During a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Ozzy Osbourne has discussed the rumoured rivalry between late, legendary guitarists Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen.
“I heard recently that Eddie said he taught Randy all his licks … he never,” Osbourne said. “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.”
The rivalry was previously visited in the documentary Randy Rhoads: Reflections Of A Guitar Icon, which was released earlier this year.
The film contains archive audio of Van Halen discussing Rhoads, saying, “He was one guitarist who was honest, anyway. Because he said everything he did he learned from me.
“He was good,” Van Halen continued. “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?”
Randy‘s friend Kim McNair also spoke about the Rhoads–Van Halen rivalry in “Randy Rhoads: Reflections Of A Guitar Icon”, reflecting: “This was the years of guitar heroes. To a large degree, bands were judged on their guitar player. I think all the guitar players in town kept up on each other.”
In the same documentary, Rhoads‘s guitar tech Brian Reason reveals how he used to stick a picture of Eddie Van Halen to his wah pedal.
“He wasn’t very excited about [it], but it was in the perfect place, because every time he stomped on his wah wah pedal, he stomped on it as if he wanted to crush it,” Reason recalls.
