Tommy Aldrige Rembers Randy Rhoads.......

[CROWLEY]

The following is from Tommy Aldrige the former drummer for Ozzy and he reflects on his time with Randy.This comes from "Inspirations" on The Day The Music Died web page.



Tommy Aldridge--"I was living in England and working with Gary Moore.I was rehearsing with Gary when I met Randy.Randy and Ozzy came down to the rehearsal in order to meet Gary.While there, Randy picked up a guitar and started jamming with us for about an hour because Randy was a big Gary Moore fan.I don't know how big, but big enough to come down to the rehearsal to meet Gary.This took place in London.I did the tour with Gary and a couple of albums.It was right after I left Pat Travers and I wanted to hang out over there for a while and have the opportunity to play with some English musicians.I was over there for about a year and a half.

My first impression of Randy was how small he was.I han't even heard him play yet and so that was my first impression of him.He was just such a small guy.Then, he picked up the guitar wich was a Les Paul and what he was playing at the time, and it looked like a precession bass.He just started jamming with it and it was absolutley amazing!I had known Ozyy from when he was with Black Sabbath.At that time, I was with a band called Black Oak Arkansas wich was a southern band.We went to support Black Sabbath on one of their tours.The first time we toured outside the United States was to tour in europe and scotland in order to support Black Sabbath.That is how and when I mett Ozzy Osbourne.

I worked with Gary for a while and then Ozzy and Sharon approached me.Sharon, who was Ozzy's girlfriend at the time, became his manager and later his wife.They contacted me and I decided to join.We auditioned Rudy Sarzo along with some other bass players.We chose Rudy then went of to do The Blizzard Of Ozz and then the tour.

I think that the BLizzard Of Ozz was a real coming out for Randy.Playing with Randy was a very memorable experience for me.I have been blessed to have worked with many notable guitarists over the years.Randy Rhoads showed me everything that a guitarist is supposed to be.He is the one that all the others are judged byas far as my taste in a guitarist.He was just so original and he was also a real technician.Those two thing are almost mutually exclusive in a guitarist.I mean, you get some guy that can play real technical, but they really have nothing to say.It's like someone who has a great vocabulary but they don't express any passion with anything they try to convey to people.They know every word in the dictionary but they don't have anything of importance to say.

Randy was able to play with such passion.Apart from everything else, Randy had many special qualities that had absolutely nothing to do with guitar playing and being a musician.He ws a wonderful human being and those qualities carried over into his music.Just his personality.He looked very much like he sounded.Very dynamic onstage.He definitely brought the best out of me.I think that the best playing that I have ever done was while I was working with Randy Rhoads.Your really only as good as the people you are working with.It's probably how Mitch Mitchell felt while working with Jimi Hendrix, or how John Bonam felt while working with Jimmy Page.Randy was a real sweetheart of a guy.He was very humble.He had a respect for me cause I had established myself in the business before he could.He was not in awe of me but a bit of a fan only cause I was a couple of years older than he was and had been in the business for a while.He had heard about me and knew I had worked with Gary Moore and some other guitaristst that he looked up too.When ever Randy and I first got playing, I would look to him and say " Wow! that was absolutley amazing!"hE would almost blush after I would say things like that because he just couldn't believe that someone was complementing him.That is just the kind of person that he was.He was so easy to get along with.I never heard him raise his voice to anyone.Ever.He was just a very sweet man.It was a big lose for everyone when he died.

Looking back on that tragic day, I remember we had been traveling, of course like we did every night.We were coming through the south on our way to florida and we were going to stop at our coach company wich was in Kassenie or someplace like that.The bus driver, who was a pilot, lived there because the bus company was based there.He said to us several times , "well, when we stop there I will take you guys up for a little joy ride". I was not interested at all because I travel for a living and the last thing I wanted to do on my spare time is get on a airplane.Plus, this guyhad been traveling all night and had no business flying a airplane.

We arrived in the morning and I was still in bed , half asleep and I could hear the plane flying around.Don Airy had gone up.When they landed, I could hear someone saying "Randy , you should go!", So Randy and Rachel decided to go.The last time I saw Randy was when he walked down the isle of the bus and flung open the curtains to my bunk.He grabbed me to wake me and said "Tommy, come on, let's go for a ride!" I said, "Randy, I don't want to go up in that silly airplane right now and I tell you, nobody has any business up there".So Randy and rachel went up.It was about 8:00 a.m. at that point and I could hear them flying around.I had just gotten up and poured some milk into my tea and was stirring it when all of a sudden there was this huge smash then some of the roof came off!.Right above where I was standing!.i could immediatley smell the fiber glass and all these weird smells.I was still half asleep.The bus drivers girlfriend was at the door of the bus screaming.I went running outside the door of the bus yelling at everyone and asking " what happened?".All I could hear was "they hit the bus!!".

