Tales from the Rhoad...

[highpriestess]

back in late 1996/early 1997, i started a little website on Geocities that was dedicated to Randy Rhoads. The site was called "Goodbye to Romance: The Randy Rhoads Pages". I had some stuff I'd collected over the years, not much, but at the time it just didn't seem like there was much out there, so what little I had I thought was alot. Some pictures I'd gotten at Texas Tapes and Records in the late 80's, some magazine interviews and articles, nothing major - but the internet was fairly new, and there really wasn't any Randy Rhoads info on the web, with the exception of a site from some guy in Japan, and some girl named "sweetness" who had an ozzy page that had a section on RR. I was pretty good at paintshop pro (which was a brand new program) so my graphics were all nice and flashy and stuff, but i really wanted more SUBSTANCE. I had noticed that people all over the web (geocities, tripod, and angelfire were pretty much THE web.) were starting to put these "webring" graphics on their sites and were linking up to eachother, and I thought that would be a great idea for Randy Rhoads sites, since there wasn't much out there and it seemed like everyone had some little something that was unique to their site alone. So, i went to webring and created an account and created a webring called "Lord of the Strings - The Randy Rhoads Webring" (it started out on angelfire here: www. angelfire.com/ri/randiroads but later i moved both pages over to a domain i paid for and eventually after a few years i just really quit paying for it and messing with it and it fell off the internet, i wish i would have left them at geocities and anglefire because they would probably still be there today - my bad.)

Anyway - after completing the webring page and graphics and webring code, i began searching for sites to invite to join the ring (by the way, the HONEYCOMBHIDEOUT randy rhoads site site was in my ring, too. lol) and i stumbled across this really plain looking Randy Rhoads website (the day the music died)... but the thing was, this site had information that i never dreamed would be available on the internet. I spent HOURS and HOURS reading everything and I gotta tell you, I was just amazed out how complete this site was and how much stuff this guy had. There was no ebay at the time, and I had no idea that so many live shows were taped and in existence. I thought i really had something special when i found a copy of after hours at a guitar show one year (later i got a copy from RP because he had the best quality stuff, the quality of mine was awful.) - So i sit down and I email this dude and go on and on about how great his site is and would he please join my webring and whatnot... and he emails me back and joins the ring and, of course, we begin and email friendship. I decided his site was too plain, because back then having cool graphics was all the rage, even if they took forever to load on a dial-up connection. lol. we spoke via email for quite some time - MONTHS i think, and I guess it never dawned on me to ask him where he was from. Then, one day, i was talking to him (randy perry) via email and i mentioned being aggravated from traffic on I-30... and Randy Perry say something to the effect of "yeah, the traffic up on 183 and 360 is really bad, too." - and at this point we both realized we live in the same town. Well, naturally, now I want to see all this stuff he has and listen to these live shows and see all this quiet riot footage he has and whatnot, so we make arrangements for me and my sister to come out to Randy's house and check the stuff out and just hang out for a while.

SO... next thing you know me and my sister show up and RP's house (we were still in our mid to late twenties at the time... and HOT as hell, might i add) in our little spaghetti strap shirts and cut-offs and tattoos and whatnot. Randy's wife (a/k/a "Stupid" - hey, trust me y'all wouldnt like her, if it were up to hear and she would have had her way, TDTMD would NEVER have existed.) answers the door, and after a couple of weird glances at Randy which had "WHAT have you invited to our house" written all over them, we entered The Day The Music Died headquarters (a/k/a Randy's home office) - I can't even tell you how cool this room was.... I had never seen some many Randy Rhoads things in one place in my life and in DUPLICATE. RP loaded us up with buttons and all kinds of stuff ("here, you can have this, I have 5..." LMAO).

And this was the beginning of about a 3 year quest FULL of bizarre happenings and strange coincidences... mostly related to Randy Rhoads.

I'm going to tell you all some of the stories and (mis)adventures we had on our Randy Rhoads quest. And RP says he will log in ocaisionally and tell you all some of the stories that I wasn't present for as well...

I think some of you will get a kick out of some of this. But there is a quid pro quo. I'd like for you guys to post here if you've have some strange or weird stories related to Randy Rhoads, too.... or even just regular experiences, like what brought you to where you are as far as being a Rhoads fan.

To be continued...

