In a recent interview with Johnny Beane, Bob Daisley – best known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne – recalled how guitarist Randy Rhoads ended up joining Ozzy’s band.
Daisley began by describing his relationship with the legendary singer. When shown a photo of himself and Ozzy having a good time, Daisley said:
“That epitomizes, really, the situation. There was a lot of that, you know, Ozzy and I laughed a lot together. We had a very similar sense of humor. And as soon as we met up and started working, we knew it just clicked straight away.
“That was the first time I went to his house, and that would have been in 1979 and that was when we decided to put the band together and Randy wasn’t there then. Ozzy had another drummer and another guitarist at his house. I can’t remember who they were, but he was talking about that was going to be the band.”
He continued, saying that while Ozzy’s band at the time were decent guys, they weren’t right for the ambitious nature of his solo career.
“I said to him, ‘They’re nice guys and they’re decent players, but I don’t think they’re world class.’ And he sort of- he got rid of them on the spot then. And that was when he told me that he’d seen this guitarist already in L.A. called Randy Rhoads, and described him and told me that he was a music teacher. And I said, ‘Well, let’s get him over.'”
Despite Ozzy’s willingness to hire Rhoads, there were a few obstacles in the way.
“Well, at first David Arden – Sharon’s brother, who was Don Arden’s son – he didn’t want to bring Randy over,” Daisley recalled. “He said, ‘No, he’s unknown. He’s young, he’s not English. We want to keep it based in the UK. We want known people,’ blah, blah, blah. You know, Ozzy had just come from Sabbath. I’d just come out of Rainbow.”
“But eventually we talked David into flying Randy over. So then it was the three of us, and that’s when we started auditioning drummers and Lee was the final piece of the puzzle.”
