<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The name might not be familiar, but I will lay odds that if you have seen any number of videos made by bands like Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, and Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s Blizzard of Ozz in the 1980s, you have seen his face.\u00a0 Having seen many of the aforementioned videos, I knew who Rudy Sarzo was but I never really knew much about him.\u00a0 When <\/span>Guitar World<\/span><\/i> ran a tribute issue about Randy Rhoads that we chronicled in <\/span>FTV:\u00a0 RR 40 Years On<\/span><\/i> (6-15-22), Rudy Sarzo was one of the many musicians interviewed about the late great guitarist.\u00a0 Sarzo had the good fortune to perform in two bands with Rhoads.\u00a0 He also spent time teaching with him at Randy\u2019s mother\u2019s music school in Los Angeles.\u00a0 In the <\/span>CRM<\/span><\/i> interview, Sarzo mentioned the book he had written about his experiences, (<\/span>Off the Rails – Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz – <\/span><\/i>Too Smart! Publishing, 2008).\u00a0 I immediately prevailed upon my wife to find a copy via the inter-library loan service, MELCAT.\u00a0 Some musicians bring in ghostwriters to help with their biographies, but not Sarzo.\u00a0 He hunkered down with his Yorkshire Terrier muse Tory and penned his own story.\u00a0 If I had any apprehension about how accurate his memories might be, he mentioned early on he was very happy he had kept a detailed diary of his adventures which he consulted when he put <\/span>Off The Rails<\/span><\/i> in print.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For the Introduction, Sarzo started off with the traumatic events of March 19, 1982:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>\u2018Rudes!\u00a0 Rudes!\u00a0 Come on, get up!\u2019<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 I hear a voice yelling to me through the curtains in my bunk.\u00a0 As I slide the curtains open, I see Randy standing in the doorway of the tour bus. \u2018<\/span>What\u2019s going on?<\/span><\/i>\u2019 I ask with a yawn as I wipe the sleep from my eyes.\u00a0 \u2018<\/span>We\u2019re at the bus depot and Andy\u2019s going to take Rachel and me up on a plane to see the countryside.\u00a0 Get dressed and come with us!\u00a0 It\u2019ll be fun.<\/span><\/i>\u2019\u00a0 \u2018<\/span>What time is it?<\/span><\/i>\u2019 I ask, fighting back a yawn.\u00a0 \u2018<\/span>Oh, I don\u2019t know,\u2019 <\/span><\/i>Randy says with a shrug.\u00a0 \u2018<\/span>About 8 a.m.\u2019\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u2018<\/span>Oh, that\u2019s all right Rand, you go ahead.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to wait until we get to Orlando before I get up.\u2019\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I put my head back down on my pillow.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018Okay, but you\u2019ll be sorry you missed it!\u2019 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0Randy kids as I watch him step out of the tour bus and into the quiet Florida morning.\u00a0 I pull back the curtains in my bunk and go back to sleep, never to see my friend Randy Rhoads again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>What happened next has been well documented.\u00a0 On route to Orlando, Florida from their last show in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Blizzard of Ozz tour had stopped at the Calhoun Brothers Tour Bus company compound in Leesburg, Florida.\u00a0 The company property had an airstrip and several helicopters and small airplanes on site.\u00a0 Without permission, their tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock took a single-engine Beechcraft F35 plane on a couple of joy rides with members of the touring party.\u00a0 Keyboard player Don Airey was on the first flight and said they had buzzed the parked tour bus in an attempt to wake drummer Tommy Aldridge.\u00a0 On the second flight, with Rhoads and makeup artist Rachel Youngblood on board, they again tried to buzz the bus but on the third pass, one of the plane\u2019s wings clipped the top of the bus.\u00a0 The plane spiraled out of control, snapped off the top of a pine tree, and crashed into a garage where it burst into flames.\u00a0 All three were killed instantly and their bodies had to be identified with dental records and personal jewelry because of the intensity of the fire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Keyboardist Airey was the only eye witness and said as he was taking pictures from the ground, it looked like there was some sort of struggle in the cockpit of the plane and the wings were tipping from side to side just before they impacted the bus.\u00a0 Later investigation into the crash revealed the pilot had been using cocaine prior to the flight and had been in an agitated state during the previous days.\u00a0 His ex-wife had been on the tour bus and he was trying to reconcile with her.