Metal Sludge Gossip Board

pieceofme wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:57 pm 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 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:14 pm

pieceofme wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:57 pm 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 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:18 pm

sirthx2 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:14 pm

pieceofme wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:57 pm 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.

pieceofme wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:57 pm 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.

HottKarl777 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:49 pm Randy also wasn't using massive amounts of cocaine to get inspired. That was all him.

WentEast wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:14 pm 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.

WentEast wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:14 pm 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.

pieceofme wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:57 pm 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.

El Vampiro Blanco wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 2:41 am

WentEast wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:14 pm 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....

sirthx2 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:53 pm 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........