The guitarist Randy Rhoads regretted copying: “It kills me that I do that”
When Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020, the devastating news could be felt throughout the music industry.
While you might not have been a fan of Eddie Van Halen’s music specifically, regardless of the genre you align yourself with, you always need to take a moment and respect those who have managed to genuinely change how music is made like he did, as he didn’t just make good rock music but opened people’s eyes to a brand new way of playing.
Tony Iommi knew that Eddie was onto something special when Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath as the support band, managing to upstage Sabbath frequently when they were on the road together. People were witnessing a brand new form of guitar music with their jaws on the ground for the entire set, and let’s face it, that’s a pretty tough act to follow.
Iommi paid tribute to Eddie in a beautiful way, which acknowledged his innovative approach to the six-string, saying, “We really got to know each other well on that tour. He used to come around to my room most nights after the show. Or I’d go around to his, and we’d sit there talking.”
The Sabbath guitarist continued, “We used to have such a great time together. We really spilt our hearts out with each other […] What I like about Eddie, he was always an inventor. He’d always want to come up with something new. He worked hard to develop his own amplifiers. And he’d work on his own guitars as best he could to make them feel comfortable to him. He was always very much an innovator with a bunch of things.”
Maybe it was this tour which convinced Ozzy Osbourne to hire a guitar player like Randy Rhoads when he split from Black Sabbath in April 1979; he worked with Rhoads to produce some solo music and keep touring, and the latter was praised as being one of the best guitarists in the world at the time, but there was no escaping the fact he had a style which was incredibly similar to Eddie Van Halen. The two were compared a lot, which Rhoads hated, but he also couldn’t shake the fact that there was a lot of Eddie-inspired hutzpah in his playing.
“Everything happens so fast that I haven’t had enough time to think about what I want to do,” said Rhoads, “I have my own personality on the guitar, but, as of yet, I don’t think I have my own style. For instance, I do a solo guitar thing in concert. I do a lot of the same licks as Eddie Van Halen. Eddie is a great player, but it kills me that I do that.”
Rhoads said he was drawn to this style because it was impressive to watch, and people at the time were drawn to it, but he recognised it had been done, and wanted to make something that could wholly be credited as original. “For me, it’s just flash that impresses the kids,” he said, “I’m trying to make a name for myself as fast as I can. I wish I could take time and come up with something that nobody else has done. But that’s gonna take a few years yet.”
The sad thing is that Randy Rhoads was never able to work out what this individual sound was, as he passed away the same year that this interview was given, meaning the rock world missed out on the great music that he would have no doubt produced. You only have to listen to some of that Osbourne solo material to know you’re in the presence of a genius, yet Rhoads is another musician who must be filed under the ‘gone before their time’ category.