\u00a0 Airey thinks that in his emotionally troubled state, the pilot had seen his wife standing in the bus doorway and may have been trying to intentionally crash the plane to kill his wife.\u00a0 Airey surmises the struggle he witnessed between the pilot and Randy probably saved everyone who would have died if the plane had made a direct hit on the bus.\u00a0 The answers to a lot of difficult questions went to the graves with the three on board the plane.\u00a0 Randy Rhoads was 25 years old, Rachel 56, and the pilot 36.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grief stricken over the loss of his guitar player and friend, Ozzy appeared on David Letterman\u2019s show six days later (March 25, 1982) to honor a previous commitment.\u00a0 When Letterman noted how hard it must have been for him to be there, Osbourne explained, \u201cRandy and Rachel would have wanted us to go on – you can\u2019t kill rock and roll.\u00a0 The tour is suspended until April 1.\u201d\u00a0 With Berne Torme filling in on guitar, later replaced for the rest of the tour by Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, they did get back on the road.\u00a0 We will get to Sarzo\u2019s feelings about it a little later.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rudy Sarzo grew up in Miami, Florida where his family settled after they emigrated from their native Cuba in 1961with little more than a couple of suitcases in tow.\u00a0 Born Rudolfo Maximliano Sarzo Lavielle Grande Ruiz Payret y Chaumont in Havana (11-18-1950), he and his brother Robert underwent the culture shock of being in a new country twice.\u00a0 First, they had to learn a new language and the customs of their new home.\u00a0 With employment opportunities scarce, they relocated to New Jersey in\u00a0 the summer of 1963.\u00a0 When school began that fall, his teacher told him, \u201cYou\u2019re in America now,\u00a0 Your name will be Rudy from now on.\u201d\u00a0 The family began to realize they wouldn\u2019t be going back to Cuba with Castro in charge.\u00a0 The family cursed the dictator the day President Kennedy was assassinated.\u00a0 To help Rudy and his younger brother Robert out of their depression about JFK\u2019s death, they bought them an Old Kraftsman acoustic guitar from the Sears catalog for Christmas of 1963.\u00a0 Catching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan on February 9, 1964 shocked the family, but for different reasons.\u00a0 Rudy\u2019s mother and father were alarmed by their appearance, his father commenting, \u201cThe long hair reminds me of Fidel and his rebels.\u00a0 I bet you they\u2019re Communists, too!\u201d\u00a0 Rudy had a different reaction:\u00a0 \u201cI was in awe!\u00a0 They were like nothing else I had ever seen before:\u00a0 long hair, loud guitars, and hundreds of hysterical girls worshiping them.\u00a0 They had all the cool qualities girls were crazy for.\u00a0 Qualities, incidentally, that I lacked, since I was a timid, overweight 13-year old.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the family grew tired of the dreary winter weather, they moved back to their old Miami neighborhood in 1967.\u00a0 Acoustic guitar in hand, he marched into the rehearsal of a garage band called Era of Good Feeling and announced, \u201cHi, my name is Rudy.\u00a0 My family just moved in from New Jersey and I want to join your band.\u201d\u00a0 Lacking enough equipment, they told him they did not need another guitar player, but if he came back with an amp and an electric bass, he was in.\u00a0 His parents went the Sears route again to purchase a Silvertone bass and amp on credit.\u00a0 Rudy continues, \u201cI initially bluffed my way through our song list mostly composed of Beatles, Rolling Stones, and The Who.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t long before I began to comprehend the role of the bassist:\u00a0 The link between rhythm and melody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the end of 1967, Rudy had upgraded to a Fender Jazz Bass and became infatuated with learning the instrument.\u00a0 Hours and hours practicing in his bedroom listening to and playing along with rock records as he also cycled through countless break ups of his ill-fated bands and teen romances.\u00a0 After graduating from high school in 1969, his band Sylverster landed a nightclub gig backing an R&B singer who also acted as the emcee at the Topless Tomboy Club.\u00a0 Playing seven forty-five minute sets a night six days a week was hard work, but an ideal opportunity to, as Sarzo said, \u201cHone my chops playing R&B and funk.\u00a0 Also, sharing the dressing room with the friendly dancers exposed my raging teen hormones to an exhilarating lifestyle.\u00a0 No more Cuban girls chaperoned by overly possessive mothers!\u201d\u00a0 Rudy\u2019s brother dropped out of high school in the early 1970s and with their new band, Mango, they played hard rock (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and such) on the South Florida circuit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His first meeting with his future Quiet Riot band mate Frankie Banali was memorable, mostly because Rudy mistook him for the bass player in the band Ginger.