The Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen rivalry has taken up a lot of column space over the years, with the two virtuosos consistently pitted against one another. In recent years, Wolfgang Van Halen has tried to downplay any animosity between the two camps, but early in his Ozzy career, Rhoads struggled to compete with his supposed arch-nemesis.
Speaking to Total Guitar on 14 August, 1981, at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, where he was on the road supporting Ozzy’s first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, Rhoads was asked whether having the spotlight shone so brightly on him had made it harder to excel.
“No,” he quipped. “But it’s been brought to my attention that I’ve really got to start getting a hold on my playing now. It’s no longer enough to just try my best. I’ve got to be great now.”
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Rhoads was 24 at the time. He’d made his name in Quiet Riot before landing the life-changing gig in Ozzy’s band, as the Prince of Darkness looked to forge a new chapter after his acrimonious split with Black Sabbath. He was the singer’s saving grace, in truth, landing the role after countless failed auditions, and bassist Bob Daisley says he had a premonition of his impending greatness when they first met.
But the size of the task at hand was no mystery to Rhoads. In fact, he looked over to Eddie Van Halen’s trailblazing playing and felt intimidated. But he was also trying to maneuver his way out of the shredder’s shadow.
“All of a sudden I’m under a different kind of pressure, he continued. “It’s a pressure that I’ve always got to be better than myself, which is a difficult thing to be. Eddie [Van Halen] is great, though, and I don’t want to compete with him.
“Everything happens so fast in this band that I haven’t had time to think about what I want to do. For instance, I’ll do a solo live, and I’ll do a lot of things Eddie does, and it kills me. It’s just flash, and it impresses the kids, and I’m trying to make a name as fast as I can. I wish I could take time and come up with something that nobody has done before. But it will take me a few years.”
It’s perhaps that mindset that led Rhoads to look to move away from the limelight before his passing. He died all too young at 25 in 1982, but after releasing his second album with Ozzy, Diary of a Madman, Rhoads harbored plans to go back to school and retreat into classical guitar. Ozzy, naturally, was baffled by his thinking.
Daisley said Rhoads actually shattered his expectations of the player, given his music school background. And when Ozzy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a second time in 2024, he acknowledged it would never have happened without Rhoads’ chops.
Whether he matched or bettered Eddie Van Halen’s legacy remains a point of debate across their two fanbases. For Rhoads, he just wanted to be the best version of himself; he wasn’t in the mood for competition.