[cableguyxx]

I can tell this is gonna be an awesome thread . I indeed had the angelfire/ca/HONEYCOMBHIDEOUT/ randy rhoads site (pre-eternalrandyrhoads.com domain) in the webring! I didn't know you had the Goodbye To Romance site though That was a fun time, before all of the bullshit drama when it was just exciting enough to discover some new tidbit or find some new audio show, which I mostly got round about from Randy via a trading friend of his, Scott Oaks (who I also just re-stumbled upon on Facebook by the way). The deal with the angelfire URL was that was when personal websites were kinda new and I thought it was the coolest thing. The actual original HONEYCOMBHIDEOUT site was a corny webpage dedicated to the Eddie Murphy SNL skit, James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party . I kid you not. I'd started getting back into Randy around that time thanks to the wonders of EBAY and the internet, after a long stint of not even playing Ozzy music. I found RP's page and was blown away. Back then I looked forward to each new month, because he would update it regularly with something new and cool. I was also regularly getting new shows via trade (snail mail via cassettes). That's when I decided I wanted to try and do something different by hosting audio files, to complement RP's page that was the goldmine of info and pics. Back then, CDR's were not readily available and were pricey, hosting space and bandwidth were outrageous and torrents were no where near appearing on the horizon yet. Hell, that was even before MP3's were around really. I could host one show in wav format at a time and even then my page was regularly shut down before the end of the month due to excessive bandwidth usage. I finally got to meet RP and Scott Oaks when they made the pilgrimage to Randy's grave back in the mid to late 90's. Great guys. I've got a photo from that day stuffed away in the RR archives Even though my site eventually got a lot of attention because of all of the audio and video hosting, TDTMD was and always will be the original and best. I'm proud to have been part of the webring that kept the flame burning during those years.

My angelfire account was killed off a while ago. It evidently violated TOS

As limited as everything was back then, I enjoyed that time in my RR life the best. The newness and excitement and complete lack of animosity between RR fans was something special. Finding new people that had the same interest in this relatively unknown guitarist was so cool. I always thought there must be some sort of thing that drew people to RR that other people just could not hear. I'm looking forward to the box set, as I imagine RP is as well, but other than that I've completely lost interest. Thanks for the trip down memory lane HP, that was really cool

[Tito]

I HAD NO IDEA THAT WAS YOUR SITE!!!!!I USED TO LOVE THAT PLACE WOW!!!always wondered what happend to it!!THANKS SO MUCH HP!!!!

[highpriestess]

i still have the whole site on floppy disks. lol.

[highpriestess]

oh... and what i meant earlier about RP's site being too plain, is that i went and made him a graphic logo (it was the first logo i had ever made, the one on my site was made for me by Danie Powers from Power's Court) LMAO ... that logo is STILL on TDTMD webpage to this day.

[Tito]

what a trip!thanks again for those good old memories!!!!

[The Flying Dutchman]

Nice memories for sure!

HP,
I remember having a Dutch hardrock/metal magazine here called "Aardschok" that had a little tribute to Randy I think it was '97/'98 or so. At the end of the article the <url> to TDTMD was mentioned as a source for more information about Randy. At that time I just started to discover internet at work, and I remember I wasn't used to use 'search' engines yet. So I had the magazine and typed the <URL> character after character, and of course it didn't work..... Somebody showed me how to use 'yahoo' and voila! A wealth of Randy info right there in front of me. Didn't mind to stay a bit longer at work that day!
And that site was my first 'saved' internet link I guess. Remember really looking forward for the montly update from then, usually along with a very cool photo on the entry page! Those were the days!

[Tito]

crazy isnt it!!man weve' come a long way since then dutchman!!!!!