\u00a0 Spotting him watching a local band at a club called The Flying Machine, Rudy asked, \u201cHi, are you one of the guys from the band Ginger?\u00a0 I saw your band open for David Bowie a few days ago at Pirate\u2019s World and I thought you guys were great!\u00a0 Especially your drummer.\u00a0 I thought he was the best thing out of the whole night.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThanks, I\u2019m the drummer,\u201d replied the amused Banali.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When disco transformed the whole local music scene in 1974, the Sarzo brothers decided to not follow the pack and switch their band over into the new dance club mode.\u00a0 They struck out for New York state with Robert\u2019s wife-to-be Suzie and a singer named Dave, landing in Utica.\u00a0 Their father wished them well but told their mother, \u201cThey\u2019ll be back in two weeks, you\u2019ll see.\u201d\u00a0 Rudy would spend the next seven years chasing his rock and roll dream before he would return the two suitcases he borrowed when he left Miami.\u00a0 The brothers would spend three years working together before Rudy decided to try his fortunes in the West.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rudy arrived in Los Angeles in August of 1977 hoping to find a band he could join to take the next step up the industry ladder.\u00a0 On one of his first nights in L.A., he could not get into the sold out Whiskey A Go Go to see a hot new band called Van Halen so he wandered down to the Starlight Club to catch another band called Quiet Riot.\u00a0 QR impressed him because they went all out and performed what Sarzo called \u2018a stadium show\u2019, something most bands would not attempt in a small club.\u00a0 While he was impressed with their guitar player, Randy Rhoads, it was the few minutes he spent talking to singer Kevin DuBrow that would later punch his ticket into the L.A. music scene.\u00a0 Rudy survived in Hollywood during the summer of 1977 by, \u201cliving off the kindness of female strangers while playing in a string of unsuccessful outfits.\u201d\u00a0 His brother invited him to join him and his wife\u2019s Top Forty band for a series of gigs in New Jersey.\u00a0 A little disillusioned with Los Angeles, he jumped on a flight east.\u00a0 Rudy banked much of his payroll from playing with his brother and sister-in-law in A New Taste, intending to head back to L.A. in the summer of 1978 to try his luck again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A week before he headed back west, Kevin DuBrow tracked him down and asked if he would like to audition for the bass slot in Quiet Riot.\u00a0 Dubrow sent him a tape of their demos to learn and told him to look him up when he got back in town.\u00a0 Sarzo passed his audition with flying colors and the band began the hard work necessary to get noticed in the crowded L.A. music scene.\u00a0 They had already achieved some buzz in Japan when their<\/span> Quiet Riot I<\/span><\/i> album was released there by Sony Records.\u00a0 <\/span>Quiet Riot II<\/span><\/i> was being mixed when Rudy joined the band.\u00a0 The Japanese music press was already calling them \u2018the next big thing\u2019.\u00a0 Though it would have made sense for them to tour Japan in light of their album sales there, their managers turned down the offers presented.\u00a0 This left QR little choice but to try and garner a record deal in the states just like the rest of the L.A. bands.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sarzo stepped on stage at the Starwood with Quiet Riot for the first time on October 5, 1978,\u00a0 the same stage he had first seen them a little over a year earlier.\u00a0 With New Wave bands getting signed left and right, Quiet Riot faced an uphill climb when hard rock bands seemed to be going the way of the dinosaurs.\u00a0 A last ditch effort to get a record deal was hatched:\u00a0 the band put word out to their fan base to gather so they could be taken around via two flatbed trucks to hold demonstrations at the major record company offices to prod them to sign the band.\u00a0 The one hit they got was from an A&R guy from Capitol Records who encouraged them to, \u201cwrite a couple of hit songs like the ones on the <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/i> charts.\u201d\u00a0 When Capitol then rejected their demo of \u2018hits\u2019, the band was teetering on the brink.\u00a0 Rudy was already working at a health food store to make ends meet when Randy suggested he come to work at his mother\u2019s music store, Musonia.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even with Quiet Riot not gaining any traction, Randy told Rudy, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m getting pretty frustrated myself.\u00a0 Some guy named Dana keeps calling me to audition for Ozzy, the ex-singer in Black Sabbath.