June 19, 2025 • 48 mins
We love Sebastian Bach as the rockin guitarist Gil, but the lines between Stars Hollow and reality start to blur in this week’s pop culture reference!
In Season 4 Episode 7 “The Festival of Living Art”, Gil tells Lane about his old band that broke up before they scored their big break: opening for Quiet Riot.
We’re talking to Rudy Sarzo, the bass player for Quiet Riot and a certified rock legend! He has some wild stories from the road, along with a firsthand account of what happened when Ozzy Osbourne was handed a bat onstage!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all In again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh it's just you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I Smell Pop Culture with Eastern Allen and iHeart Radio podcast.
Come on, feel the pop culture girls rock you. Sorry, guys,
sorry about that. That didn't sound as cool as it
did in my head. My name is Easton Allen, it
is I Smell pop Culture here on the I Am
all In Podcast. Thank you Scott Patterson for giving me
(00:40):
the keys to your car, for letting me do this.
I'll bring it back with a full tank, I promise.
Here's what we do here. We explore the pop culture
references and Gilmore Girls. We talk to the people that
make them real. We talk to the people that bring
them to life. And we are rocking out this week. Everybody.
I hope you got your leather jacket. I hope you
got your big boots, your vinyl, your shaggy hair. We're
(01:04):
going into the world of hair metal this week. So
here's the thing about Gilmore Girls. We all know that
Sebastian Bach, he played gil He was in the band
hep Alien. He is a real deal rocker. Sebastian Bach
is the real deal. Scott's talked to him a bunch
of times on this podcast. We love Sebastian Bach. But
(01:24):
there's a scene that he has in season six, episode four,
the Festival of the Living Art, when he's trying out
for HEP Alien and he references another band. That's who
we're going to talk to you today. So here is
the moment in Gilmore Girls that we are going to
be exploring today. Gil's trying out for HEP Alien. He
(01:47):
you know, there's an age difference. It is kind of weird.
He's a much older guy. He's god, he's so good.
Look I rewatched this episode today, but he is such
a good looking dude. But later in the episode, when
they're at the festival, Lane is talking to Gill she
sees in there watching the show, and he kind of
admits like, hey, I know I'm not getting the I'm
(02:09):
not getting the gig. I didn't pass the audition. I
know it. And Lane reassures him, you're a great guy, Gill,
You're great guitar. So someone's gonna scoop you up quick.
And Gil's like, I hope. So I'm gonna keep going
no matter what, not like last time, And Lane says
last time and Gil says yet he tells a story. Yes,
I had another band a great band. We have the
hottest band in LA. We sold out all the clubs,
(02:30):
the House of Blues, the Whiskey A and our guys
were hanging out. We had an awesome demo tunes. Then
we got our big break, an opening slot on a
national tour with Quiet Riot. But we blew it. We
were fighting all the time over money, over chicks. We
broke up before the tour even started. What a sad
tale that Gil spins in that moment. But we're going
(02:53):
to talk to Quiet right, is of course a real band,
a band that's been around. They're still touring. They have
been around for decades now. And if you're not a
hair metal band, if you're not into this rock and
heavy music, I guarantee you know come on feel the noise.
I guarantee you know that song. Come on Field no
(03:13):
huzz don't worry. I want to sing the whole thing.
But we are going to talk to Rudy Sarzo. He
was the bass player in Quiet Riot. But oh he
doesn't stop there. He also played bass for Ozzy Osbourne,
Blue Oyster, Cult, Whitesnake. This guy is a legend in
the world of heavy metal music. And we're going to
talk to him all about Quiet Riot. We're gonna talk
(03:35):
to him about his friendship with Sebastian Bach. He knows
our guy gil We're gonna get into it all here
on I smell pop culture. Let's not waste any more
time before talking to Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot. Rudy,
thank you so much for doing this. We're so excited
to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The reason we are talking to you today is that
Sebastian Bach was in Gilmore Girls, and you have a
history with him. But in the show he was he's
telling the drummer of a band he's auditioning for that
his last band in La had a big break opening
for Quiet Riot, but then they blew it. They got
(04:12):
into a big argument over money, over women. They couldn't
keep it together. They didn't get to go on the tour.
A lot of people think that that line is about
skid Row, Sebastian's real life band and a spot opening
for Kiss. What's your relationship with Sebastian Bach? How far
back do you, guys go?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
We go far back as Actually I met him right
when he joined the band. I would say nineteen eighty eight.
We were in Los Angeles. I was in Whitesnake at
the time, and I went to visit their skid Rose manager,
an old friend of everybody's, Doug McGee. He's a oh yeah, yeah,
(04:56):
Douc McGee. You know, he manages everybody, especially by Jovie
and skid Row monthly crew at the time and then
currently Kiss and all of that. So we were hanging
in his house and he was introducing us the guys
from Weissnik that were president at this party in Newport, California. Uh,
the guys in the band and the Lass guy was Sebass.
(05:17):
You you know, I mean, you don't miss him. You
can't get away from him. You know, he's like seven
feet tall and loud and really really good looking guy.
You know. I mean, if you ever saw the cover
of Rolling Stone magazine where they had him in there,
you know, on the cover. You know, I think that
was the last photo that Rolling Stone published with a
(05:40):
with an actual you know, hair band rock star skid Row.
We're not really a hair band because they were a
little bit grungier, a little bit more punk in the attitude,
but they just happened to come out at that time,
and you know how it is you know, the media
and the record company. You know, they're trying to put
you in a category so they can sell you, of
(06:02):
course to a certain demographic, you know. So they fell
into that demographic of the their band. But you know,
they came up with some other future recording that actually
were much heavier than their first record, you know, less valid,
less pop sounding arrangements of the songs and so on
(06:22):
back in the nineties, so they would actually tour still
tour with the heavier, grungier sound from Seattle, you know,
bands you know from that, from from that, yeah, from
that style of music, you know, because at the end
of the day, everything melts into one thing. It's rock
and roll, you know. So what happens is, you know,
(06:45):
while MTV and record companies were dictating kind of it's
like serial some kids are going to be sold on
the idea of count Count Chocula. So you've got to
eat this city or some kids, waitis it is for you?
You know? You know, if you watch you watch morning cartoons,
it was all about selling cereal and then Captain Crunch
(07:08):
with a little whistle. Then later somebody figured out that
if you bleue this whistle into a telephone, you can
make long distance calls for free. I remember, Yeah, so
you know, and it's but you know, music was pretty
much the same. It's like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna
go on MTV and we're gonna tell the MTV audience
(07:29):
that if you like the Thompson Twins, maybe skid Row
is not for you. They're more like, if you're like Bonjobie,
you're gonna love skid Row basically, you know. So you know,
with time, now that MTV is not playing videos anymore, Uh,
the new generation gets to discover on their own, you know.
(07:49):
But it's difficult to find bands because it's kind of
like going into Costco and you want to find something.
You know, where is the Dysphibia, But you got to
go through every aisle looking for it, you know, but
eventually you will find it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, you know, it's kind of a double edged sword
because it's like if you're especially if you're like a
band starting out, you have so much opportunity to get
your sound out there, but there's so much to listen to,
so much to get to sift through, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, so you've got to create a viral presence, not
just one video you've got to create multiple videos, you know,
and you have to like doing it, which is really interesting.
You know, the record company used to shroun on artists
getting involved beyond the creator creating the content once it
(08:43):
came into marketing, and if you had ideas for videos,
they didn't want to hear about it, you know. They
usually in director and I went through this. Let's say,
I mean a band we're going there's a new record
coming out, and that the first single has been picked.
(09:04):
So we get all of these directors coming in pitching ideas,
you know, and and he used the problem. So this
is a young director. He comes in and he pitches
you an idea that you might think like, na, it's
not really for us. Later on, you're working with this director.
Now he's huge, and you're working with him in another band,
(09:28):
and he remember you his great idea that he actually
used on another band that had a big video with
that idea that you passed.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, really, you've you've been in so many bands, Like
we were saying earlier, I'm curious, like what Sebastian was
saying in that Gilmer Girls episode, Like there's a lot
of times, especially in rock bands, you hear the stories
of like egos clashing or or you know, you get
into a fight of her money or something like that.
Is what a secret to like a harmony within a band,
(10:03):
like how how do you? How does everybody get along?
Has that happened for you?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Is that not? Yeah? They in the tour of us,
They in your bunky way to your bunk. Even if
they think you're up to something nefarious in your bunk,
it's okay because once you are in the front lounge
(10:29):
where things happen people, you know, guys in the band,
they get sick of looking at each other for months.
It's like pirates in a pirate ship. Yes, it's just
like that. Because you're going from down you you forget
where you're att Sometimes they have to write it down
on the front of the stage. Hello, Minnesota, you're Minnesota.
