He Promised His Mother He’d Quit Touring Soon — Then Tragedy Struck Before He Could Keep His Word”

He Promised His Mother He’d Quit Touring Soon — Then Tragedy Struck Before He Could Keep His Word”

Just before his fatal plane crash, people saw Randy Rhoads and the pilot bizarrely fighting for control of the plane. But after the tragic event, Rhoads’ bandmates came forward with an even darker revelation. Tragic deaths in the world of rock and roll are not uncommon considering the toxic mix of drugs, booze, and bravado. Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhoads wasn’t anything like that. Sadly, he made one catastrophically bad decision, one that took his life just as it was getting started. When Randy Rhoads was born in 1956 in Santa Monica, California, he entered a household full of music as both his parents were music teachers. Rhoads wasn’t even 2 years old when his dad packed up and left the family. As it turned out, there was another woman and his father was soon remarried. Rhoads’ mom was left to raise him and his two siblings on her own. To help make ends meet, she opened a music school in North Hollywood. This school would have a huge impact on Rhoads’ future career. When he was 7, he started classes at his mom’s school. His guitar teacher soon came to Rhoads’ mom with a problem. He refused to teach the boy any longer because in his opinion, Rhoads had already become a better guitar player than him. Rhoads had a best friend in middle school named Kelly Garni. The other kids at John Muir Middle School didn’t like Rhoads or Garni because they looked weird and didn’t fit into the typical high school categories. On July 11th, 1971, Rhoads made his way to the Long Beach Auditorium to see Alice Cooper. But what happened was more than just a concert.

It was a life-changing event. During the show, Rhoads’ brother said that he became almost catatonic. In Cooper, Rhoads could see his future. He fast-tracked through high school and then started teaching at his mom’s music school. He soon gathered together a group of musicians to form a band. There was Garni, Kevin DuBrow, Drew Forsyth, and himself. Together, they became Quiet Riot and started playing gigs around LA. It didn’t take long for the band to make a splash on the LA rock scene. By 1976, they had a record deal with CBS. Quiet Riot quickly made two albums, both in 1978, and the record company made a bizarre decision. Although LA was full of Quiet Riot fans, they only released the albums in Japan. Making two albums within a year was difficult, and the band suffered from the pressure. Bandmates Garni and DuBrow were not getting along. One day, a very inebriated Garni fired a gun at DuBrow and then went at Rhoads with his fists. Garni was clearly not in control of himself, even talking about killing DuBrow. Rhoads had no choice but fire his best friend from the band. Soon after, he got a call from his bassist friend, Dana Strum, who told him that British rocker Ozzy Osbourne was in LA looking to form a new band. Truth was, Black Sabbath had just fired Osbourne for his bizarre behavior stemming mostly from his misuse of substances. Strum wanted Rhoads to audition for Osbourne’s new band. Rhoads wasn’t that interested, but eventually agreed to audition. But, what actually occurred at the audition is a case of he said, he said. Rhoads maintained that he didn’t even meet Osbourne at the audition, as Osbourne was in the control room and likely enibriated. The way Osbourne tells it, Rhoads started playing his guitar.

Osbourne thought he was amazing and gave him the job immediately. Before Osbourne returned to the UK, he jammed with Rhoads and Strum. At first, Rhoads had no interest in leaving Quiet Riot, but after the jam session, he felt tempted. Quiet Riot didn’t have a record deal in the US, and Osbourne was already a star. Eventually, Rhoads changed his mind. Osbourne returned to the UK and talked to his management team, but they had no interest in hiring an American guitarist, especially one who was more or less unknown. After some convincing, Osbourne’s manager said he’d give Rhoads a try. Rhoads landed in London on November 27th, 1979, and traveled by train to Bullrush Cottage, where Osbourne lived. He rounded out the band with one new member, Lee Kerslake from Uriah Heep. To make it clear that this was Osborne’s band, they named it The Blizzard of Oz. Rhoads was still an unknown musician, and he needed to change that. The band embarked on a UK tour based on their first album. The second album, Diary of a Madman, really got Rhoads noticed. The readers of Guitar Player magazine voted him best new talent, while Sounds magazine decided he was the best heavy metal guitarist. All this was good for Osborne’s band. What Rhoads did next wasn’t. Even though he was clearly making a name for himself playing with Osborne, he couldn’t help but reunite with his pals in Quiet Riot. He returned for a single night concert at Whisky a Go Go in LA. The Blizzard of Oz’s manager, Osbourne’s girlfriend Sharon Arden, heard about Rhoads’ reunion and sternly told him to never do it again. Back during the tour, Rhoads and Arden went out for drinks to celebrate, and the two ended up getting a little closer than they should have.

Of course, Arden would later become Mrs. Sharon Osbourne, which would certainly complicate Rhoads’ relationship with Ozzy. As it turned out, sleeping with Arden may have saved Rhoads his job. Rhoads and The Blizzard of Oz were getting ready for a US tour, and they had a short break scheduled. When he came back from the break, Rhoads discovered that Arden had fired his bandmates and close friends Kerslake and Daisley. It’s possible that she kept Rhoads on because she had a soft spot for him. But Rhoads was angry about losing his friends, and he wanted to push back. As a legal battle for the rights Kerslake and Daisley had to the music on Diary of a Madman began, Rhoads felt awful. He told Kerslake that he was thinking of walking out on Osbourne as he didn’t want to leave his friends behind. Kerslake appreciated the sentiment, but advised him to stay with the band. Before going on what would be his final tour, Rhoads was having second thoughts about being in heavy metal. He talked about going back to classical guitar and even earning a degree from UCLA. During the US tour, he even found classical guitar teachers to give him lessons. Osbourne was making Rhoads’s life unbearable, and he wanted out. Osbourne had a drinking problem that made his behavior unpredictable. Some days he would even refuse to go on stage, and the tour manager would have to coax him out. When he couldn’t be talked into performing, they’d have to cancel the concert. Rhoads hated this unpredictability, but things were about to get worse. In February 1982, Osbourne’s management team made an announcement. The Blizzard of Ozz would do a live recording of all Black Sabbath songs. The recording would take place at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.

