new Lee interview with Bravewords.com

[Isodee]

Guitar riffs and melody lines, thats all metal is...??? wow........so the structure of a song is not important? and the lyrics for a song like Crazy Train could just have been...."Choo Choo, rollin down the tracks, listen to the wheels go clickity clack...." and people still would have thought it's an awesome song because of the melody and riffs????

Aren't those lyrics along the lines Ozzy sings them live? And people still love him.

Ever listened to death metal? Do you think those grunted lyrics have much importance?

I'm not sure you've convinced me that metal is just melody and riffs.

Ever heard people say things like...."Yeah the song is good but the lyrics suck"......."Love the whole thing, except the drummer is a bit ordinary"..."Pity these guys don't have a good bassist, some of what he's playing doesn't even flow with the rest of the music".....etc..etc

OMG....Your killin me........!!!!

Most of the pop music lyrics are about hiding the sausage, right? Add to that some lyrics about unicorns, goblins, dragons and stuff and we have heavy/metal lyrics. How anyone can take any of them seriously especially if your first language is English? Ozzy's lyrics have never been anything special, OK at best and embarrassing at worst, I doubt lyrics made him famous. His success has always based on universal vocal melodies and guitar riffs & melodies combined with tight rhythm section. Basically the lyrics can be almost anything and you can get away with it if the vocal melody is good. And in that department Ozzy is king, no doubt about it.

Let's think about song writing a second. For instance Randy throws in Suicide Solution guitar riff in a band rehearsal. How many different drum or bass lines are you gonna get fitted around it without touching the riff itself? Drums would be somewhat similar whoever was behind the kit. Yes, there would be some individual fills and beat choices made but in bigger picture it would be pretty straight forward rock drumming all the way. And bass is supposed to follow those lines, right? It's not rocket science although Bob & Lee seem to think so.

[SLAGER]

you cant be serious?! If songwriting were that easy then you would be a huge rockstar right now too probably. I feel bad for those that dont understand and cant appreciate the group dynamic involved in the process.

[rokket]

you cant be serious?! If songwriting were that easy then you would be a huge rockstar right now too probably. I feel bad for those that dont understand and cant appreciate the group dynamic involved in the process.

Amen to that........after 25 years in the music business, i wish it were that easy too.......!!!

[halo8th]

......how many bassists (that don't sing lead vocals) have solo success to the degree of lead vocalists...??? It's far more common for lead vocalists for obvious reasons.......your kind of stating the obvious in the music world.

..In reality Ozzy's solo artist claim to fame is via Bob and Randy.....now that IS pretty sad.

Individual success comes in different forms. It does not have to be in the form of a solo career. Flea is someone who just popped up in my head.

..In reality Ozzy's solo artist claim to fame is via Bob and Randy.....now that IS pretty sad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRsilpow54c

It's the truth....Ozzy's solo career was built on those first two albums, that he lyrically and musically, had practically nothing worth mentioning to do with.......sad, but true.

agree 100%.
He wrote barely any of the lyrics, wrote none of the music, likely had little-to-zero to do with song structure....but, unfortunately, he had HIS name on the marquee and a truly evil, greedy, and despicable manager by his side.

[Satorius]

Randy Rhoads Guitar Seminar
Music City-Greensburg,PA 2-2-82

Fan: Why did you get rid of Lee Kerslake?

RR: Well, Lee and Bob, both of them had been in this, did this, a long time and I think, uh, Ozzy wanted to go out and do a lot of touring and I don’t think they really felt they needed to anymore. I think they just wanted to do the easiest way possible and, ya know, it was a whole new start for us. It was like starting over, so I believe he wanted musicians that had the freshness to it. That’s basically why.

Fan: When you write your songs, do you all get together, like all 4 members of the band write em or do you work on the music by yourself, while Ozzy works on lyrics, or….