(10:55):
You know and and and that to me is the
best what you do. It's just like, do what you're
there to do, make your music, and then just stay
out of the way. Don't have opinions because opinions will
get you in trouble. You might be because it will
create a separation between you know, one side and the other.
(11:19):
You know, So the best way is to like, you know,
it's almost like a like if you're living at home
with your family, your mom and dad and your brothers,
where do we spend most of our time in our room?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
In our room, you know, so it's the bunk. It's
our room. And then come out to eat and socialize,
has a little breakfast maybe, and then go back.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
That's good advice. I mean, it's good advice for life too.
Just kind of like my mind, your business, take care
of yourself absolutely. Yeah, Like I know you get this
question a lot, but I'm just so curious, like, like,
is there what's the craziest thing that has happened to
you on stage that you can remember?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, that would be with Ozzy with Ozzy Osbourne and
I joined Ozzie in nineteen eighty one on his first
Aussie you know, solo artist tour. Yeah, for Blizzard of
Oz and then for Diary of mad Men, and uh,
you know Ozzie, he's predictably unpredictable. You never know what's
(12:28):
gonna happen. He doesn't even know what's gonna happen. It
just happened. Yeah, there's no playing, it's just do it,
you know, on stage, you know, and it was like
every night was like, Okay, what is he going to do? Now,
what's gonna happen? You know. So one of those nights
the Moine Iowa in nineteen eighty two Diary of the
(12:50):
mad Men Tour, somebody throws a crumpled thing thing on, Harry, Harry,
fuzzy thing on. Stay. It's lands in front of me
and I'm doing my you know, head banging, you know,
moving the base of the head around, and I point out, Ozzie, Hey,
check this out. Well, we're playing. So I just kept playing. See,
(13:13):
I just carry off. That was in the middle of
the set. So we finished our set. Then I see
an ambulance waiting for Ozzie on the side of the stage,
you know, and they rush him in there and they
draw it drive off, and I go to our manager
and then say Sharon, and I go what happened? He says, well,
(13:34):
somebody threw a bat on stage, and Ozzy thought that
it was a toy bat, so he bit into it
and bent his head off, and he freaked out and
spit it out into the audience and they can't they
can't find it. Now, Oh my god, He says that
we're not gonna take any chances. We're gonna get him
(13:56):
to emergency and get him some Raby shot. So we
take the tour bus and we clean up, and we
parked the tour bus in front of the hospital emergency entrance,
and so as he comes out and he's got this
little box with monkey serum vile for him to take
(14:19):
shots every day. And they said do not drink monkey
sum because he wasn't the refrigerator along with like everything else,
my yogurt, milk, beard, monkey serum, drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. I can't believe you were there for that. I mean,
we've all heard the Ozzie bit the head off the
bat story, but I didn't know the details. I can't
believe you were there. And the fact that he thought
I never knew that he thought it was a toy
or something. I just assumed he would, you know, because
you hear the stories like oz, he's crazy. He just
did that.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean the help throw back.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, that is that's insane. I mean, that's a good
answer to that question of what's the most insane thing
that happened. That's absolutely nuts. We're to hear with Rudy
Sarzo is the bass player from Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne,
as you just heard, Whitesnake, so many other amazing bands.
(15:22):
We have so much more to get into. We're going
to take a quick commercial break. Come on, feel the ads,
everybody one second. It is I smell pop culture. My
name is Easton Allen. I'm hanging out here with Rudy Sarzo,
(15:42):
the bass player, the rock bass player. If you ask me,
Quiet Riot boys are cold. I mean Dio. Oh my god,
some ma of these incredible bands. I want to go
back to the beginning of your time with Quiet Riot though. Yeah,
I read that you stumbled into one of their shows
(16:03):
after you couldn't get into a sold out Van Halen concert.
That is that true?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That is correct. It was nineteen seventy seven and Van
Halen was playing at the Whiskey and I couldn't get
in because it was sold out, you know, and so
I just I just got into town. I was like,
you know, stumbling around and you know, and there was
a community back then. There was a bunch of us
who were I wouldn't say aimless, but we were looking
(16:31):
for something. We didn't know exactly what it was, but
we're here because we couldn't come out of town. You know,
most of the musicians from the Sunset Strip at that
time had migrated from other cities in the United States
trying to find that combination of either a whole band
or some musician to put a new band together with,
you know, things like that. And so I was one
(16:52):
of them, and we all looked the same. We all
we had, you know, the same haircut, the same boots,
has the same leather jacket, and you know, it was
like a uniform basically, so we were easily identifiable. So,
you know, so a lot of them helped me out
the other guys because that was the rule of film.
Be nice to everybody because someday you might wind up
(17:13):
in a band with them. Good advice, you know, yeah,
And so, you know, so a couple of the guys
outside they couldn't get it there. They say, hey, you know,
right down the stream, there's a place called the star Wood.
Just going there. You know, they got some cool bands
playing there too, So I didn't, you know, And I
(17:33):
walk in and there's quiet Ryot performing. And I at
that time, before I got to LA in seventy seven,
I have been touring the bar circuit in the Midwest,
for maybe a year, year and a half, and I
had seen a lot of bands that now we're gearing
(17:55):
up to head out to Los Angeles to showcase and
get a record deal. And when I saw Quiet Ryan,
I thought, well, these guys did Yeah, they are an
arena band, yeah, doing an arena show, you know, performance
in the club, the showcase club. And I was really
(18:17):
impressed by everything. And so I after their show, especially
Randy Road. Randy Rhodes had this his fan base girls
standing in front of him worrying he used to wear
a little poke with dot bow ties. Yeah, and and
so they all wore little poke without bow ties, and
I go, wow, these these guys are rocal. They already
(18:39):
have a really strong fan base, because you don't seen
that when you play bars. When you play bars, people
are just there to drink and pick up each other,
you know. Yeah, that's why I've been married for forty
one year. He was me, do you go to bars anymore? Now?
I really know what I was looking for, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(19:01):
So after their show, Kevin was walking around making the
round Kevin de Brother, the singer, making the rounds, you know,
saying hello to friends, and I bump into him, and
I introduced myself. And this is something that I've always done,
even prior to meeting Kevin. When I see somebody who
(19:24):
who's promising, I'll let him know because sometimes this is
one thing that This is the fact local bands are incubated.
They are in one area. They don't know what's out there,
especially forty something years ago. This is nineteen seventy seven,
so it's almost fifty years ago. There's no social media,
(19:45):
you know, you have no reference. Nowadays, you can go, okay,
let me see what's out there. When you two that,
it's kind of like what we do. Ah, okay, So
now you can measure what you're doing, what to improve,
what to work on, how to be you meek from
these other bands, you know, things like that. So I
was out there and I'm just coming to LA, so
(20:06):
I could tell somebody from LA, Hey, listen, this is
what's going on out there. These are the bands, you know,
this is what they got going for that. You guys
got even more than they do. So keep doing what
you're doing. You're almost there and you're going to get
a record deal, which is the goal. This is this
is why everybody did it, so they could get a
(20:27):
record deal and then become a professional touring and recording band.
Yeah it's the dream, yeah, the dream. Yeah yeah. So
a year later, I get the phone call from Kevin.
I was in New Jersey with my brother putting, you know,
getting some money playing the lounge circuit. And then you know,
(20:47):
because you know, it can be very expensive to live
in Los Angeles, and I kept running out of money
and keep going back out again to make money playing
Top forty and then come back. And this is this,
this was the last time, because this nineteen seventy eight,
I already got my ticket to come home. I get
(21:08):
the phone call from Kevin de brother saying, hey, man,
you know we're looking for a bass play. We tried
everybody out, and you know, some people say that you're
the guy. And I said, listen, I'll be there next
week as soon as I land. I'm going to give
you a call when I come over in an audition.
And I did, and I started playing with kwiet right
in nineteen seventy eight. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And what fascinated me about that first when you first
joined the band is that then they break up like
what it was a year later the band breaks up.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, this is what happened Randy joined Ozzy Alsboy. So yeah,
there was a breakout because you know, Randy was irreplaceable,
you know, yeah, and it was kind of like, you know,
it was kind of like, you know, how can we
continue on Squiet ride with our Randy? Yeah, exactly, And
so he joined Ozzy Alsbo you know, I mean it.
(22:01):
Kevin put his own band together called du Burow and
I even got to play with Kevin in Dubro eight
months before I joined Ozzy in April of the nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
One, you know, So what was that transition going from
Quiet right to Ozzy Osbourne? And again this is like
when he's first breaking out from Black Sabbath as a
solo artist. What was that transition?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Like, well, it was a crash course and being authentic
heavy metal, all right, because you know, here I am,
I'm playing with one of the godfathers of heavy metal,
you know, one of the members of Black Cabin. They
invented the genre, and there's certain things that must happen
(22:48):
musically in on states to maintain the authenticity of it, right,
And my rests at the time was being a musician
in the sonsas Strip, you know, And and I had
never been abroad. I mean I meaning in Europe, never
been across the pond. I was was born in Cuba,
(23:09):
so I was not you know, born in the United States.
