Tesla's Frank Hannon

[Paul Wolfe]

Frank: I am on a huge Randy Rhoads kick right now. I love Randy Rhoads. I remember the day he died; I might have even cried. We used to play "Crazy Train" and "I Don’t Know" when we were kids. My son plays Guitar Hero, and now he is starting to play guitar, and he comes to me and says, "Dad, Randy Rhoads is my favorite." It tripped me out because he was my favorite when I was fourteen.

I have been rediscovering Randy Rhoads' guitar licks again. He was only twenty-four when he died. He created so much and had such musical knowledge. His chord changes on "Diary of a Madman" are just timeless to me. Listen to "Believer" and the way that it started out. Every song he played was beautiful and demonic at the same time.

Jeb: With those two albums, Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman, he inspired an entire generation of guitar players, one of whom is you.

Frank: He truly did. I got to meet his mom last month. We played at The Whiskey a Go Go last month and I went and visited Delores Rhoads. I got her autograph on my Les Paul. I played her my "Love Song" intro and told her how much Randy was an influence to me. She told me that Randy used to jam in a little music school that he went to and that Randy’s favorite song then was "Chattanooga Choo Choo." They used to play that over and over again. They had jazz bands that would play in the little room there. You can look up Musonia and you will find the Musonia School of Music; that is where Randy grew up. Meeting his mom was really special.

[RR-ElectricAngel]

I remember running into this story as I was looking up new Tesla songs off their website. Frank supposedly interviewed Delores and put the interview on Tesla's website. However, I was never able to download it. A picture of Delores was on their but no video. If you ever find it Paul let me know, I would love to hear what Delores has to say about Randy etc...