[RR-ElectricAngel]

I have to admit that I believe the internet single-handedly brought Randy's legacy back to life. It's the connecting of the dots (no pun intended). I'm sure for 20+ years I only had a few photos at best and a little bio on Randy. I can't remember how but when I lived in Orlando to go to college I knew Randy's death happened not too far away. One day I decided to go to the local news station and ask for the plane crash footage. "No problem" they said. I was stunned. How could they know exactly what I was talking about? Anyway, I got the footage and covet it to this day. That was probably THE day I felt I was a true fan. Before I just loved the music. But at that moment I felt like I was holding the key to the past for some reason. There is KHARMA or some sort of crossing of paths we seem to experience in life. In other words, you may very well be "destined" to run into various people in your life. I ran into a very cool RR fan in a chat room one time (Rob I believe) and he told me he met the retired Sheriff of Leesburg, Florida. I was like WOW! Of all people to bump into in a chat room I run into the guy that actually talked to the Sheriff. We talked about what happened and I told him about the video I did about the plane crash. It was as though we both had a deep understanding of the accident. At least from my perspective. I still get those vibes from time to time. Who knows maybe life is like what the Oracle says in the MATRIX movies, "You have already made the choice. You are just trying to understand why you chose it." At least that is how it feels to me.

[Tito]

thats awesome angel!!! i live not even 35 minutes from leesburg.i used to pass the entrance on the interstate going to orlando a few years back..i think i have built up enough cojones to actually stop by over there but i dont want to cause any trouble for anybody..so maybe one day i'll say the hell with it and i'll finally stop by!

[Rhoads-Fan]

back in late 1996/early 1997, i started a little website on Geocities that was dedicated to Randy Rhoads. The site was called "Goodbye to Romance: The Randy Rhoads Pages". I had some stuff I'd collected over the years, not much, but at the time it just didn't seem like there was much out there, so what little I had I thought was alot. Some pictures I'd gotten at Texas Tapes and Records in the late 80's, some magazine interviews and articles, nothing major - but the internet was fairly new, and there really wasn't any Randy Rhoads info on the web, with the exception of a site from some guy in Japan, and some girl named "sweetness" who had an ozzy page that had a section on RR. I was pretty good at paintshop pro (which was a brand new program) so my graphics were all nice and flashy and stuff, but i really wanted more SUBSTANCE. I had noticed that people all over the web (geocities, tripod, and angelfire were pretty much THE web.) were starting to put these "webring" graphics on their sites and were linking up to eachother, and I thought that would be a great idea for Randy Rhoads sites, since there wasn't much out there and it seemed like everyone had some little something that was unique to their site alone. So, i went to webring and created an account and created a webring called "Lord of the Strings - The Randy Rhoads Webring" (it started out on angelfire here: www. angelfire.com/ri/randiroads but later i moved both pages over to a domain i paid for and eventually after a few years i just really quit paying for it and messing with it and it fell off the internet, i wish i would have left them at geocities and anglefire because they would probably still be there today - my bad.)

Anyway - after completing the webring page and graphics and webring code, i began searching for sites to invite to join the ring (by the way, the HONEYCOMBHIDEOUT randy rhoads site site was in my ring, too. lol) and i stumbled across this really plain looking Randy Rhoads website (the day the music died)... but the thing was, this site had information that i never dreamed would be available on the internet. I spent HOURS and HOURS reading everything and I gotta tell you, I was just amazed out how complete this site was and how much stuff this guy had. There was no ebay at the time, and I had no idea that so many live shows were taped and in existence. I thought i really had something special when i found a copy of after hours at a guitar show one year (later i got a copy from RP because he had the best quality stuff, the quality of mine was awful.) - So i sit down and I email this dude and go on and on about how great his site is and would he please join my webring and whatnot... and he emails me back and joins the ring and, of course, we begin and email friendship. I decided his site was too plain, because back then having cool graphics was all the rage, even if they took forever to load on a dial-up connection. lol. we spoke via email for quite some time - MONTHS i think, and I guess it never dawned on me to ask him where he was from. Then, one day, i was talking to him (randy perry) via email and i mentioned being aggravated from traffic on I-30... and Randy Perry say something to the effect of "yeah, the traffic up on 183 and 360 is really bad, too." - and at this point we both realized we live in the same town. Well, naturally, now I want to see all this stuff he has and listen to these live shows and see all this quiet riot footage he has and whatnot, so we make arrangements for me and my sister to come out to Randy's house and check the stuff out and just hang out for a while.

SO... next thing you know me and my sister show up and RP's house (we were still in our mid to late twenties at the time... and HOT as hell, might i add) in our little spaghetti strap shirts and cut-offs and tattoos and whatnot. Randy's wife (a/k/a "Stupid" - hey, trust me y'all wouldnt like her, if it were up to hear and she would have had her way, TDTMD would NEVER have existed.) answers the door, and after a couple of weird glances at Randy which had "WHAT have you invited to our house" written all over them, we entered The Day The Music Died headquarters (a/k/a Randy's home office) - I can't even tell you how cool this room was.... I had never seen some many Randy Rhoads things in one place in my life and in DUPLICATE. RP loaded us up with buttons and all kinds of stuff ("here, you can have this, I have 5..." LMAO).

