zennman wrote:Does anyone know the date of that last Livzey photo shoot?
This was an email John sent me back in 2007.
Hey Shaun: I'll answer this right away, lest I forget. Well, it was
not long before he was killed...maybe by two months. I know he was
gone before Guitar World published the issue with my stuff in it. He
came to the studio with a female publicist (I've often wondered what
happened to her - I'll attach the one picture I took with her) and he
had very recently returned from London, and he complained about jet
lag. He was there for about an hour, maybe a little longer, as we did
at least three set-ups. He even used my guitar in a few, a classical,
gut string model.
Sometime after the accident, his sister called me and it turned out
that he was from Burbank, just over the hill from Hollywood, where my
place was, and I had also been raised in Burbank. But, our having a
hometown-in-common never came up while he was there. Her brother,
that would be Randy's brother-in-law, came over a few days later and
told me the story of what had happened. Just recently, I read the
chapter in Sharon's book about that day and it was pretty much the
same story he had told. She was actually sleeping on the bus! But,
you probably know that, knowing all the trivia. He ordered prints of
Randy, to be given to the mother after the shock had worn off.
Several people have told me that he was only in a studio situation
that one time and that all other images of him were live, on stage.
I remember how I found out about it. I lived in my studio back then
and one Saturday morning, with nothing much to do, I was thumbing
through a pile of LA Times newspapers and in the back of one of the
front sections there was a small article about a Florida plane
crash. And they listed Randy by his complete, official name, Randall
William Rhoads. And, it did not occur to me for a moment that I
knew this name. It dawned on me very slowly, but I finally put it
together that it was the nice kid from Ozzy's band who had been here
several weeks earlier. What a shock, as is hearing of anyone you know
(or have met) who is no more...
You can post this on your site, if you'd like.
Warm Regards, John Livzey