So yes, I came from abroad and I came you
know to the United States in sixty one. But as
far as going to Europe or any other country, no.
I once went to Canada, but that's kind of like
for a couple. So uh so here I am in England.
(23:35):
You know, it's a whole different culture, the pub culture.
You know, back in the day forty something years ago. Uh,
people were set there along watch to pub hours, telling
that well it's eleven o'clock, it's open park and and
(23:56):
it's it's the mindset that if you know it's only
going to be open for two or three hours, you're
gonna drink your ass off, yeah, because they're gonna take
that away from you closing time. They're gonna alter it
up again later, so you're gonna go back back to work,
you're gonna be you know, smashed. It's okay, So he's
(24:16):
everybody else exactly. You know, little things like that that
I had never witnessed before. You know, Indian food, Indian
food which I love and all of that. But but
again going back to the to the being authentic heavy metal. Uh,
I was mentored by Ozzie. I was mentored by Sharon.
(24:38):
She took me to the side and she gave me
the the don'ts. Maybe she didn't give you one due Yeah,
I do stand here, do stand here, but don't do
this and don't do that, you know, which is okay
because it had to see Ozzie at the beginning was
an extension of Black Sabbath. So certain traditional heavy metal
(25:02):
things had to happen on stage visually and performance wise,
you know, visually, image wise and performance you know, And
there were some boundaries on some rules that were laid
out organically a decade or and a half before Ozzie
went out as a solo artist. That became the tradition
(25:24):
of heavy metal. Another thing that helped me out was
that my ears, my heart might be expanding because uh
we had Motorhead. Now Motorhead. That was really interesting. See
because when I joined Ozzie, Assie was the only English
(25:47):
member in the band, but Motorhead was full blown English
traditional and let me, let me, let me, let me,
let me what an I'd never met anybody like Levy before.
They were like like pirates, you know, like Pirates of
the Caribbean. It was just like that, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, i mean they look too like the mustache and
that brocker base.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I mean yeah, yeah. Everything about it it was authentic,
was very It's something that it was not made up to, like, Okay,
we're gonna become like the village people. We're not, you know,
we're gonna become Motorhead and we're gonna be like this
this real heavy metal band. No, it just happened, you know,
and it was a natural formation of this of this
(26:39):
beast whole mora ahead. And you would go into their
tour bus and it was like Caligula. It was like
all the women all in the place, you know, naked,
have naked the alcohol food, you know when I'm talking
about like five day old pizza boxes. You know, you'll
(27:00):
go to our bus for Sharon trouble with us. It
was spotless, clean, everything in its place, nothing out of place.
It was like, wow, you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Know, now which one were you more drawn to? Did
you like the clean, put together bus or did you
want to be on the party uh chaotic bus? Uh?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You know that's a great question. No, I lean more
towards the clean yeah, but but this is a matter
of getting an education, yes, to be educated and like
what is really heavy metal? Okay? And one thing that
I must I must uh mention here that it was
(27:47):
Sharon that was trying to keep Auzzi uh from getting
into trouble with drugs, alcohol, whatever, you know, the things
that he would do. In Black Sabbath traditionally, you know,
bands on the road, and these guys started out when
they were sixteen, eighteen year old year old. There's no
(28:07):
rules written, there's nothing is like, we'll figure it out,
you know as we go along. And there's certain things
that happened that got in the way of the quality
of their creativity, drugs and alcohol. And this is what
Sharon was trying to avoid with Ozzie, is for him
to go down that road, you know, and to be
(28:28):
honest with you, the other guys in the band, Randy,
you know, was very clean compared to Motorhead, and so
as Tommy Andres who have been on the road for
about maybe sixteen years with Black work Arden Saw and
Pat Travers and so on. He was compared to to Motohead. Yeah,
(28:48):
he was very clean. You know, so we were not
really really it's a lifestyle. You were not your typical
heavy metal band except for Ozzie. So you know, Sharon
would just like monitoring him, you know, make sure he
will not go off the deep end. But he needed
to be Azsi, which is you know, I have to
(29:10):
let him, let him be Aussie Goes. After all, he
is a.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's a tough line to ride though, you know, because
you don't want him to destroy himself that you know,
you gotta let him be who he is. Also, yeah,
Rudy Sarzo is with us from Quiet Riot. I have
so many more questions for you. We got to talk about.
You know, you were playing with Ozzy Osbourne, but then
you come back to join Quiet Riot. We're going to
(29:38):
talk about that after we hear a few words. And
these words might mean goods and services that you could
be interested in patronizing. Who knows. Let's try it out.
It's I small pop culture. My name is Easton Allen.
(29:58):
We are talking to Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot. Quiet
Right gets back together in what nineteen eighty eighty two, Yes,
and and that's during the time of the Metal Health album.
I mean the breakthrough record. So I'm so curious, like, like,
(30:20):
what inspired Quiet Right to cover Slade for Come On
Feel the Noise? Where'd that come about?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, that's that's a really good question. So you know,
I got to give you the full picture. So Randy
Rose guys in the plane crash in nineteen eighty two,
March nineteen okay. And so but meanwhile, Dubrow had his
own band called Dubro that, like I mentioned, I was
a member right up until the day that I joined Ozzie.
(30:47):
So in September, as I am getting ready to go
to New York to record Speak of the Devil, which
is the Ozzie Black Sabbath era re recordings of you know,
his classic you know material, yeah song you know from
(31:08):
Black southn Okay live had the Rich in New York. Okay.
So I get the phone call from Kevin and said, Hey, Rudes,
we're in the studio. It's a possible record deal. How
would you like to come down and record on Thunderbird
as the tribute to Randy. Now I'm still a member
of Ozzie, the band is still called Dubrow. At that time,
(31:31):
it wasn't quite a riot yet. And so I go
in record thunder Bird. Frankie Banali, the drummer, I had
a history with him dating back to ten years prior
to nineteen seventy two. I met him on my birthday
November eighteen, nineteen seventy two. He's his band called Ginger.
(31:53):
This is in Fulordadale area. Happened to had opened up
as the last minute replacement for the opening band originally
for the David Bowie Spiders from Marsh tour of the
United States, and they played at this place called Pirates
Work and I walk in and I see this opening band.
(32:16):
I had no idea who these guys are, but I
was blown away by the drummer. Yeah, everything about him,
his drum kid, the way he played, and his attitude.
I'm just completely blown away. So the next day I
met this It's my birthday at this club in full
Oaddale and I'm hanging with my friends and somebody says, hey,
that's one of the guys from the band that opened
(32:37):
up for Bowie yesterday. And I make a beeline for
the guy and introduced myself and I said, man, I
saw you guys playing last night. You guys were amazing,
especially your drummer and he's smiling. Look, and I'm going
on and on about how great the drummer is. Then
and then he stretches out his hand and he says, Hi,
(32:59):
I'm frank I'm the drummer. I had no idea it
was it because I was in the cheap seats back there,
you know, yeah, which at the time, the difference was
like seventy five cents. Yeah, you know, about seventy five
by like half half a tank of gas.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, yeah, a big deal, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Good. So anyway, so we started playing immediately right after that,
we put a band together, and then we moved out
of the Followda Delle Miami area because Bisco came in
and we wanted to play rock and roll, so we
moved to Chicago. That's when we were in Chicago, and
then we moved to LA in seventy seven, trying to
(33:42):
put a band together. We ran out of money, we
went on separate ways, and I came back to LA
to join in nineteen seventy eight. So fast forward to
nineteen eighty two, finally in the studio with Frankie. So
we had a huge history. We lived together, we toured together,
we grew playing music together, and so you know, I
(34:02):
once Randy passed away, it was never the same in
the in the you know, going on stage with with Ozzy,
you know, And I can pretty much say that for everybody,
you know, especially especially Ozzy. I I I don't even
know where he found the strength to actually do a show,
because many many times I would start crying. Like when
(34:25):
we when we did My Mister Square Garden, I stepped
on stage. You know, I see a signs and banners
saying God Bless Randy. It was like a wake man,
and I'm like, I just put my head down and
and cried the whole night. Every time I lift my head,
that's all I would see, you know, people you know
(34:45):
with Randy signs and banners, and it was like, so
you know we went through that, and I know Ozzie
went through it. Tell me, Ah, dres down Airy, you know,
all the members of the band. So it's I lost
the joy of making music. You know. It was just
like pulled out of me. You know, because Randy was
(35:06):
not just my former bandmate from choir Ryert. He was
the guy who introduced me to Ozzie and Sharon. He's
the one who put his credibility on the line with them.
