30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: The Death of RANDY RHOADS

Den Headz, today marks one of the darkest moments in metal music history. It was on this date exactly three decades ago that legendary OZZY OSBOURNE lead guitarist Randy Rhoads lost his life in a plane joy ride gone terribly wrong. He was only twenty five years old.

Associated Press:

March 20, 1982, Leesburg, Florida. A small plane crashed into a
mansion here and burst into flames yesterday, killing the lead
guitarist of the Ozzy Osbourne rock group and two other people,
police said.

The crash killed guitarist Randall Rhoads, 25, the pilot of the
Beechcraft Bonanza – Andrew Aycock, 36 – and Rachel Youngblood,
58, the group’s makeup artist and hairdresser. The plane’s pilot
was also the group’s bus driver.

Randy Rhoads incendiary lead guitar shredding truly set the Rock N Roll scene ablaze when he first premiered as OZZY OSBOURNE’s lead guitarist in 1980. With the subsequent releases of “Blizzard Of Ozz” in the same year and “Diary Of A Madman” in 1981, there was now a big argument brewing as to who was the best lead guitarist in the world. Was he better than Eddie Van Halen?

Unfortunately, that battle of the greats would not be fully realized. On the 19th of March in 1982, while in Florida on tour for the follow-up album “Diary of a Madman tour”, and just one week away from playing Madison Square Garden in New York City, the worst thing that could ever happen… happened.

Randy boarded a light aircraft piloted by Andrew Aycock – the band’s tour bus driver – which soon crashed while performing low passes over the band’s tour bus. In a matter of moments things went deadly wrong when the right wing of the aircraft clipped the bus, grazing a tree (which sent it into a pinwheel) and then crashed into the attached garage of a nearby mansion bursting into flames, killing Rhoads, Aycock, and the band’s hairdresser, Rachel Youngblood.

“He was a saint,” said Ozzy in a later interview discussing his fallen guitarist.

“He was an angel, and too good for this world. His death’s always on my mind. Every year at the anniversary of his birth and death, fans from all over the world gather at his grave site to honor his passing. We will never forget him. His musical legacy lives on in the minds and music of his many fans.”

http://randyrhoads.us/