“When I first met Randy Rhoads, something inside me said, ‘This man’s not going to live to be an old guy,’” Ozzy Osbourne remarks in a newly unearthed interview. “‘There’s something different about him.’”
Osbourne reflected on the late guitar virtuoso in a video interview conducted at his home in what appears to be the early 1990s. Rhoads was instrumental in helping Osbourne launch his solo career shortly after the singer was forced out of Black Sabbath in 1979.
In addition to providing Osbourne’s songs with the necessary electric guitar firepower, Rhoads cowrote many of his solo breakthrough tracks, including “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley,” both from his 1980 debut, Blizzard of Ozz.
But as Osbourne explains in the newly revived video. Rhoads was very serious about his guitar playing. He would practice constantly, much to Ozzy's dismay.
Moreover, at the time, Rhoads had his eyes set on a more sedate life and planned to return to school to study classical music. That never happened. During a stop on the Blizzard of Ozz tour, Rhoads died when an airplane joyride with the tour bus driver ended in tragedy.
Osbourne, who died in July 2025, recalled his last conversation with Rhoads, in which the guitarist told him of his future plans.
"I remember in the last journey I ever had with Randy Rhoads, that fatal journey from Knoxville, Tennessee to Orlando, Florida," Osbourne said. "And we had to stop off at the bus depot for some parts, or a fucking jack or something.
"And he was learning classical music. And every town that we would go to, he'd go and get a classical lesson. He's a fucking guy in a rock band. I said, 'What, are you mad? Why don’t you go and get a chick and get a fuck or a blow job in the back of the bus? What's the matter with you?'"
He then imitated Rhoads studiously playing guitar.
"And then he said to me on this bus journey from Knoxville, 'I think I want to give up rock and roll. I want to go to university, UCLA, and get a degree in classical.'
“And my head goes, 'What? Are you crazy?’ I said, ‘We're just about to explode, man. Wait until we get the fucking dough. Don't start fucking giving me the shits at this point, because I've come a long way to get here.'
"He says, 'Oh no, not immediately.'"
Even so, Osbourne says he suddenly understood that Rhoads was serious about his growth as a guitarist and intended to leave him.
"Where 90 percent of the players today, they use their instrument as a means to becoming a millionaire, well, he wasn't interested. He would have liked to have been wealthy, but it didn’t really particularly bother him."
Moreover, Osbourne said, Rhoads defined what it means to be a musician, something he spoke about in a 1982 Guitar Player interview following Rhoads' death.
"He was the only musician — in the sense of ‘musician’ — that I’ve ever had the honor to work with. His love, first and foremost, was his instrument.
"I remember when [Guitar Player called him] ‘Best New Guitar Player of the Year,’ he was shy. I have photographs of him and he’s like shy, you know. ‘Why me?’ [The award was actually for Best New Talent of 1981.]
Rhoads recalled in a 1981 interview how he first learned that he was to receive the award through Ozzy's wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne. He also suggested that there was more than playing with Ozzy in his future.
"When they told me, I thought they were joking, because Sharon always jokes with me anyway," he said.
"And they called me one day and told me, and... I just didn't believe it for a week. Still, I don't believe it, 'cause I'm really proud and honored — and I don't want to stop here."