\u201d\u00a0 \u2018Dana\u2019 turned out to be Dana Bash, the bassist Ozzy was using while trying out guitar players.\u00a0 Even though Randy was reluctant to audition, Rudy convinced him he would be crazy not too.\u00a0 To make a long story short enough for our purposes, Rhoads got the gig and after\u00a0 he was whisked off to England to record Ozzy\u2019s first solo album (with drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Bob Daisley), Quiet Riot quietly folded.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By March of 1981, Rudy was working with an L.A. band called \u2018Angel\u2019 but sleeping on the spare bed in Kevin DuBrow\u2019s small apartment in Sherman Oaks.\u00a0 Kevin answered the phone and passed it to him, \u201cRudy?\u00a0 This is Sharon.\u00a0 I\u2019m with Ozzy\u2019s management.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking for a bass player and Randy has spoken very highly of you.\u00a0 We would like for you to come down and audition.\u201d\u00a0 DuBrow went nuts when he heard Sarzo tell Sharon, \u201cWell, I really appreciate the call, but you know, I\u2019m already in a band.\u201d\u00a0 After she hung up with a curt, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll tell Ozzy,\u201d he wondered if he had done the right thing.\u00a0 So did DuBrow:\u00a0 \u201cYou turned down the gig with Ozzy?\u00a0 Are you (expletive deleted) nuts?\u201d\u00a0 Rudy recalls thinking, \u201cYeah, I probably am.\u00a0 Passing on Ozzy didn\u2019t make any sense under my current strapped economic situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fortunately for Sarzo, he was a little more clear headed when the phone rang again the next day:\u00a0 \u201cIs this Rudy?\u00a0 Hi, this is Ozzy.\u00a0 Listen man, we had some guys come down yesterday and they were all a bunch of bloody hacks.\u00a0 Randy tells me you\u2019re the guy.\u00a0 So just come down and meet with me.\u201d\u00a0 Randy Rhoads picked him up later that day and Rudy Sarzo would board Ozzy\u2019s Blizzard of Ozz band and take the ride of his life on the Crazy Train.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the wake of Rhoads\u2019 fatal plane crash, Sarzo was naturally devastated at the loss of his friend.\u00a0 They kept auditioning guitarists so they could continue the tour to keep Ozzy occupied.\u00a0 Rudy\u2019s brother, Robert, turned out to be perfect fit, but the Jet Records home office sent over Irish guitarist Berne Torme with the promise that he had the gig.\u00a0 When he informed Sharon he was told he only had to do a handful of shows as he had his own commitments, she had a fit.\u00a0 Another short term fill in (and an ill fitting one at that) was finally replaced by Brad Gillis who was also in the process of forming Night Ranger.\u00a0 As the tour slogged toward the end, Rudy had already decided the band was not the same without Randy and he began making plans.\u00a0 Reconnecting with his old band, the reformed Quiet Riot, he was on hand when their metal masterpiece <\/span>Mental Health<\/span><\/i> stormed the charts.\u00a0 His tenure with the Blizzard of Ozz band finally ended as it had begun, with a phone call with Sharon.\u00a0 This time, she wasn\u2019t mad that he didn\u2019t take the gig, she was mad because, \u201cNobody leaves Ozzy!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sarzo credits his faith as the one thing that has seen him through.\u00a0 Now happily married and carrying on a musical career with a variety of bands like The Guess Who and Blue Oyster Cult, he fondly remembers the time when he stopped worrying about his future.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI made a commitment to God expressing that if I was ever able to make a living as a musician, I would be eternally grateful – and if not, then I would accept it peacefully.\u00a0 From that moment on, my relationship with God would always be the single most important concern in my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rudy still thinks about Randy Rhoads everyday and ironically, his latest gig is with the current version of their first band together, Quiet Riot.\u00a0 Sadly, this version does not include Kevin DuBrow who died in 2007 or drummer Frankie Banali who passed away on August 20, 2020 after battling pancreatic cancer.\u00a0 Sarzo returned to the band after an 18 year absence because before he passed, Frankie asked him to.\u00a0 It sounds like Rudy Sarzo has come full circle.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Rudy Sarzo where he started with Quiet Riot….where he has recently returned minus Kevin, Carlos. and Frankie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The name might not be familiar, but I will lay odds that if you have seen any number of videos made by bands like Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, and Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s Blizzard of Ozz in the 1980s, you have seen his face.\u00a0 Having seen many of the aforementioned videos, I knew who Rudy Sarzo was 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