RR: Well, the first album, when I first met Ozzy, there was no band yet. So, I was staying at his house and he and I would just sort of, knocking ideas around. And then we met Bob and the 3 of us, while we were looking for a drummer, auditioning, we were just sort of messing around with riffs and ideas and we didn’t actually get a drummer till the week before we went into the studio. So, we had most of it together. Mainly it’s just sitting around with a tape recorder on. Just keep at it. Keep looking for ideas and you’ll finally come up with some. I mean, it takes a long time, takes a few days before you come up with anything at all. But it’s not really ever the whole band at once writing, because really the song comes from either a riff or a melody or a combination of the two. It’s not like you all come up with something at the same time. Ya know what I mean?

Fan: How many songs off the new album do you play?

RR: Uh, we do, 1,2,3,..5. I think some kids end up saying it wasn’t as good as the record and there’s no need to have that. I mean, that was one of examples of the studio where we went over the top with, with, ah, overdubbing and you suffer live, cause I mean, I don’t like to do it and not do it properly. Ya know what I mean? It sounded empty.

http://www.nobitching.com/phpbb3/viewto ... it=seminar

Randy's answers clearly show that he did not play again with Bob and Lee in a band. I am absolutely convinced that at least 90 percent of all the riffs and melodies were composed by Randy! On Blizzard of Ozz, Lee had no influence on the compositions. Every good studio drummer could play these songs. The same can be said about Bob's bass. And I'm sure if Ozzy has not liked a tune, then it was discarded. In addition, it was not Ozzy's fault that no more songs of Diary of a Madman were played live. Due to the complex arrangements there are no more songs played.

Max Norman about Randy Rhoads:

Q: Were any of Randy’s solos on either of the albums first takes?

A: Yeah, some of them were. In fact, a lot of the outro solos were first take – you know, the things going out on long fades. As I remember, most of those were pretty much first takes. A lot of the other ones were quite well written beforehand. He would work on them for a long time to get them right.

Q: He didn’t write them out longhand.

A: Oh, no. He’d write them in his head.

Q: Randy has co-author credit for most of the tunes. What did he actually write?

A: I’d say he was pretty instrumental in writing a lot of the actual key rhythms. He was also almost totally responsible for the overdub sections. For instance, “Revelation (Mother Earth)” – most of the musical backing on that is Randy’s. I think it’s his chord pattern, pretty much most of his ideas to fill up the overdubs, to fill up the track and everything. He did a great deal on nearly all of those numbers.

http://jasobrecht.com/randy-rhoads-max- ... interview/

If Bob has co-composed actually much of these albums, why Max Norman mentions him not with a single word?
This hatred against Ozzy makes me sick! It was Ozzy's band from the beginning. Ozzy was already a superstar with Black Sabbath!

“It ain't a song until you sing it”

– Elvis Presley 1956

[Cryptic Night]

Randy's answers clearly show that he did not play again with Bob and Lee in a band. I am absolutely convinced that at least 90 percent of all the riffs and melodies were composed by Randy! On Blizzard of Ozz, Lee had no influence on the compositions. Every good studio drummer could play these songs. The same can be said about Bob's bass. And I'm sure if Ozzy has not liked a tune, then it was discarded. In addition, it was not Ozzy's fault that no more songs of Diary of a Madman were played live. Due to the complex arrangements there are no more songs played.

This hatred against Ozzy makes me sick! It was Ozzy's band from the beginning. Ozzy was already a superstar with Black Sabbath!

“It ain't a song until you sing it”

– Elvis Presley 1956

Everyone here knows that Randy never played with them again after they left due to his passing. It's entirely possible that he WOULD have wanted to play with them again.

And to say that Bob had little to no contribution to those songs is bullshit. Randy may have had his riffs already, it doesn't mean he put them together into the songs they are today by himself. I'm 100% positive Bob AND Ozzy helped, and Lee to an extent. Bob more so. I can't exactly tell what Lee's input was, but I seriously doubt he wrote as much as he claimed on DOAM in this interview. I think he definitely helped push the songs in the direction they are now though.

And, yes, it was Ozzy's fault they didn't do more songs. Randy could have easily played the other songs live. Though I can't play most of them personally, I really don't think they'd be that hard. Yes, there were tons of layers for guitars (And the pianos/strings/whatever that could have easily have been played by the keyboards), but Randy worked Goodbye to Romance into a playable song live. That would lead me to suspect that the rhythm section of the band would have had NO problem whatsoever playing those songs live.

