Randy Rhodes: The Original Guitar Hero

Can you believe it has been 28 years since the untimely death of Ozzy Osbourne's promising young guitarist Randy Rhodes? For those of us that were Ozzy and Black Sabbath fans when the Prince of Darkness was only on the TV news because of his freakish stunts and mishaps as opposed to having his own reality show, Randy was a guitar god.

He was only 25 when the plane he was flying clipped the Osbourne tour bus in Leesburg, FL. At 25 he had only appeared on 2 Ozzy records, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. But fans of the band would say those are probably the 2 best Ozzy records ever.


Randy's work on classic songs like Suicide Solution, Mr. Crowley, Steal Away the Night, Flying High Again, You Can't Kill Rock n' Roll and Over the Mountain (what a killer guitar solo... still) was truly magical. And he was still really young. It is a shame we could not have had the pleasure of hearing just one record... even just one more song.

Just imagine what hard rock would have been like with Randy Rhodes for a little while longer. Would we have even heard of Zakk Wylde? What about Jake E. Lee? Remember, even Brad Gillis from Night Ranger filled in for Randy on the Speak of the Devil Tour.

In today's world everyone is their own Guitar Hero, with plastic guitars and 4 buttons where you do not even play every note. But Randy was a true guitar god. Randy you are still missed. Although we only had you for a little while, it was a pleasure the entire time. Thanks.