hrs. What time did he get up on the 17th before the Atlanta show and was he doing cocaine?
    3) Ayecock now in Knoxville what was the arrival time? Did he sleep before the Knoxville show? And was he doing cocaine?
    4) now you have Ayecock making a 613 mile trip to Leesberg, or roughly 9 hrs. What time did they leave Knoxville? Was he snorting more coke? By the time you add all of this up he could have possibly had zero, very little , or no sleep for 48 hours, and doing a drug that is very stressful on the heart if you know anything about cocaine. This man could have been an absolute mess and in no condition to be flying an airplane. Pilots License invalid because no 3 rd class medical ticket . 3rd class is due every 2 years. Most likely he couldn’t pass the drug test.
    5) Now you have Ayecock flying a fairly complicated airplane to fly, ( it’s a V tail), very different that a conventional Cessna 150 and the Bonanza had more power and that makes things different. I have never read an autopsy report on Ayecock’s heart. Maybe it was to destroyed by fire. I believe he was the one found on a car basically right in the inferno that burned a long time. These may be simple observations but these these do matter.
    Overall I DO BELIEVE Randy was trying to do something to save the plane from hitting the bus and trying to save themselves. No matter, we lost one of the greatest musicians to ever pick up a guitar. And only 25 years old. What could have been. I’ve been looking for information on this since the day he passed. We all love and Miss you Randy Rhoads. R.I.P. and may your music inspire many generations to come.

  31. @akfreed6949

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    Still a weird mystery Randy went in the plane even though he didn't like flying or had a fear of flying ? I saw Ozzy on MTV not long after it happened and Ozzy mentally wasn't there he was smiling for no reason . It was one of the saddest days in rock and roll history .

  33. @michaelstevens6002

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    I'm very grateful to learn the real facts of this tragedy. At the time this happened, I made assumptions that were totally wrong. Such a brilliant talent Randy was.

  42. @whitsixkiller

    May 9, 2026 at 2:26 am

    This is just another rendition of a tired narrative. The truth of what happened that day will never be known. The only ones who knew the truth died in the crash. Everything else is speculation.

Comments are closed.

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