EVH.....if Randy had lived

[sirthx2]

Inspired by the Lemmy on RR thread....
What would EVH have become had Randy lived? We know that there was a rivalry of sorts as apparently Ed saw him as a 'copycat'. (I'm sure RR could have cared less) We also KNOW that Randy would have continued to progress and grow as a player as he explored other genres which may have motivated Ed had Randy 'dethroned' Eddie in the public eye. Or maybe not. Clapton never seemed motivated to grow despite Jeff Beck blowing by him. He remained great, but stayed in his lane. Eddie kinda did the same save for venturing more into synth/keys. Still, if RR had lived, I wonder........

[pieceofme]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

[sirthx2]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

I think you're missing the point of the 'discussion'. Ed was 'better', sure but RR was only like 25. He would have gotten massively better as it appeared he was wired that way. What would Ed have done had that happened? Play along FFS!

[pieceofme]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

I think you're missing the point of the 'discussion'. Ed was 'better', sure but RR was only like 25. He would have gotten massively better as it appeared he was wired that way. What would Ed have done had that happened? Play along FFS!

No guarantee of that. He would have left Ozzy and faded into oblivion and only be discussed by nerds like yourself 40 years later. He would also be less revered due to turning to shit and disappointing his hardcore fans for not recreating the intro to Crazy Train.

Eddie would have still been sampling in synth and selling millions of records to soccer mums as Van Hagar.

[sirthx2]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

I think you're missing the point of the 'discussion'. Ed was 'better', sure but RR was only like 25. He would have gotten massively better as it appeared he was wired that way. What would Ed have done had that happened? Play along FFS!

No guarantee of that. He would have left Ozzy and faded into oblivion and only be discussed by nerds like yourself 40 years later. He would also be less revered due to turning to shit and disappointing his hardcore fans for not recreating the intro to Crazy Train.

Eddie would have still been sampling in synth and selling millions of records to soccer mums as Van Hagar.

I'm miles and miles away from 'nerdom' of any kind in the music bizz. Maybe a bit of an Elvis nerd but certainly not a RR or EVH nerd. And note to self if I'm ever involved in the production of a RR bio-pic, I'm not going to submit your name as a candidate to write the screenplay.

[Wiseacre]

I think they were both always seen as completely separate players by fans even if they felt like there was competition. Eddie was flashy with the tapping and a much more blues influence. Randy was seen as a neo-classical player with a stronger classical influence.

Most guys I knew were “team” one of the other due to style preferences but respected both a ton. I never heard anyone claim that either of them sucked u like with almost all other popular players.

The only way RR benefitted by his death was that he didn’t have to be associated with a lot of shitty Ozzy stuff that came along afterwards.

[HoldenSSV]

I think he would have heard Yngwie and said, "That's where I was eventually hoping to go, dammit."

We used to crassly joke that the real reason the plane crashed was because Varney sent Randy an earlier version of Yngwie's demo.

[Bono Nettencourt]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

/thread. Like Blowbrains, dying was better for RRs legacy than living.

[DangerZone]

Randy was similar to Eddie in that they knew how to put their skills in service of original hit songs.

Few other guitar greats can.
I like Nuno as a player and person, but I don’t like Extreme.
Yngwie has a few solid songs but nothing that touches “believer”

Eddie & Randy are just stylistic different.
Well beyond Hendrix, in my opinion, which is where Lemmy’s head was stuck

[HottKarl777]

I was stunned at Ed's ego and complete lack of objectivity when he assessed Rhoads in that Guitar Player interview. Jesus Christ what a twat. I don't think Randy would have ever gave Ed too much to worry about honestly. Randy was a hell of a songwriter but he just didn't have the natural chops and especially the timing Ed had. He knew it too.

Of course Randy was a much more disciplined player who could triple track blistering fast solos. Ed was the opposite. He noodled around playing 5 completely different solos and then they would just take the best licks from the different takes and comp it together. So it wasn't Ed actually building a solo with a beginning and an end and a theme like Rhoads. Randy also wasn't using massive amounts of cocaine to get inspired. That was all him.

[Ryan81]

Randy also wasn't using massive amounts of cocaine to get inspired. That was all him.

Actually that would've been kind of cool if Randy had gotten into drugs because the first few years you do them there are some favorable returns. Randy was disciplined enough that I think he would've been a productive cokehead for a couple of albums. Of course eventually drugs rear their ugly head and become counter productive and worse, but I think Randy could've made them work for a bit. What could've been....