As far as me joining the band, you know, I
owe him everything. If it wasn't for him, you know,
I don't know what I would be doing, you know.
But but but as far as what I've done is
(35:29):
because of him, and then Ozzie and Sharon believing in
believing in Randy, trusting him, and then believing in me
once they got to know me, because I had a resume.
My resume was Rudy. He used to play with Randy
in Choir Ryot and now sleeps and Kevin Dubrow's spare
bedroom on the floor. That's my resume right there, you know.
(35:56):
So here we are in the studio. So I gave
you that. That the background of me entering a studio
to record one song with Dubro for a possible record deal.
The guitarist Calvis Cavaso, I had never met him. We'll
play with him before obviously I never met him, but
he had just joined the band. The band was so cool, Dubre.
(36:17):
I was just making a guest appearance. I said, as
a member of Bonzie we used to play in Choir
Riot with and I knew the songs because thunder Bird.
It was a song that Kevin wrote wrote for Randy
when Randy left the Choir Riot to join Ozzie, So
I was very familiar with it. So we tracked it quickly.
Two takes, and then the producer goes, hey, do you
(36:39):
remember any of the all songs like sleep Batelle, Yes,
let's do it. Another two takes, and then two more
songs from the dubro Erah loves a Bitch and let's
get crazy. So by the time I finished my session
for a song, I'm packing up, and I hear Frankie
(37:01):
and Kevin in the hallway outside me at the studio,
you know where. We're in the recording room, and Frankie
is telling Kevin, listen, don't worry, I'll take care of this.
I'm gonna play as bad as possible. So so Spenser,
you know, the producer gives up on the idea of
us for recording, come and feel then noid And for
(37:23):
me knowing Frankie what an incredible drummer. I mean, like
I told you the first time, my toy just blew
my mind. I said, you know what, I've never heard
Frankie play bad. I got to stick around for this.
You know, He's going, yeah, sound like Frankie playing bad. Okay,
So I'm in the control room watching the whole thing
(37:44):
and just one take, and Frankie's idea of playing bad
was basically just playing as simple and boring to him
as possible. He used to call that the wind up monkey,
you know, back the they weed to have like little
monkey that yeah, do that right?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, exactly, that was in his head.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
He was doing that during the whole song. So they
do one take. I wasn't playing bass. It was actually
twenty Cabasso, I called Cabas's brother came down to lay
down the bass track for that. He was not in
the band, but somehow he wound up doing that. Okay,
so one take and the producer goes, okay, we got it,
(38:27):
and Kevin was furious. Frank is like apologizing, like, oh man,
I try my best, you know, to play that. Kevin
was just played besides himself. And and so yeah, the band.
When I say the band, I said Frankie and Kevin.
Because I was not a member yet, they wanted to
salve withas song. They just wanted to have an album
(38:49):
full of original material and uh but but the them
having a record deal depended on recording com Feel the
Noise because the producer so that that was a hit,
that song if it was perform the way that he
envisioned it, which is pretty much what's on on the
(39:12):
on the record, that that was going to be a
big hit.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
And wow, that's a wild story of how it came
to be. I mean, and it's uh and it was
a big hit. I mean it is a big hit
and people are still you know, uh when I hear
I didn't find out come on Feel the Noise was
a cover until recently, Like like honestly, I was like, oh,
that's quiet right song. Uh, you guys really made it
your own. So then Metal Health, I mean, that album
(39:38):
just blows up, you guys just become it goes into
the stratosphere, Like like, how did the dynamics of the
band change after releasing that record?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
You know that your original question about Yeah, yeah, I
spent a lot of time in my bunk. Yeah, because
everything changes. It's like success, which changed everything. Yeah, you know,
I mean, here I am. I left Ozzie, one of
(40:07):
the biggest bands in the world to join and they
treated me great. Sharon Azzie were the greatest with me
from day one. You know that the day that I
got the audition to joining Aussie. I went from sleeping
on the floor getting waking up on the floor that
morning to all of a sudden, I moved in with
(40:30):
Sharon's family up in the Hollywood Hills and we're talking
and mentioned built by by Howard Hughes for Jane Russell. Yeah,
it was like if megap movies start mentioned I moved
in with him. You know, this is how kind and
general that day Ausie, because you know, I here, I am,
(40:52):
I joined the band, and you know, we're kind of
like hanging out and blame pool with Ozzie and he's
telling me stories and and he looks at my clothes,
which were actually my rock star clothe and he says, man,
you look like ship. You need some rock star clothes.
And he says, right right here. He went to his room,
came back with his suitcake reported on the pool table
(41:15):
and says, take what you want. Wow, nobody has before
or after that ever done that for me or anybody off.
You know, I looking at you know, jackets and you know,
and and all these shirts that were actually on iconic
Black Sabbath album Government. I'm going to the jacket from
(41:37):
that oh yeah, unreal, and they were always like that
even after that. It wasn't just like one case scenario,
you know. Yeah, so it was it was really tough
to to to, you know, move on from USSI playing,
you know, but I just lost imagine how which I
(42:00):
lost lost the joy of making music that I needed
to get away that I went from the one of
the biggest bands of the Complete Unknown with no guarantee
that we were going to sell ten copies of that right.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Now, and it's it's an incredible career and quiet riot.
You guys are touring or it's so touring recently right.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh yeah, we still are. Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And are you enjoying Uh are you enjoying getting on
stage and playing all these years later?
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh? Yeah, of course I do. Uh, it's it's many.
It's very different in so many aspects, uh, you know,
like like like the travel you know, back you know,
I've been married for forty one years now. I met
my wife nineteen eighty one during the Aussie era and uh,
back in the day, I mean I spent the eighties
(42:52):
mostly on a tour of US, you know, for months,
and now, you know, for forty years later, there's a
need to be with my family of course, spend quality time.
So we we we fly out on weekends and uh,
(43:13):
we come home during the week. That's why I'm here
having this conversation with you, you know, because you know
I'm home and and I love it. It's it's just
a balance my life now, you know that I did
not have back then.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Balance that that's an important word to remember, and I
think that's that's something we all need to strive for. Yeah,
Rudy Starzo, just the coolest guy in the world. Before
I let you go, I have a question that is
this might be weird, but I have a question, what
does pop culture smell like to you? If pop culture
had an odor, what would it smell like?
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Pop culture? You know, you know what, I listened to
a lot with the.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Bee Gees all right, staying Alive.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Damn that whole period. Uh, I mean, we can talk
about that whole each spirit because before that they had
the beatleish period, you know, the sixties, you know, to
love somebody all that, you know, And but then they
came on their own with their own sound, which which
(44:15):
I like, Disco borrowed a lot from their sound. Yeah,
and and this and this is what happened. I read
this on a magazine, mixed magazine, which is you know,
very legit. You know how disco, you know, the drum
beat is doomed fa dude fa right for people to
dance to. Right. So they're in the studio, uh, recording
(44:41):
those songs that wound up on on the on the
soundtrack for Saturn Knight, and they did one or two tracks,
and their drummer has a tragedy in his family, so
he's gotta leave. And here they are in some studio
in the middle friends the chateau, recording and they're like, well,
(45:04):
you know, we've got to get this done. So an
engineer or a producer comes up with the idea, you
know what, we can make loops of the drum track,
just the same beat, dude bye right. So yeah, so
they start recording the song on top of it, and
then then once right right before they're getting ready to
(45:27):
do mixing, they add the remaining percussion like Kimbali's drum
fills and crashes and things like that. But the layer
of the beat is constant during the whole thing. And
that's how disco really but popularize.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
I had no idea that is incredible. Yeah, it's fascinating.
And you think about the the effect that it's had
not just on disco, but like so much meat, I
mean like dance meet electronic dance music today like hip hop,
such a lasting effect. That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Because I know, if you listen to the previous attempt
at a funky track funk soul, you know, R and
B version, you go to uh Nights on Broadway, Yeah,
you know, and that's fun. There's a lot of stuff
going on there, beats and you know, different rhythms the
(46:26):
other material, it was a steady beat during the whole thing,
and that was the key. Plus the front stah, you
know was just like I mean, nobody else saying you know,
but that's so that reminds me of Miami. And I
was listening to someone dress like emotion and how deep
(46:49):
is your love? Yes, and it takes me back to Miami.
And there's a smell to it, the smell of the ocean,
the smell of the pump tree and the flowers that
grow in Miami and Miami Beach. That to me, it
is pop culture, pop culture.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I love that answer. I love it. I love that visual.
Thank you so much. Rudy, you're again the coolest guy
who has ever walked to the earth. Everybody, go listen
to any of his bands and listen to his bass playing.
