Ozzy Osbourne weighed in with some interesting comments about the Randy Rhoads/Eddie Van Halen rivalry.
For some backstory, the rivalry between the two guitar icons was explored in the new documentary Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon. In the doc, Quiet Riot fan club president Lori Hollen says, “I know that at some of the shows we’d see David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen, which was always interesting to me, because I know Randy never went to see them play. But they would always come to see Quiet Riot and Randy play.”
Rhoads’ guitar tech Brian Reason added, “There was a little cross-town rivalry there between Quiet Riot and Van Halen…Everyone was comparing Eddie Van Halen to Randy Rhoads.”
In archival audio featured in the doc, Van Halen was asked if he knew Rhoads. EVH responded, “Yeah, he was one guitarist who was honest, anyway. Because he said everything he did he learned from me. He was good, but I don’t really think he did anything that I haven’t done. And there ain’t nothing wrong with it. I’ve copied some other people, you know?”
Ozzy touched on these comments in a new interview with Rolling Stone. The Prince of Darkness said, “I heard recently that Eddie [Van Halen] said he taught Randy all his licks … he never.”
Osbourne added, “To be honest, Randy didn’t have a nice thing to say about Eddie. Maybe they had a falling out or whatever, but they were rivals.”