Rhoads, along with drummer Tommy Aldridge, had their own announcement. They absolutely refused to do this live show. Osbourne didn’t like the word no, so he threatened to replace them. Osbourne started drinking more heavily and getting more angry. Although he says he doesn’t remember doing it, he apparently fired the entire band. Rhoads had had enough of Osbourne and decided to make a clean break. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do it immediately. He still owed Jet Records one more album and a tour. He also had to agree to one more thing, doing that Black Sabbath live concert album. Freedom from Osbourne was somewhere in Rhoads’ future. Sadly, he would never see it. For exclusive perks like early access to new videos, priority replies to your comments, and to have your say on future content, consider becoming a Factinate member. On top of that, your support helps keep the channel going. Click the link in the description for more details. Rhoads and Osbourne were not on great terms, but the tour had to continue. On March 18th, 1982, the band played in Knoxville, Tennessee, and headed next to Orlando, Florida. They would travel by bus to a Florida festival known as Rock Super Bowl. Unfortunately, Rhoads would never get to play this festival. On the way to Orlando, the tour bus had an issue. The air conditioner wasn’t working, and to fix it, they stopped at Flying Baron Estates in Leesburg, Florida. This estate has a private airstrip and even its own lake. Osbourne and Tommy Aldridge remained on the bus to sleep, while the rest of the guys looked around. That’s when the bus driver made a terrible decision. Sitting at the Flying Baron Estates was a fleet of helicopters and small airplanes. Tour bus driver Andrew Aycock was a pilot and thought it would be fun to take one of the planes for an excursion. He convinced keyboardist Don Airey and tour manager Jake Duncan to come along for a joyride. When Aycock got the plane into the air, he had an idea. He thought it would be funny to try and wake up the other tour members by flying the plane close to the bus. It was stupid and dangerous and probably a hoot for those on board. After swooping over the tour bus a couple of times, Aycock landed the plane successfully. But he wanted to do it again. Rhoads was still saying no as he was afraid of flying. Aycock said that this time he was taking makeup artist Rachel Youngblood and because she had a bad heart, he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Rhoads reluctantly agreed to climb on board. Once up in the air, it was clear that Aycock was not going to honor his promise to be safe. He started flying over the bus again in an effort to wake up the occupants. He flew over once and then once more. It was 10:00 a.m. when Aycock took the plane in for the third flyover. This third swoop would end in disaster. Don Airey, the band’s keyboardist, was on the ground with his camera taking pictures of the flight. As he focused his telephoto lens on the plane, he noticed something strange. It looked like Rhoads and the pilot were having some sort of struggle.

As the plane came in to buzz over the tour bus for the third time, Airey saw it was coming directly at him. He had to crouch to avoid being hit. He estimated the plane was only about 6 ft from the ground. As the plane went over his head, he turned to see what would happen. To his horror, the wing of the plane made contact with the tour bus. The impact sent Rhoads and Youngblood jerking forward. The impact was so abrupt that both their heads went through the windshield. The small plane then clipped the top of a pine tree, crashed into the garage of a nearby mansion, and burst into flames. It was pretty obvious that everyone on the plane had perished. After all, it was completely engulfed in flames. Osbourne said it took 30 minutes for any emergency vehicles to arrive. Because of the fire, it was nearly impossible to identify the occupants of the plane. They later used dental records and his jewelry to identify Rhoads. In the hours after the crash, Rhoads’ girlfriend was driving in her car and noticed that the radio station was playing only Blizzard of Oz songs. Eventually, the DJ told listeners about the crash and the death of Rhoads. What the guys in the band didn’t know was that Aycock had a sketchy history with planes. In fact, not only had his license expired, but he’d already caused a fatal accident in the United Arab Emirates. But there was something even more worrying about Aycock’s state that day.

He was suffering from sleep deprivation and experiencing some drug-related effects. Add to that the fact that his marriage was ending. In fact, his wife Wanda was also aboard the bus that Aycock was flying over. There’s a dark theory about why he was flying so low that day. Aycock had told everyone that he was flying close to the tour bus because he wanted to wake up the sleeping occupants. But witnesses say that was standing in the bus doorway as Aycock made his third flyover. It’s possible that his plan was to kill his wife and everyone else. While this seems unthinkable, it does explain one puzzling fact. Don Airey saw a physical struggle between Rhoads and Aycock in the plane. Some speculate that Rhoads was desperately trying to stop Aycock from intentionally crashing. Randy Rhoads’ impact as a guitar player is still felt to this day. Rolling Stone placed him at number 21 in their list of the greatest guitarists of all time, and he was number four on Guitar World’s 100 greatest heavy metal guitarists. His mother Delores started the Randy Rhoads Scholarship Endowment, which gives money to guitar students. His legacy truly lives on. If you enjoyed this Fact video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more incredible stories. If you want to say in who we cover next, join our membership program through the link in the description for exclusive perks. Your support means everything to us. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.