And this was the beginning of about a 3 year quest FULL of bizarre happenings and strange coincidences... mostly related to Randy Rhoads.

I'm going to tell you all some of the stories and (mis)adventures we had on our Randy Rhoads quest. And RP says he will log in ocaisionally and tell you all some of the stories that I wasn't present for as well...

I think some of you will get a kick out of some of this. But there is a quid pro quo. I'd like for you guys to post here if you've have some strange or weird stories related to Randy Rhoads, too.... or even just regular experiences, like what brought you to where you are as far as being a Rhoads fan.

To be continued...

Can't have a story without some pictures!

[Randy Perry]

In reference to your thread Barbara, I don't think Stupid had a problem with the idea of you two comming over... 'cause remember we were all sitting in the living room gettin' fUUcked up. It's just that when you got there - all tattooed and female and completely not interested in anything she had to say... ah, it wasn't good. It was bad enough that she was married to me and that I was one of "Them" - now there were two more of "Them" at the door. I think she was so sick of anything Randy Rhoads - and she tried, she sure did - she couldn't take it anymore. I remember the begining of the end of that mariage. It was the day we got married! In LasVegas with an Elvis impersonator... her in her wedding dress, me in my tux with the polka dot vest and polka dot bow tie. Yeah, it was easy to see how that was going to end.
You two were just like, nails for the coffin... when I think about it.

[RR-ElectricAngel]

Randy, Elvis didn't sing "Burnin' Love" did he?

[highpriestess]

Rhoads-fan, to which part of my post are you referring to that you think i should post pictures of? lol

LMAO. yes. yes we were, Randy. I just remember that Stupid was out of the picture very soon after that day, because that's when I started draggin you around on my "adventures" - lol.

The other day, when i was talking to Randy on the phone, and told him i was going to create this thread, he asked me if i was going to bring up "the trifecta"... i said hell yeah. that's the best part. and because i can actually work that into something Rhoads related (and weird) - it works out even better!

Randy Perry used to tell me that he always knew, when he was going to hang out with us, that one of three things were going to happen: 1. somebody was gonna get drunk. 2. somebody was going to get into a fight. 3. There would be cops.

well, as it turns out. we had this one little "outing" that ended up having all three things happen - and RP so affectionately refers to this incident as "The Trifecta"

so... i call Randy up on the phone one day and say "hey, we're going on a roadtrip for the weekend to New Braunfels and go tubing down the river.... get your stuff, you're comin with us." which, of course, he did. i think he couldn't resist going places with us because he was so curious to see what the hell was going to happen THIS time. nobody can look away from the train wreck, you know. lol. and we were so.... WILD and free spirited, and Randy is so.... reserved and... well planned. lol. anyway... me and my friend Debbie and Randy all get in my car and we start heading to New Braunfels. It's about a 4 hour drive. After being in the car and engaging in all manner of conversation, including randy's theory on NOT eating at Dairy Queen (he says all Dairy Queens have dead flies in their window sills. lol. and yes, we of course then HAD to stop at a Dairy Queen to eat, because of my counter-theory on it being the only place you can go in and order a "Dude." and yes, there were flies in the window sills. i'm aware that all of you won't "get" this is you don't know what DQ is, or anything about their menu. but i digress.) - so me and Debbie keep speaking of this fourth person, Caleb, who was with us - but Randy's like "WHO are y'all talking about?!" because there is no one else in the car. Or so he thought. As it goes - my friend Debbie's 16-year old son had been killed in Florida a year or two earlier, and was cremated... so her and I would take these road trip and we would take some of Caleb's ashes with us, and then find some really cool, scenic, tranquil place and scatter his ashes there. He never got to see the world, so it was out "thing" we did - we always took him with us if we were going somewhere he would have liked to have gone. But, anyway, the only thing we had to put him in was this little jelly-belly tin. And randy was like totally tripped out for a few minutes once he realized WHAT was in that tin. Anyway - our plan was to meet my sister (also named Debbie) and her friends out there and then all hang out that weekend and go tubing. We get there, we camp that night and get up and go to the river - go tubing that whole day - except that my sister and her group kind of took off and left us behind. oh, and at one point, we stopped to scatter shes and Randy was going to scatter some too, and my friend insisted he was doing it wrong and next thing you know she dropped the jelly-belly tin in the water and Caleb turned into mud. At the end of the day when we got out to return our tubes and go back to camp, we discovered that my sister's boyfriend at the time, who drove us there, had LEFT us there at the river. eventually he passed out at camp and my sister took his truck and came and got us. by then, though, i was furious, and out for blood. so we get back to camp and i ended up yanking him out of his tent (in his tighty-whiteys) by the hair of his head and commenced to kicking his ASS. this didn't end well. so, we (the one's i came with - Debbie and Randy) decided to leave. Now mind you, I had been drinking beer allllllllllllllll day long on the river, AND was still super mad. Ended up runnning a redlight. Guess who had the green light? New Braunfel's Police Officer. So, naturally he pulls me over. Scolds me, and asks me to get out of the car. So i left Debbie and Randy in the car - with the jelly belly tin on my dashboard sitting there open so Caleb could dry out. I had to take the whole sobriety, walk a straight line heel to toe, etc. YAY. Debbie is in the car touching the tin and saying "come on Caleb, help us out of this one..." and randy's just like "what the hell?!?" - trifecta. beer. fight. cops.