[WentEast]

If RR had actually gone back to school to get a degree in classical guitar he would have been out of the professional music game for a few years at least - he only had a high school GED as I recall, so he would have needed to first get a BA then go for a Masters. That is about 6 years of college, unless he did some kind of special accelerated program.

And had he done all that, and shifted toward lighter jazz instrumental stuff punctuated by some rock stuff (as he talked about doing sometimes) I think he would have ultimately ended up more in the Alan Holdsworth or even Larry Carlton/Al Di Meola tier of fame.

I also think he was still relatively green as a “songwriter”. Bob and Lee - very experienced band guys - were able to help shape Randy’s riffs into viable songs. Completely on his own? Not sure how that would have gone, but even EVH didn’t completely write on his own, and when he did, well, VHIII.

[El Vampiro Blanco]

If RR had actually gone back to school to get a degree in classical guitar he would have been out of the professional music game for a few years at least - he only had a high school GED as I recall, so he would have needed to first get a BA then go for a Masters. That is about 6 years of college, unless he did some kind of special accelerated program.

And had he done all that, and shifted toward lighter jazz instrumental stuff punctuated by some rock stuff (as he talked about doing sometimes) I think he would have ultimately ended up more in the Alan Holdsworth or even Larry Carlton/Al Di Meola tier of fame.

I also think he was still relatively green as a “songwriter”. Bob and Lee - very experienced band guys - were able to help shape Randy’s riffs into viable songs. Completely on his own? Not sure how that would have gone, but even EVH didn’t completely write on his own, and when he did, well, VHIII.

My take as well.
Randy went from writing completely shit songs in QR to writing Ozzy's two best albums in about 2 years.
My guess is he had a lot of help from Daisley converting riffs into actual songs...
Just like I think Eddie had a lot of help from Roth deciding which songs to continue working on and which not.
It would explain the decline in quality once Sammy joined. Sammy being absolute mediocrity....

[El Vampiro Blanco]

If RR had actually gone back to school to get a degree in classical guitar he would have been out of the professional music game for a few years at least - he only had a high school GED as I recall, so he would have needed to first get a BA then go for a Masters. That is about 6 years of college, unless he did some kind of special accelerated program.

And had he done all that, and shifted toward lighter jazz instrumental stuff punctuated by some rock stuff (as he talked about doing sometimes) I think he would have ultimately ended up more in the Alan Holdsworth or even Larry Carlton/Al Di Meola tier of fame.

I also think he was still relatively green as a “songwriter”. Bob and Lee - very experienced band guys - were able to help shape Randy’s riffs into viable songs. Completely on his own? Not sure how that would have gone, but even EVH didn’t completely write on his own, and when he did, well, VHIII.

My take as well.
Randy went from writing completely shit songs in QR to writing Ozzy's two best albums in about 2 years.
My guess is he had a lot of help from Daisley converting riffs into actual songs...
Just like I think Eddie had a lot of help from Roth deciding which songs to continue working on and which not.
It would explain the decline in quality once Sammy joined. Sammy being absolute mediocrity....

[Nobodyspecial]

If Randy Rhoads had lived he would not have been revered as he is today.

Eddie would still be the better guitarist. He always was.

^^^THIS!^^^

[Gibsonite]

If RR had actually gone back to school to get a degree in classical guitar he would have been out of the professional music game for a few years at least - he only had a high school GED as I recall, so he would have needed to first get a BA then go for a Masters. That is about 6 years of college, unless he did some kind of special accelerated program.

And had he done all that, and shifted toward lighter jazz instrumental stuff punctuated by some rock stuff (as he talked about doing sometimes) I think he would have ultimately ended up more in the Alan Holdsworth or even Larry Carlton/Al Di Meola tier of fame.

I also think he was still relatively green as a “songwriter”. Bob and Lee - very experienced band guys - were able to help shape Randy’s riffs into viable songs. Completely on his own? Not sure how that would have gone, but even EVH didn’t completely write on his own, and when he did, well, VHIII.

My take as well.
Randy went from writing completely shit songs in QR to writing Ozzy's two best albums in about 2 years.
My guess is he had a lot of help from Daisley converting riffs into actual songs...
Just like I think Eddie had a lot of help from Roth deciding which songs to continue working on and which not.
It would explain the decline in quality once Sammy joined. Sammy being absolute mediocrity....

In fairness, his writing partner in QR was Kevin fucking Dubrow. What else would you expect