KELLY GARNI Van Halen got signed first. They got a great deal. We got the shitty deal.
KELLE RHOADS All the record companies, especially the main ones, had passed on Quiet Riot. RCA, Capitol, they all passed, sometimes two or three times. They didn’t want anything to do with them. Partly out of desperation, their managers at that time negotiated a deal with Sony Japan. But that relegated their product to import status. People couldn’t find those records. Still can’t.
RUDY SARZO (bassist, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne) The first time I saw Quiet Riot they had one record out. I was new in town and I went to the Whisky to see Van Halen. They were already signed and it was sort of like a homecoming gig for them. But it was so packed I couldn’t get in. So I went over to the Starwood, which was more of like the local band hangout. And Quiet Riot was playing. And you know, they came off playing at the Starwood like an arena band playing in a club. And I thought that was a very unusual and very unique approach.
I joined the band about a year later, when they were mixing the second album that came out in Japan. I’m in the photo on the cover of that record, even though their old bass player, Kelly, actually played on it. But they didn’t want him in the photo. It was not my call.
KELLE RHOADS By the way, Nikki Sixx was up to replace Kelly Garni in Quiet Riot. He was with a band called London at the time. Man, did the women like that band! When London played the Starwood there wasn’t a dry seat in the house. So Kevin wanted to bring Nikki in but Randy said no. He said, “Let’s go with this other guy. He looks like he might be good.” And that’s when they got Rudy.
RUDY SARZO By the late ’70s, places like the Starwood were not even the popular places anymore. It was new wave and punk places like Madame Wong’s and these really underground venues that became the hot spots.
BOBBY BLOTZER The Motels, Bates Motel, Devo … I’m trying to resurrect these bands in my brain. Nobody knew what was coming next. It was hard to understand where we all fit in, you know?
JUAN CROUCIER (bassist, Dokken, Ratt) If you went to the Starwood on a punk night and you were a hard rocker, that could turn ugly. So you really had to be selective of what night you went to what club.
RUDY SARZO I saw Devo at their first show ever in L.A., at the Starwood. And I was blown away because they were so different. So outside the box, so original. And we were being told by all the local labels that Quiet Riot, basically what we were doing was dinosaur music. It was never going to come back.
DANA STRUM The Rainbow Bar and Grill, which was the famous hang, went from long-haired rocker people to skinny-tie people that looked like the Knack almost overnight.
STEPHEN QUADROS A lot of the hard rock bands were starting to make concessions. They were starting to wear, you know, white shirts and skinny ties, putting a “The” in front of their name so they would be accepted by the new wave crowd. They were starting to compromise.
CARLOS CAVAZO (guitarist, Snow, Quiet Riot) I remember me and the members of Snow, we even tried to cut our hair shorter to fit in with the new wave kind of scene and help us achieve more success. It didn’t work because our music was still metal.
GEORGE LYNCH The Boyz morphed into Xciter. We weren’t making any progress and we weren’t having any luck getting signed, so we started second-guessing ourselves and decided to become like the Pretenders. We got a girl singer.
BRIAN SLAGEL (owner, Metal Blade Records) Xciter were probably my favorite band when I was in high school. I used to go see them a zillion times. George Lynch was amazing. But the thing about L.A. at that time, you had the punk rock scene and the new wave thing, and bands like Oingo Boingo and Wall of Voodoo and the Go-Go’s and that sort of stuff.
BOB NALBANDIAN But Quiet Riot, even though they had long hair and were kind of glammy-looking, they were also real poppy. They were one of those bands you heard on Rodney on the ROQ [Bingenheimer’s show on L.A. radio station KROQ] next to, you know, the Adolescents or the Circle Jerks or whatever. Rodney would play “Slick Black Cadillac,” which was kind of a local hit back then. So that’s how I remember Quiet Riot. And then when Randy Rhoads joined Ozzy it was like, “Oh, that’s the dude from Quiet Riot!”
DANA STRUM I saw Randy play at the Starwood and my mouth was just on the floor. I thought, How is it possible nobody’s really getting this? How is nobody seeing what I’m seeing? I looked around and I just felt personally moved and motivated by my love for music and that style. I was like, Jesus, he’s so good! He shouldn’t be here! And in my mind on the way home from the Starwood I thought, You know what? I’m gonna do something about it. He’s not gonna be here. That was kind of a pivotal moment.
Within weeks of that, Ozzy was out in L.A. looking to put a band together. This was right after Black Sabbath. He met me at the Starwood and he told my band at the time, “Hey guys, fuck off! Dana’s going with me!” But he had no band at the time. This was just his early steps. So I said, “Look, I know the guy you need. You don’t need to look any further. Without question this is the guy.” I thought in my mind, He’s gonna change everybody’s lives, Randy.
KELLE RHOADS What a lot of people don’t realize is who Ozzy really wanted was Gary Moore. But Gary Moore turned him down because he was making his first solo record. So he went on this big expedition to find a lead player. He looked in L.A., he looked in New York, he came back to L.A. again. And Ozzy happened to know Dana Strum. So Dana says to Ozzy, “Have you seen Randy Rhoads?” And Ozzy said no.
OZZY OSBOURNE Quiet Riot, I never heard of ’em!
KELLE RHOADS So Dana got hold of Randy, but Randy told him he really wasn’t interested because he did not like Black Sabbath. But our mom made him do it. She overheard at least one side of the conversation when Randy was talking to Dana on the phone and she told him, “You know, Randy, this might be your shot. You’re going to go to that audition.” So he went and played for Ozzy in a hotel room. Ozzy was all fucked up and drunk, but he recognized the talent immediately. He said, “You’re the greatest guitar player I’ve ever seen in my life. You’re in.”
OZZY OSBOURNE When I met Randy Rhoads I was out of my fucking face! I was staying at Le Parc Suite [Hotel] and I’m sitting there, I’m fucked up, it’s about six o’clock in the evening, and Dana Strum says, “Fucking wake up! You gotta hear this!” I met Randy and I said, “Are you a woman?” In high heels, a thin little man. Dana says to me, “You’ll see him later, in the studio.” So next time in the studio I’m still fucked up, Randy has a little amp on his chair and he says, “What do you want me to play?” I said, “Play anything!” Because I wanted to go home. But he started to play and even in my fucked-up state I went, “Oh, good god.” And I said something to Dana like, “If he’s as good as I think he is … look out, world.”
RUDY SARZO Was Kevin DuBrow upset when Randy left for Ozzy? Yeah, of course he was. But then again, that was maybe the best thing that happened to him because as long as Randy was in the band, Kevin was always more focused on promoting Randy Rhoads. Then after that, when Kevin was left on his own, he focused on himself. And he was able to develop what Quiet Riot became later.
KELLE RHOADS It took a while, but Kevin prevailed.