Why did you start to love Randy?

[The Flying Dutchman]

40 isn't old if you're a tree.

or a giant sea turtle.....

[Ell]

40 isn't old if you're a tree.

or a giant sea turtle.....

Oh thank goodness!

[deansolo]

40 isn't old if you're a tree.

or a giant sea turtle.....

Now that's funny!!

For me it was hearing "Crazy Train" for the 1st time. When Crazy Train first came on the radio here in the States,...hearing the opening riff for the 1st time,....You just knew Ozzy's new guitarist was gonna be HUGE!!!

Seeing him live confirmed it. I was 19 yrs old...I guess I'm getting old too!

[myhero]

Because of the passion and feel he had on the guitar.

[scooterh67]

I fell in love with Randy when I first heard Crazy Train on the radio and then bought the albums and was amazed how he sounded, His tone and the way he played just blew me away! I would lay there in my bedroom, put my headphones on and crank up the volume and just listen. His guitar playing was so good that I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. I would get chills just hearing him play!! I loved all the little weird noises and the haunting sounds coming from his guitar and the blistering speed and solos, everything about his playing I loved and craved to hear more! He is the only guitarist that ever touched me so much, the way he played that guitar, I could feel it!!! Nobody sounded like him and he was well beyond what everybody else was playing OR how they played the guitar. He was something new but also different and that showed! A true ROCK STAR in my eye as well as my heart. His playing has sooooo much feeling in it, like the last solo in the song You can't kill rock n roll man! It gets me every time, sooooo much emotion in his playing his guitar is just screaming I can almost feel the pain with each note played!

I was lucky enough to see Randy in concert back in Feb. 82 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Mo. weeks before the his passing. This was my very FIRST concert that I ever went to (15 at the time} and my favorite out of ALL the concerts that I have seen over the years!!

Scott

[Axeman1956]

I started loving Randy when I first bought Tribute (I was 8 ). I listened to it through and fell in love with the style that , at the hour, "The Guitarist" played. His tone was great, his playing was superb, and his solos just pierced my soul. It was so great. I then looked at the case and looked up the guitar player. I saw Randy Rhoads. I'm like " Oh, this guitarist must still play with Ozzy". I wasn't a huge Ozzy fan back then. I was a bigger Rush fan. I look in the case and I read the writing inside. It says stuff about Randy, then it says he died in a freak plane crash. I looked and said : Oh, this must have been recent". It still bothered me that he died, but at least I thought that he made many more songs with Ozzy. I asked my father and he told me he died in 1982. I wanted to cry because I knew he didn't make much with Ozzy then. I put more research into him and found out his Date of Death and his cause of death. I got angry because the coke head pilot killed him. Recently, I've been hearing that Andy went to dive bomb his ex-wife, and caused the crash! THAT JUST PISSES ME OFF! Randy has influenced me to play guitar. I haven't been playing long, but I'm determined to get good, so I'm learning very fast. Randy just makes me want to play more and more. R.I.P Randy!

[RRhoadsTribute]

It had to be hearing Mr Crowley for the first time. I had always known who Ozzy was and I always liked Black Sabbath. I had heard Blizzard of Ozz was a great album so I listened to Mr Crowley. The FIRST song I heard with Randy on it, and i was in love with his music forever. It was the single greatest metal solo I have ever heard. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd inspired me to pick up a guitar, Randy inspired me to never put it down.

[Efrum]

Atlanta, Wednesday, March 17th 1982. A 14 year me found his hero and lost his hero all in the same week. Still got his guitar pick from the show. Still got pictures and posters thru the whole house, (thanks to the wife for being a fan too). I still think about him every single day, and everytime I step onto the stage.
BTW, I heard 40 is the new 25! (but I'll keep wearing a mask onstage, just to be safe)