It would have all been on Ozzy. His voice was practically shot, when they played Over the Mountain live, he messed up the lyrics on it all the time and his voice on it was always horrible (In my opinion, it would actually get better as the show went on, when they were playing songs he was more familiar with). He knew Believer and Flying High Again already because they had been playing those two songs for a while now, live. We've known he had a problem with the time signatures for the song Diary of a Madman, so that was out of the question.

Recently, he had talked about possibly playing all of the DOAM album live, he later stated he couldn't do that simply because he couldn't sing like that anymore. Vocally, it's more technical. I would assume the same thing about him back then as well. And, on top of that, his horrible drug addictions would really mess him up. I'm sure it would have been next to impossible for him to learn the lyrics to the other songs AND have the voice to do them.


So, I would say it's Ozzy's fault. And no, I'm not hating on Ozzy. I love Ozzy. I'm just aware of his limits.

[Stiltzkin]

Ever listened to death metal? Do you think those grunted lyrics have much importance?

yes they do, so you have apparently not listened to deathmetal

[Isodee]

Ever listened to death metal? Do you think those grunted lyrics have much importance?

yes they do, so you have apparently not listened to deathmetal

Got me there - not much, not my cup of tea really.

In most DM cases you need to figure out the lyrics from the booklet, not much sing-along moments there.

[fortress]

@. He did not want to go on with Ozzy as he wanted to stay with us. I said 'No you have to. The album is going to go through the roof.' I wished I hadn't said it now as he would still be here. Fate and destiny are frightening things.” @


huh??????? that's new to me as we read that its supposedly Randy that asked Ozzy to flush them?? as they were always crying about money and all others little things?

[axeman_12656]

huh??????? that's new to me as we read that its supposedly Randy that asked Ozzy to flush them?? as they were always crying about money and all others little things?

Tommy was Randy's favorite drummer. Rudy was one of his best friends. Put 2 and 2 together.

I think Ozzy is justified in dumping Bob and Lee.
But I also believe he is wrong in not giving them proper credit and royalties after.

[Alex]

xx123456

[rokket]

huh??????? that's new to me as we read that its supposedly Randy that asked Ozzy to flush them?? as they were always crying about money and all others little things?

Tommy was Randy's favorite drummer. Rudy was one of his best friends. Put 2 and 2 together.

I think Ozzy is justified in dumping Bob and Lee.
But I also believe he is wrong in not giving them proper credit and royalties after.

And yet, Randy's brother says that Randy didn't want to go out on tour without Bob and Lee, but it was too late for any discussion as he was contracted to do so. It was'nt long after that Randy expressed a desire to leave the band, was punched in the face by a drunk Ozzy and two weeks later he was gone.

Interesting?...very

[SLAGER]

Randy probably got a long great with all of them. He had a little failed band back home with Rudy, but became rich and famous with Bob, Lee, and Ozzy. He spent a lot of time with those guys and became friends with them too. It seems clear to me why he would want them to stay...it was a fun, enjoyable, creative, and succesful time together. Only a moron or a greedy fool would want to spoil it.

[rokket]

Randy probably got a long great with all of them. He had a little failed band back home with Rudy, but became rich and famous with Bob, Lee, and Ozzy. He spent a lot of time with those guys and became friends with them too. It seems clear to me why he would want them to stay...it was a fun, enjoyable, creative, and succesful time together. Only a moron or a greedy fool would want to spoil it.

One thing I know for sure, when you find musicians you can get along with, write with, create with and play well together with, it's really enjoyable and heaps of fun. Take that to another level, where what you write/create becomes successful and looks like being even more successful, you don't want to stop and break it up...........

[axeman_12656]

One thing I know for sure, when you find musicians you can get along with, write with, create with and play well together with, it's really enjoyable and heaps of fun. Take that to another level, where what you write/create becomes successful and looks like being even more successful, you don't want to stop and break it up...........

Randy to Ozzy "The band is a bunch of geeks and you drink to much." Randy's remarks regarding his displeasure with the original lineup including Ozzy himself.