Randy Rhoads Claimed He Was Too Tired for Ozzy Osbourne Audition

Randy Rhoads claimed he was too drained to audition for Ozzy Osbourne’s band, the late guitarist’s brother says.

It wasn’t the one excuse he used earlier than lastly participating a trial efficiency in September 1979 as Osbourne was assembling his first post-Black Sabbath band, based on the brand new documentary Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon.

“I wasn’t an enormous Sabbath fan, to be sincere,” Rhoads says in an archival interview from the movie. “I imply, they had been nice, what they did, clearly – did it and made it enormous. Gotta respect them.” However he additionally notes: “I used to be type of worrying about auditioning as a result of I’d by no means been to an audition.”

Rhoads’ makes an attempt to distance himself additionally included criticizing Osbourne’s tattoos, sibling Kelle Rhoads confirms in Reflections of a Guitar Icon: “He used to go, ‘I don’t like Black Sabbath very a lot. I do know you do, so we’re not gonna get into it.’ However he goes, ‘Who the fuck would write his identify on his hand?’ He goes, ‘I don’t perceive that.’”

Kelle and bassist Dana Strum, who was serving to Osbourne with the audition course of, continued to press the busy Rhoads. (He’d been working as a guitar teacher by day and Quiet Riot’s guitarist at night time.) “Randy stated, ‘Effectively, I train right here ’til 9:30, 10 o’clock at night time. I’m drained – I don’t know,’” Kelle recollects, “after which Dana stated … ‘Belief me. One thing tells me you could do that.’”

An unimaginable second in rock historical past adopted: With simply at some point remaining earlier than Osbourne returned to the U.Okay., Rhoads lastly auditioned – and an inebriated Osbourne provided him the function then and there, earlier than allegedly passing out.

Strum describes feeling validated for having discovered “the man” in Rhoads: “I had a sense,” he says in Reflections of a Guitar Icon. “There’s nobody who’s not going get what I get.”