He's truly a legend. Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot, White
(47:30):
Snake Blister. There's so much more we'd even get into.
I mean, how how do you cover this in an hour?
But thank you so much for doing this once again.
You're the coolest guy in the world.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Thank you, man, my pleasure. God bless you everybody, and
(48:11):
don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
I Am all In again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh it's just you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I Smell Pop Culture with Eastern Allen and iHeart Radio podcast.
Come on, feel the pop culture girls rock you. Sorry, guys,
sorry about that. That didn't sound as cool as it
did in my head. My name is Easton Allen, it
is I Smell pop Culture here on the I Am
all In Podcast. Thank you Scott Patterson for giving me
(00:40):
the keys to your car, for letting me do this.
I'll bring it back with a full tank, I promise.
Here's what we do here. We explore the pop culture
references and Gilmore Girls. We talk to the people that
make them real. We talk to the people that bring
them to life. And we are rocking out this week. Everybody.
I hope you got your leather jacket. I hope you
got your big boots, your vinyl, your shaggy hair. We're
(01:04):
going into the world of hair metal this week. So
here's the thing about Gilmore Girls. We all know that
Sebastian Bach, he played gil He was in the band
hep Alien. He is a real deal rocker. Sebastian Bach
is the real deal. Scott's talked to him a bunch
of times on this podcast. We love Sebastian Bach. But
(01:24):
there's a scene that he has in season six, episode four,
the Festival of the Living Art, when he's trying out
for HEP Alien and he references another band. That's who
we're going to talk to you today. So here is
the moment in Gilmore Girls that we are going to
be exploring today. Gil's trying out for HEP Alien. He
(01:47):
you know, there's an age difference. It is kind of weird.
He's a much older guy. He's god, he's so good.
Look I rewatched this episode today, but he is such
a good looking dude. But later in the episode, when
they're at the festival, Lane is talking to Gill she
sees in there watching the show, and he kind of
admits like, hey, I know I'm not getting the I'm
(02:09):
not getting the gig. I didn't pass the audition. I
know it. And Lane reassures him, you're a great guy, Gill,
You're great guitar. So someone's gonna scoop you up quick.
And Gil's like, I hope. So I'm gonna keep going
no matter what, not like last time, And Lane says
last time and Gil says yet he tells a story. Yes,
I had another band a great band. We have the
hottest band in LA. We sold out all the clubs,
(02:30):
the House of Blues, the Whiskey A and our guys
were hanging out. We had an awesome demo tunes. Then
we got our big break, an opening slot on a
national tour with Quiet Riot. But we blew it. We
were fighting all the time over money, over chicks. We
broke up before the tour even started. What a sad
tale that Gil spins in that moment. But we're going
(02:53):
to talk to Quiet right, is of course a real band,
a band that's been around. They're still touring. They have
been around for decades now. And if you're not a
hair metal band, if you're not into this rock and
heavy music, I guarantee you know come on feel the noise.
I guarantee you know that song. Come on Field no
(03:13):
huzz don't worry. I want to sing the whole thing.
But we are going to talk to Rudy Sarzo. He
was the bass player in Quiet Riot. But oh he
doesn't stop there. He also played bass for Ozzy Osbourne,
Blue Oyster, Cult, Whitesnake. This guy is a legend in
the world of heavy metal music. And we're going to
talk to him all about Quiet Riot. We're gonna talk
(03:35):
to him about his friendship with Sebastian Bach. He knows
our guy gil We're gonna get into it all here
on I smell pop culture. Let's not waste any more
time before talking to Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot. Rudy,
thank you so much for doing this. We're so excited
to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The reason we are talking to you today is that
Sebastian Bach was in Gilmore Girls, and you have a
history with him. But in the show he was he's
telling the drummer of a band he's auditioning for that
his last band in La had a big break opening
for Quiet Riot, but then they blew it. They got
(04:12):
into a big argument over money, over women. They couldn't
keep it together. They didn't get to go on the tour.
A lot of people think that that line is about
skid Row, Sebastian's real life band and a spot opening
for Kiss. What's your relationship with Sebastian Bach? How far
back do you, guys go?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
We go far back as Actually I met him right
when he joined the band. I would say nineteen eighty eight.
We were in Los Angeles. I was in Whitesnake at
the time, and I went to visit their skid Rose manager,
an old friend of everybody's, Doug McGee. He's a oh yeah, yeah,
(04:56):
Douc McGee. You know, he manages everybody, especially by Jovie
and skid Row monthly crew at the time and then
currently Kiss and all of that. So we were hanging
in his house and he was introducing us the guys
from Weissnik that were president at this party in Newport, California. Uh,
the guys in the band and the Lass guy was Sebass.
(05:17):
You you know, I mean, you don't miss him. You
can't get away from him. You know, he's like seven
feet tall and loud and really really good looking guy.
You know. I mean, if you ever saw the cover
of Rolling Stone magazine where they had him in there,
you know, on the cover. You know, I think that
was the last photo that Rolling Stone published with a
(05:40):
with an actual you know, hair band rock star skid Row.
We're not really a hair band because they were a
little bit grungier, a little bit more punk in the attitude,
but they just happened to come out at that time,
and you know how it is you know, the media
and the record company. You know, they're trying to put
you in a category so they can sell you, of
(06:02):
course to a certain demographic, you know. So they fell
into that demographic of the their band. But you know,
they came up with some other future recording that actually
were much heavier than their first record, you know, less valid,
less pop sounding arrangements of the songs and so on
(06:22):
back in the nineties, so they would actually tour still
tour with the heavier, grungier sound from Seattle, you know,
bands you know from that, from from that, yeah, from
that style of music, you know, because at the end
of the day, everything melts into one thing. It's rock
and roll, you know. So what happens is, you know,
(06:45):
while MTV and record companies were dictating kind of it's
like serial some kids are going to be sold on
the idea of count Count Chocula. So you've got to
eat this city or some kids, waitis it is for you?
You know? You know, if you watch you watch morning cartoons,
it was all about selling cereal and then Captain Crunch
(07:08):
with a little whistle. Then later somebody figured out that
if you bleue this whistle into a telephone, you can
make long distance calls for free. I remember, Yeah, so
you know, and it's but you know, music was pretty
much the same. It's like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna
go on MTV and we're gonna tell the MTV audience
(07:29):
that if you like the Thompson Twins, maybe skid Row
is not for you. They're more like, if you're like Bonjobie,
you're gonna love skid Row basically, you know. So you know,
with time, now that MTV is not playing videos anymore, Uh,
the new generation gets to discover on their own, you know.
(07:49):
But it's difficult to find bands because it's kind of
like going into Costco and you want to find something.
You know, where is the Dysphibia, But you got to
go through every aisle looking for it, you know, but
eventually you will find it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, you know, it's kind of a double edged sword
because it's like if you're especially if you're like a
band starting out, you have so much opportunity to get
your sound out there, but there's so much to listen to,
so much to get to sift through, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, so you've got to create a viral presence, not
just one video you've got to create multiple videos, you know,
and you have to like doing it, which is really interesting.
You know, the record company used to shroun on artists
getting involved beyond the creator creating the content once it
(08:43):
came into marketing, and if you had ideas for videos,
they didn't want to hear about it, you know. They
usually in director and I went through this. Let's say,
I mean a band we're going there's a new record
coming out, and that the first single has been picked.
(09:04):
So we get all of these directors coming in pitching ideas,
you know, and and he used the problem. So this
is a young director. He comes in and he pitches
you an idea that you might think like, na, it's
not really for us. Later on, you're working with this director.
Now he's huge, and you're working with him in another band,
(09:28):
and he remember you his great idea that he actually
used on another band that had a big video with
that idea that you passed.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, really, you've you've been in so many bands, Like
we were saying earlier, I'm curious, like what Sebastian was
saying in that Gilmer Girls episode, Like there's a lot
of times, especially in rock bands, you hear the stories
of like egos clashing or or you know, you get
into a fight of her money or something like that.
Is what a secret to like a harmony within a band,
(10:03):
like how how do you? How does everybody get along?
Has that happened for you?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Is that not? Yeah? They in the tour of us,
They in your bunky way to your bunk. Even if
they think you're up to something nefarious in your bunk,
it's okay because once you are in the front lounge
(10:29):
where things happen people, you know, guys in the band,
they get sick of looking at each other for months.
It's like pirates in a pirate ship. Yes, it's just
like that. Because you're going from down you you forget
where you're att Sometimes they have to write it down
on the front of the stage. Hello, Minnesota, you're Minnesota.
(10:55):
You know and and and that to me is the
best what you do. It's just like, do what you're
there to do, make your music, and then just stay
out of the way. Don't have opinions because opinions will
get you in trouble. You might be because it will
create a separation between you know, one side and the other.