I couldn't see the airplane, the bus was parked in front of this home wich was very strange because this home and the runway was out in the middle of nowhere.There was the landing strip and then this home wich had a circular drive way in the front of it.Then there was nothing but woods around.The bus was parked in fronmt of the home and the tip of the wing hit the bus and then the plane dove down into this garage section of the house.

After leaving the bus and hearing what everyone was saying had happened, I turned around and realized at that point that the plane had indeed hit the bus, thought I was still trying to find the plane.I couldn't find it!All of a sudden , I see this black smoke coming off the roff and I am thinking " Oh my god! they hit the roof of the house!!".I went running around and the garage door was open.I realized at that point that the plane was in the garage.I could almost see it.I started to go into the garage and at that point it just exploded.It blew me completely backwards and it singed the hair on my eye lashes.It was a huge explosion!.I junped up and realized that now, the entire house was on fire.So I ran around the house to see if anyone was inside.There was this old man sitting there and I startled him pretty good.He was deaf and I didn't know that at the time.He had no idea what was going on and here I wasthis strange man in his house with black stuff all over my hair and face!.I was yelling at himand I can only imagine what was going through this guys head.He finally came outside of the house wich soon burned literally to the ground.The fire dept finally came out there thought there was no fire hydrant anywhere and so the house just burned with the plane in the garage.

Everyone was so frantic.Angry at each other and very chaotic.It was just terrible.In a flash, Randy was in the bus saying" Come on Tommy, come on!!", and then he was gone.Never to be seen again.We were all severely affected by it thought Rudy even more so since he had worked with Randy so closely and he really knew Randy longer than any of us.It was through Randy that Rudy became involved in the band.It just really emotionally affected Rudy.

I remember when Randy came up to me and was just enchanted with the classical guitar.He wanted to get out of the Rock N' Roll business and go back to school in order to take courses in classical music.Randy would try and take guitar lessons in every city that we stopped in.He wouls always try and find a classical guitar teacher in town and take a lesson from them.Nine times out of ten he would wind up giving them the lesson since he was so much more qualified than most of the techers were.Randy had decided that he just did not want what he was doing anymore in Rock N roll.He was very disenchanted with everything and confided in me a number of times about hid dissatisfaction with the business and how he wanted to get back to the purism of the guitar, that is what he had inspired to do.

He wanted to go back and finlize his schooling and become a classical guitarist.He only did two records with ozzy and you can only imagine the impact that he had with Quiet Riot in Japan when he never even set foot there!He would have been amazing!.

We brought in a Irish guitarist by the name of Bernie Torme.I didn't know anything about him but we were stuck between a rock and a hard place because we had dates that had to be done.This is the reason that I stayed.I tried to help Sharon and Ozzy.I really felt sorry for Ozzy cause he was so lost.I felt a loyalty and responsibility to Sharon and Ozzy to try and help them get it together.To find someone who could at least give Ozzy the chance to finish the tourand fulfill his commitments.Ozzy ultimatley found a great guitarist in Zakk Wylde, but he never found what he had in Randy ever again.That only comes once in a lifetime.That package where you have a guy that who is an amazing guitarist, an innovator and who is also a creator and a terrific song writer.A composer.Randy had all that information.That is whyhe is still revered and his name is still going.What he did was really timeless.Just listen to those records!His choice of notes and how he chose to play.Those riffs in the music, those were his riffs!.I felt so fortunate to be involved with someone like Randy.He was the instinctive and motivation for me to get together with Ozzy.It was to work with Randy Rhoads.I was not a Black Sabbath fan.Those guys used to scare me to death!.I would see them come out and perform and I would just think to myself, " oh man, I had better go to church after this!".I was just not a huge Black Sabbath fan.I went with Ozzy because of Randy Rhoads.He was simply amazing

[RR-ElectricAngel]

I almost fogot about that article. The last paragraph I'm sure I have never read before. Thanks for the post CROWLEY.