DESCRIPTION:
TRMUSICPROMOTIONS. Randy was a friend of mine.
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(DuBrow/Rhoads/Bobby Rondinelli)
Original version titled "Mama's Little Angels" from Quiet Riot.
Quiet Riot is the debut studio album by the band of the same name,

Released in 1977.

None of the songs on The Randy Rhoads Years are the same versions that appear on the original two Quiet Riot albums. At the request of the Rhoads family, longtime Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow remixed all the tracks, except the previously unreleased "Force of Habit" as its multitrack master tapes had been lost.

Lead vocals were re-recorded on all tracks except "Force of Habit" by Kevin DuBrow. In one case, he rewote the lyrics with ex-Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli. This track, "Last Call for Rock 'n' Roll" was formerly titled "Mama's Little Angels" on Quiet Riot.

One of his best friends in the early days when was Kelly Garni. Kelly and Randy started playing together around 1971 and eventually formed Quiet Riot together after combining their talents in many other bands, including Mildred Pierce, the Katzenjammer Kids and Mammoth. When they met, Randy had already started to form his own style and by age 13 Randy was already making older guitarists "look bad" with guitar playing that far exceeded his age.

Garni lists Rhoads's major influences in those days as Glenn Buxton of Alice Cooper and Mick Ronson of David Bowie. It was then that Randy started experimenting with "weird noises" and "strange sounds" that would become part of the Rhoads sound copied by many guitarists today. This music was reminiscent of Buxton. According to Garni it was at this time when Randy created many of the trademark licks and eerie sounds found on his later albums with Quiet Riot and Ozzy. Kelly and Randy would routinely spend all week looking for a gig and then every weekend playing at a party in someone's backyard in Burbank. They hardly ever got paid for the gigs, but the music was the most important thing. Garni said of the early days, "When Randy played they all jumped to attention.... Even though it was only a backyard, he put such a good show that you felt like you were at a coliseum at a major rock gig. He knew how to dazzle an audience."

During these years Randy and Kelly became well known in the area and created a local reputation for themselves which helped launch their next band, Quiet Riot, in 1975. After years being in backyard bands they wanted something more "formal." so they auditioned for a lead singer and found Kevin DuBrow. Kevin's audition was held in the kitchen at Mrs. Rhoads's house. She remembers the day well; "Kevin saying, 'Well if you don't like me just say so and I'll leave.' Randy and Kelly said, 'Now wait a minute, there are probably some things we have to work out. Let's talk about it.' That was actually the very first day for Quiet Riot."

Kevin recalled that day in a later interview, "He was just 17 at the time; I was 18. He had hair down to his waist and a thumbnail about four inches long. I looked at him and thought, 'No way can this guy play.' But I figured what the hell, and went over to his house to hear him play through this tiny amp. He plugged in, and I thought that my head was being plastered against the wall; every lead that I could ever imagine -- he played them better than anybody I'd ever heard on record."

Randy and Garni worked with Kevin until they decided to add him to the line-up. The original band members of Quite Riot included Randy on guitar, Kelly Garni on bass, Kevin DuBrow on vocals and Chris Forsyth on Drums.

Within a year Quiet Riot was the hottest band around. Soon they were regulars playing at "Starwood" in Santa Monica. While they played for free, to them the music was all that mattered. In the early days in the rock scene, groups wrote most of their own music. "Aside from playing guitar," Garni said, "Randy came up with a lot of the songs, too... Randy would come up with an idea and then we'd all jump on it; I think that's how a lot of bands go about. Randy was a very prolific writer, too -- he'd always have something new. In the early years he and I came up with a lot of riffs to jam on, but later on when Kevin came in and he and Randy wrote most of the songs."

Quiet Riot performed four or five gigs a week, soon creating enough excitement to sign a record deal with Japan's CBS Sony record label. As Garni put it in a later interview, "Well, we scored the deal to do the two Japanese albums and they did very well over there. I still have a stack of letters from fans there and we got some big write-ups in the magazines, too. They kept calling us the 'Next Big Thing' and the 'New Sound' in music."