(11:19):
You know, So the best way is to like, you know,
it's almost like a like if you're living at home
with your family, your mom and dad and your brothers,
where do we spend most of our time in our room?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
In our room, you know, so it's the bunk. It's
our room. And then come out to eat and socialize,
has a little breakfast maybe, and then go back.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
That's good advice. I mean, it's good advice for life too.
Just kind of like my mind, your business, take care
of yourself absolutely. Yeah, Like I know you get this
question a lot, but I'm just so curious, like, like,
is there what's the craziest thing that has happened to
you on stage that you can remember?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, that would be with Ozzy with Ozzy Osbourne and
I joined Ozzie in nineteen eighty one on his first
Aussie you know, solo artist tour. Yeah, for Blizzard of
Oz and then for Diary of mad Men, and uh,
you know Ozzie, he's predictably unpredictable. You never know what's
(12:28):
gonna happen. He doesn't even know what's gonna happen. It
just happened. Yeah, there's no playing, it's just do it,
you know, on stage, you know, and it was like
every night was like, Okay, what is he going to do? Now,
what's gonna happen? You know. So one of those nights
the Moine Iowa in nineteen eighty two Diary of the
(12:50):
mad Men Tour, somebody throws a crumpled thing thing on, Harry, Harry,
fuzzy thing on. Stay. It's lands in front of me
and I'm doing my you know, head banging, you know,
moving the base of the head around, and I point out, Ozzie, Hey,
check this out. Well, we're playing. So I just kept playing. See,
(13:13):
I just carry off. That was in the middle of
the set. So we finished our set. Then I see
an ambulance waiting for Ozzie on the side of the stage,
you know, and they rush him in there and they
draw it drive off, and I go to our manager
and then say Sharon, and I go what happened? He says, well,
(13:34):
somebody threw a bat on stage, and Ozzy thought that
it was a toy bat, so he bit into it
and bent his head off, and he freaked out and
spit it out into the audience and they can't they
can't find it. Now, Oh my god, He says that
we're not gonna take any chances. We're gonna get him
(13:56):
to emergency and get him some Raby shot. So we
take the tour bus and we clean up, and we
parked the tour bus in front of the hospital emergency entrance,
and so as he comes out and he's got this
little box with monkey serum vile for him to take
(14:19):
shots every day. And they said do not drink monkey
sum because he wasn't the refrigerator along with like everything else,
my yogurt, milk, beard, monkey serum, drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. I can't believe you were there for that. I mean,
we've all heard the Ozzie bit the head off the
bat story, but I didn't know the details. I can't
believe you were there. And the fact that he thought
I never knew that he thought it was a toy
or something. I just assumed he would, you know, because
you hear the stories like oz, he's crazy. He just
did that.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean the help throw back.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, that is that's insane. I mean, that's a good
answer to that question of what's the most insane thing
that happened. That's absolutely nuts. We're to hear with Rudy
Sarzo is the bass player from Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne,
as you just heard, Whitesnake, so many other amazing bands.
(15:22):
We have so much more to get into. We're going
to take a quick commercial break. Come on, feel the ads,
everybody one second. It is I smell pop culture. My
name is Easton Allen. I'm hanging out here with Rudy Sarzo,
(15:42):
the bass player, the rock bass player. If you ask me,
Quiet Riot boys are cold. I mean Dio. Oh my god,
some ma of these incredible bands. I want to go
back to the beginning of your time with Quiet Riot though. Yeah,
I read that you stumbled into one of their shows
(16:03):
after you couldn't get into a sold out Van Halen concert.
That is that true?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That is correct. It was nineteen seventy seven and Van
Halen was playing at the Whiskey and I couldn't get
in because it was sold out, you know, and so
I just I just got into town. I was like,
you know, stumbling around and you know, and there was
a community back then. There was a bunch of us
who were I wouldn't say aimless, but we were looking
(16:31):
for something. We didn't know exactly what it was, but
we're here because we couldn't come out of town. You know,
most of the musicians from the Sunset Strip at that
time had migrated from other cities in the United States
trying to find that combination of either a whole band
or some musician to put a new band together with,
you know, things like that. And so I was one
(16:52):
of them, and we all looked the same. We all
we had, you know, the same haircut, the same boots,
has the same leather jacket, and you know, it was
like a uniform basically, so we were easily identifiable. So,
you know, so a lot of them helped me out
the other guys because that was the rule of film.
Be nice to everybody because someday you might wind up
(17:13):
in a band with them. Good advice, you know, yeah,
And so, you know, so a couple of the guys
outside they couldn't get it there. They say, hey, you know,
right down the stream, there's a place called the star Wood.
Just going there. You know, they got some cool bands
playing there too, So I didn't, you know, And I
(17:33):
walk in and there's quiet Ryot performing. And I at
that time, before I got to LA in seventy seven,
I have been touring the bar circuit in the Midwest,
for maybe a year, year and a half, and I
had seen a lot of bands that now we're gearing
(17:55):
up to head out to Los Angeles to showcase and
get a record deal. And when I saw Quiet Ryan,
I thought, well, these guys did Yeah, they are an
arena band, yeah, doing an arena show, you know, performance
in the club, the showcase club. And I was really
(18:17):
impressed by everything. And so I after their show, especially
Randy Road. Randy Rhodes had this his fan base girls
standing in front of him worrying he used to wear
a little poke with dot bow ties. Yeah, and and
so they all wore little poke without bow ties, and
I go, wow, these these guys are rocal. They already
(18:39):
have a really strong fan base, because you don't seen
that when you play bars. When you play bars, people
are just there to drink and pick up each other,
you know. Yeah, that's why I've been married for forty
one year. He was me, do you go to bars anymore? Now?
I really know what I was looking for, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(19:01):
So after their show, Kevin was walking around making the
round Kevin de Brother, the singer, making the rounds, you know,
saying hello to friends, and I bump into him, and
I introduced myself. And this is something that I've always done,
even prior to meeting Kevin. When I see somebody who
(19:24):
who's promising, I'll let him know because sometimes this is
one thing that This is the fact local bands are incubated.
They are in one area. They don't know what's out there,
especially forty something years ago. This is nineteen seventy seven,
so it's almost fifty years ago. There's no social media,
(19:45):
you know, you have no reference. Nowadays, you can go, okay,
let me see what's out there. When you two that,
it's kind of like what we do. Ah, okay, So
now you can measure what you're doing, what to improve,
what to work on, how to be you meek from
these other bands, you know, things like that. So I
was out there and I'm just coming to LA, so
(20:06):
I could tell somebody from LA, Hey, listen, this is
what's going on out there. These are the bands, you know,
this is what they got going for that. You guys
got even more than they do. So keep doing what
you're doing. You're almost there and you're going to get
a record deal, which is the goal. This is this
is why everybody did it, so they could get a
(20:27):
record deal and then become a professional touring and recording band.
Yeah it's the dream, yeah, the dream. Yeah yeah. So
a year later, I get the phone call from Kevin.
I was in New Jersey with my brother putting, you know,
getting some money playing the lounge circuit. And then you know,
(20:47):
because you know, it can be very expensive to live
in Los Angeles, and I kept running out of money
and keep going back out again to make money playing
Top forty and then come back. And this is this,
this was the last time, because this nineteen seventy eight,
I already got my ticket to come home. I get
(21:08):
the phone call from Kevin de brother saying, hey, man,
you know we're looking for a bass play. We tried
everybody out, and you know, some people say that you're
the guy. And I said, listen, I'll be there next
week as soon as I land. I'm going to give
you a call when I come over in an audition.
And I did, and I started playing with kwiet right
in nineteen seventy eight. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And what fascinated me about that first when you first
joined the band is that then they break up like
what it was a year later the band breaks up.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, this is what happened Randy joined Ozzy Alsboy. So yeah,
there was a breakout because you know, Randy was irreplaceable,
you know, yeah, and it was kind of like, you know,
it was kind of like, you know, how can we
continue on Squiet ride with our Randy? Yeah, exactly, And
so he joined Ozzy Alsbo you know, I mean it.
(22:01):
Kevin put his own band together called du Burow and
I even got to play with Kevin in Dubro eight
months before I joined Ozzy in April of the nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
One, you know, So what was that transition going from
Quiet right to Ozzy Osbourne? And again this is like
when he's first breaking out from Black Sabbath as a
solo artist. What was that transition?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Like, well, it was a crash course and being authentic
heavy metal, all right, because you know, here I am,
I'm playing with one of the godfathers of heavy metal,
you know, one of the members of Black Cabin. They
invented the genre, and there's certain things that must happen
(22:48):
musically in on states to maintain the authenticity of it, right,
And my rests at the time was being a musician
in the sonsas Strip, you know, And and I had
never been abroad. I mean I meaning in Europe, never
been across the pond. I was was born in Cuba,
(23:09):
so I was not you know, born in the United States.
