Randy Rhoads: The Guitarist Who Changed The World [View all]

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https://www.loudersound.com/features/randy-rhoads-the-guitarist-who-changed-the-world


This is a story about several different people. The first is a slight figure, five-and-a-half feet tall, weighing a little over seven stone; a sickly child, always getting fevers and colds; the baby of the family, who liked playing with train sets and went on to become a teacher. Then there’s the tough guy, the LA-wise street kid who walked out on his own band to find stardom with another, kept his head down as those around him were either fired or fucked over, then decided to walk out on that too, contemptuous of the close-mindedness of the so-called rock star life.

Then there’s a third person. The one whose best friend describes him as having “an angelic heart”; an innocent, churchgoing soul whose shy mien charmed and calmed the most tumultuous personalities. Another is the joker, who as a teenager stole from rich people’s houses, set fire to his own street and experimented with cocaine; the little guy who dreamed of becoming so big that his week would always beat your year.

There’s one final person – arguably the most important one of all. The one who wielded a polkadot Flying V guitar and who, when he died 30 years ago this March, left behind only a slender body of work, but one that would alter the sound of rock as we know it.

His name was Randall William Rhoads – Randy, to his friends. And he was every one those people mentioned above. Everybody’s memory of him is different. To the bereaved family and broken-hearted fiancée he left behind when he died, Randy was a kind and gentle soul whose destiny was ultimately to teach