how this relates to RR: that same friend, Debbie, and I took a road trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (where her son passed away) to visit her other son, Seth. I had no idea that driving through Leesburg was on that path - but right when we got to the sign that said "Leesburg next 4 exits" or whatever, it came a downpour of rain that was... truly... like no other rain i had seen before. it was SOOOOOO strong and SOOOO intense that you could NOT see to drive at all. every car on the highway had to pull over on the shoulder and sit there and wait for it to die down some. and evertime it would die down, and we'd pull out on to the highway again, and it would kick right back up just as bad and we'd have to pull right over again. this happened non-stop for almost 2 hours (should have taken us like 5 minutes to drive this distance) and when we finally got to the "leaving leesburg" sign - it totally cleared up and was all sun shining and not a DROP of rain. it was friggin' bizarre. almost like it (the town) didn't want us to leave, or at least wanted us to take notice of just exactly where we were. And yes, we had the jelly-belly tin with us, too. lol.

I will post a few other stories later in the thread. can't give em all away at once, ya know
Thank you to evryone who has participated. Matty - you did wonderfully

RRElectricAngel - something in your post caught my attention, and i think you captured exactly what i was trying to kind of get to in this thread (aside from the fact that it's also fun to tell my RP stories. lol) - that Randy Rhoads fans... REAL Randy Rhoads fans (not just bandwagon jumpers who are out to get close to his family and kiss their butts and then tell everyone "oh, i know these people - look at me, see how great i am?" - the REAL ones, always feel this weird connection to the man and his music.... and to eachtoher. Like you said, it's almost like you meet people for a reason - or like it's so coincidental that it NOT conincidental. When I first read TDTMD, I had never heard much about the plane crash itself. the names of the people involved, etc. And it wasn't until I read RP's page that I realized that the people who own flying Baron are named Calhoun... which is also my last name. And my family is actually from that area. It just kind of hit me as odd the first time i read it. I went on in life to become really good frined with a man named Buddy Miles (drummer for the Band of Gypsys) and one day he, out of the blue, starts talking about these Calhoun Twins dudes that sing country and have tour buses. I was like "DUDE. you KNOW them?" he's like "yeah... used to use their buses and stuff" - tripped me out. Anyway, I have always had their peculiar connection to RP since the first day i ever talked to him. Weird coincidences. Especially realted to randy Rhoads. )granted, i know that was the initial bond that brought us together and that we are both fans so naturally, it would seem that way... but some things are just REALLY weird. Like the fact that I just noticed the other day that he joined this site (a Randy Rhoads site) on December 1, 2007. and December 1 is my birthday. *cues x-files theme song*

quid pro quo... y'alls turn

[highpriestess]

this picture was taken in Panama City Beach, Florida - the day before the Leesburg rain incident. Told y'all I was hot back then LMAO... juuuuust kidding.