So yes, I came from abroad and I came you
know to the United States in sixty one. But as
far as going to Europe or any other country, no.
I once went to Canada, but that's kind of like
for a couple. So uh so here I am in England.
(23:35):
You know, it's a whole different culture, the pub culture.
You know, back in the day forty something years ago. Uh,
people were set there along watch to pub hours, telling
that well it's eleven o'clock, it's open park and and
(23:56):
it's it's the mindset that if you know it's only
going to be open for two or three hours, you're
gonna drink your ass off, yeah, because they're gonna take
that away from you closing time. They're gonna alter it
up again later, so you're gonna go back back to work,
you're gonna be you know, smashed. It's okay, So he's
(24:16):
everybody else exactly. You know, little things like that that
I had never witnessed before. You know, Indian food, Indian
food which I love and all of that. But but
again going back to the to the being authentic heavy metal. Uh,
I was mentored by Ozzie. I was mentored by Sharon.
(24:38):
She took me to the side and she gave me
the the don'ts. Maybe she didn't give you one due Yeah,
I do stand here, do stand here, but don't do
this and don't do that, you know, which is okay
because it had to see Ozzie at the beginning was
an extension of Black Sabbath. So certain traditional heavy metal
(25:02):
things had to happen on stage visually and performance wise,
you know, visually, image wise and performance you know, And
there were some boundaries on some rules that were laid
out organically a decade or and a half before Ozzie
went out as a solo artist. That became the tradition
(25:24):
of heavy metal. Another thing that helped me out was
that my ears, my heart might be expanding because uh
we had Motorhead. Now Motorhead. That was really interesting. See
because when I joined Ozzie, Assie was the only English
(25:47):
member in the band, but Motorhead was full blown English
traditional and let me, let me, let me, let me,
let me what an I'd never met anybody like Levy before.
They were like like pirates, you know, like Pirates of
the Caribbean. It was just like that, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, i mean they look too like the mustache and
that brocker base.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I mean yeah, yeah. Everything about it it was authentic,
was very It's something that it was not made up to, like, Okay,
we're gonna become like the village people. We're not, you know,
we're gonna become Motorhead and we're gonna be like this
this real heavy metal band. No, it just happened, you know,
and it was a natural formation of this of this
(26:39):
beast whole mora ahead. And you would go into their
tour bus and it was like Caligula. It was like
all the women all in the place, you know, naked,
have naked the alcohol food, you know when I'm talking
about like five day old pizza boxes. You know, you'll
(27:00):
go to our bus for Sharon trouble with us. It
was spotless, clean, everything in its place, nothing out of place.
It was like, wow, you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Know, now which one were you more drawn to? Did
you like the clean, put together bus or did you
want to be on the party uh chaotic bus? Uh?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You know that's a great question. No, I lean more
towards the clean yeah, but but this is a matter
of getting an education, yes, to be educated and like
what is really heavy metal? Okay? And one thing that
I must I must uh mention here that it was
(27:47):
Sharon that was trying to keep Auzzi uh from getting
into trouble with drugs, alcohol, whatever, you know, the things
that he would do. In Black Sabbath traditionally, you know,
bands on the road, and these guys started out when
they were sixteen, eighteen year old year old. There's no
(28:07):
rules written, there's nothing is like, we'll figure it out,
you know as we go along. And there's certain things
that happened that got in the way of the quality
of their creativity, drugs and alcohol. And this is what
Sharon was trying to avoid with Ozzie, is for him
to go down that road, you know, and to be
(28:28):
honest with you, the other guys in the band, Randy,
you know, was very clean compared to Motorhead, and so
as Tommy Andres who have been on the road for
about maybe sixteen years with Black work Arden Saw and
Pat Travers and so on. He was compared to to Motohead. Yeah,
(28:48):
he was very clean. You know, so we were not
really really it's a lifestyle. You were not your typical
heavy metal band except for Ozzie. So you know, Sharon
would just like monitoring him, you know, make sure he
will not go off the deep end. But he needed
to be Azsi, which is you know, I have to
(29:10):
let him, let him be Aussie Goes. After all, he
is a.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's a tough line to ride though, you know, because
you don't want him to destroy himself that you know,
you gotta let him be who he is. Also, yeah,
Rudy Sarzo is with us from Quiet Riot. I have
so many more questions for you. We got to talk about.
You know, you were playing with Ozzy Osbourne, but then
you come back to join Quiet Riot. We're going to
(29:38):
talk about that after we hear a few words. And
these words might mean goods and services that you could
be interested in patronizing. Who knows. Let's try it out.
It's I small pop culture. My name is Easton Allen.
(29:58):
We are talking to Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot. Quiet
Right gets back together in what nineteen eighty eighty two, Yes,
and and that's during the time of the Metal Health album.
I mean the breakthrough record. So I'm so curious, like, like,
(30:20):
what inspired Quiet Right to cover Slade for Come On
Feel the Noise? Where'd that come about?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, that's that's a really good question. So you know,
I got to give you the full picture. So Randy
Rose guys in the plane crash in nineteen eighty two,
March nineteen okay. And so but meanwhile, Dubrow had his
own band called Dubro that, like I mentioned, I was
a member right up until the day that I joined Ozzie.
(30:47):
So in September, as I am getting ready to go
to New York to record Speak of the Devil, which
is the Ozzie Black Sabbath era re recordings of you know,
his classic you know material, yeah song you know from
(31:08):
Black southn Okay live had the Rich in New York. Okay.
So I get the phone call from Kevin and said, Hey, Rudes,
we're in the studio. It's a possible record deal. How
would you like to come down and record on Thunderbird
as the tribute to Randy. Now I'm still a member
of Ozzie, the band is still called Dubrow. At that time,
(31:31):
it wasn't quite a riot yet. And so I go
in record thunder Bird. Frankie Banali, the drummer, I had
a history with him dating back to ten years prior
to nineteen seventy two. I met him on my birthday
November eighteen, nineteen seventy two. He's his band called Ginger.
(31:53):
This is in Fulordadale area. Happened to had opened up
as the last minute replacement for the opening band originally
for the David Bowie Spiders from Marsh tour of the
United States, and they played at this place called Pirates
Work and I walk in and I see this opening band.
(32:16):
I had no idea who these guys are, but I
was blown away by the drummer. Yeah, everything about him,
his drum kid, the way he played, and his attitude.
I'm just completely blown away. So the next day I
met this It's my birthday at this club in full
Oaddale and I'm hanging with my friends and somebody says, hey,
that's one of the guys from the band that opened
(32:37):
up for Bowie yesterday. And I make a beeline for
the guy and introduced myself and I said, man, I
saw you guys playing last night. You guys were amazing,
especially your drummer and he's smiling. Look, and I'm going
on and on about how great the drummer is. Then
and then he stretches out his hand and he says, Hi,
(32:59):
I'm frank I'm the drummer. I had no idea it
was it because I was in the cheap seats back there,
you know, yeah, which at the time, the difference was
like seventy five cents. Yeah, you know, about seventy five
by like half half a tank of gas.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, yeah, a big deal, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Good. So anyway, so we started playing immediately right after that,
we put a band together, and then we moved out
of the Followda Delle Miami area because Bisco came in
and we wanted to play rock and roll, so we
moved to Chicago. That's when we were in Chicago, and
then we moved to LA in seventy seven, trying to
(33:42):
put a band together. We ran out of money, we
went on separate ways, and I came back to LA
to join in nineteen seventy eight. So fast forward to
nineteen eighty two, finally in the studio with Frankie. So
we had a huge history. We lived together, we toured together,
we grew playing music together, and so you know, I
(34:02):
once Randy passed away, it was never the same in
the in the you know, going on stage with with Ozzy,
you know, And I can pretty much say that for everybody,
you know, especially especially Ozzy. I I I don't even
know where he found the strength to actually do a show,
because many many times I would start crying. Like when
(34:25):
we when we did My Mister Square Garden, I stepped
on stage. You know, I see a signs and banners
saying God Bless Randy. It was like a wake man,
and I'm like, I just put my head down and
and cried the whole night. Every time I lift my head,
that's all I would see, you know, people you know
(34:45):
with Randy signs and banners, and it was like, so
you know we went through that, and I know Ozzie
went through it. Tell me, Ah, dres down Airy, you know,
all the members of the band. So it's I lost
the joy of making music. You know. It was just
like pulled out of me. You know, because Randy was
(35:06):
not just my former bandmate from choir Ryert. He was
the guy who introduced me to Ozzie and Sharon. He's
the one who put his credibility on the line with them.
As far as me joining the band, you know, I
owe him everything. If it wasn't for him, you know,
I don't know what I would be doing, you know.
But but but as far as what I've done is
(35:29):
because of him, and then Ozzie and Sharon believing in
believing in Randy, trusting him, and then believing in me
once they got to know me, because I had a resume.
My resume was Rudy. He used to play with Randy
in Choir Ryot and now sleeps and Kevin Dubrow's spare
bedroom on the floor. That's my resume right there, you know.
(35:56):
So here we are in the studio. So I gave
you that. That the background of me entering a studio
to record one song with Dubro for a possible record deal.
The guitarist Calvis Cavaso, I had never met him. We'll
play with him before obviously I never met him, but
he had just joined the band. The band was so cool, Dubre.
(36:17):
I was just making a guest appearance. I said, as
a member of Bonzie we used to play in Choir
Riot with and I knew the songs because thunder Bird.
It was a song that Kevin wrote wrote for Randy
when Randy left the Choir Riot to join Ozzie, So
I was very familiar with it. So we tracked it quickly.
Two takes, and then the producer goes, hey, do you
(36:39):
remember any of the all songs like sleep Batelle, Yes,
let's do it. Another two takes, and then two more
songs from the dubro Erah loves a Bitch and let's
get crazy. So by the time I finished my session
for a song, I'm packing up, and I hear Frankie
(37:01):
and Kevin in the hallway outside me at the studio,
you know where. We're in the recording room, and Frankie
is telling Kevin, listen, don't worry, I'll take care of this.
I'm gonna play as bad as possible. So so Spenser,
you know, the producer gives up on the idea of
us for recording, come and feel then noid And for
(37:23):
me knowing Frankie what an incredible drummer. I mean, like
I told you the first time, my toy just blew
my mind. I said, you know what, I've never heard
Frankie play bad. I got to stick around for this.
You know, He's going, yeah, sound like Frankie playing bad. Okay,
So I'm in the control room watching the whole thing
(37:44):
and just one take, and Frankie's idea of playing bad
was basically just playing as simple and boring to him
as possible. He used to call that the wind up monkey,
you know, back the they weed to have like little
monkey that yeah, do that right?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, exactly, that was in his head.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
He was doing that during the whole song. So they
do one take. I wasn't playing bass. It was actually
twenty Cabasso, I called Cabas's brother came down to lay
down the bass track for that. He was not in
the band, but somehow he wound up doing that. Okay,
so one take and the producer goes, okay, we got it,
(38:27):
and Kevin was furious. Frank is like apologizing, like, oh man,
I try my best, you know, to play that. Kevin
was just played besides himself. And and so yeah, the band.
When I say the band, I said Frankie and Kevin.
Because I was not a member yet, they wanted to
salve withas song. They just wanted to have an album
(38:49):
full of original material and uh but but the them
having a record deal depended on recording com Feel the
Noise because the producer so that that was a hit,
that song if it was perform the way that he
envisioned it, which is pretty much what's on on the
(39:12):
on the record, that that was going to be a
big hit.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
And wow, that's a wild story of how it came
to be. I mean, and it's uh and it was
a big hit. I mean it is a big hit
and people are still you know, uh when I hear
I didn't find out come on Feel the Noise was
a cover until recently, Like like honestly, I was like, oh,
that's quiet right song. Uh, you guys really made it
your own. So then Metal Health, I mean, that album
(39:38):
just blows up, you guys just become it goes into
the stratosphere, Like like, how did the dynamics of the
band change after releasing that record?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
You know that your original question about Yeah, yeah, I
spent a lot of time in my bunk. Yeah, because
everything changes. It's like success, which changed everything. Yeah, you know,
I mean, here I am. I left Ozzie, one of
(40:07):
the biggest bands in the world to join and they
treated me great. Sharon Azzie were the greatest with me
from day one. You know that the day that I
got the audition to joining Aussie. I went from sleeping
on the floor getting waking up on the floor that
morning to all of a sudden, I moved in with
(40:30):
Sharon's family up in the Hollywood Hills and we're talking
and mentioned built by by Howard Hughes for Jane Russell. Yeah,
it was like if megap movies start mentioned I moved
in with him. You know, this is how kind and
general that day Ausie, because you know, I here, I am,
(40:52):
I joined the band, and you know, we're kind of
like hanging out and blame pool with Ozzie and he's
telling me stories and and he looks at my clothes,
which were actually my rock star clothe and he says, man,
you look like ship. You need some rock star clothes.
And he says, right right here. He went to his room,
came back with his suitcake reported on the pool table
(41:15):
and says, take what you want. Wow, nobody has before
or after that ever done that for me or anybody off.
You know, I looking at you know, jackets and you know,
and and all these shirts that were actually on iconic
Black Sabbath album Government. I'm going to the jacket from
(41:37):
that oh yeah, unreal, and they were always like that
even after that. It wasn't just like one case scenario,
you know. Yeah, so it was it was really tough
to to to, you know, move on from USSI playing,
you know, but I just lost imagine how which I
(42:00):
lost lost the joy of making music that I needed
to get away that I went from the one of
the biggest bands of the Complete Unknown with no guarantee
that we were going to sell ten copies of that right.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Now, and it's it's an incredible career and quiet riot.
You guys are touring or it's so touring recently right.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh yeah, we still are. Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And are you enjoying Uh are you enjoying getting on
stage and playing all these years later?
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh? Yeah, of course I do. Uh, it's it's many.
It's very different in so many aspects, uh, you know,
like like like the travel you know, back you know,
I've been married for forty one years now. I met
my wife nineteen eighty one during the Aussie era and uh,
back in the day, I mean I spent the eighties
(42:52):
mostly on a tour of US, you know, for months,
and now, you know, for forty years later, there's a
need to be with my family of course, spend quality time.
So we we we fly out on weekends and uh,
(43:13):
we come home during the week. That's why I'm here
having this conversation with you, you know, because you know
I'm home and and I love it. It's it's just
a balance my life now, you know that I did
not have back then.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Balance that that's an important word to remember, and I
think that's that's something we all need to strive for. Yeah,
Rudy Starzo, just the coolest guy in the world. Before
I let you go, I have a question that is
this might be weird, but I have a question, what
does pop culture smell like to you? If pop culture
had an odor, what would it smell like?
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Pop culture? You know, you know what, I listened to
a lot with the.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Bee Gees all right, staying Alive.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Damn that whole period. Uh, I mean, we can talk
about that whole each spirit because before that they had
the beatleish period, you know, the sixties, you know, to
love somebody all that, you know, And but then they
came on their own with their own sound, which which
(44:15):
I like, Disco borrowed a lot from their sound. Yeah,
and and this and this is what happened. I read
this on a magazine, mixed magazine, which is you know,
very legit. You know how disco, you know, the drum
beat is doomed fa dude fa right for people to
dance to. Right. So they're in the studio, uh, recording
(44:41):
those songs that wound up on on the on the
soundtrack for Saturn Knight, and they did one or two tracks,
and their drummer has a tragedy in his family, so
he's gotta leave. And here they are in some studio
in the middle friends the chateau, recording and they're like, well,
(45:04):
you know, we've got to get this done. So an
engineer or a producer comes up with the idea, you
know what, we can make loops of the drum track,
just the same beat, dude bye right. So yeah, so
they start recording the song on top of it, and
then then once right right before they're getting ready to
(45:27):
do mixing, they add the remaining percussion like Kimbali's drum
fills and crashes and things like that. But the layer
of the beat is constant during the whole thing. And
that's how disco really but popularize.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
I had no idea that is incredible. Yeah, it's fascinating.
And you think about the the effect that it's had
not just on disco, but like so much meat, I
mean like dance meet electronic dance music today like hip hop,
such a lasting effect. That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Because I know, if you listen to the previous attempt
at a funky track funk soul, you know, R and
B version, you go to uh Nights on Broadway, Yeah,
you know, and that's fun. There's a lot of stuff
going on there, beats and you know, different rhythms the
(46:26):
other material, it was a steady beat during the whole thing,
and that was the key. Plus the front stah, you
know was just like I mean, nobody else saying you know,
but that's so that reminds me of Miami. And I
was listening to someone dress like emotion and how deep
(46:49):
is your love? Yes, and it takes me back to Miami.
And there's a smell to it, the smell of the ocean,
the smell of the pump tree and the flowers that
grow in Miami and Miami Beach. That to me, it
is pop culture, pop culture.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I love that answer. I love it. I love that visual.
Thank you so much. Rudy, you're again the coolest guy
who has ever walked to the earth. Everybody, go listen
to any of his bands and listen to his bass playing.
He's truly a legend. Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot, White
(47:30):
Snake Blister. There's so much more we'd even get into.
I mean, how how do you cover this in an hour?
But thank you so much for doing this once again.
You're the coolest guy in the world.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Thank you, man, my pleasure. God bless you everybody, and
(48:11):
don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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