Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon documentary to be released on DVD/Blu-ray in September
The documentary contains never-before-seen footage, as well as interviews with Rhoads' contemporaries – like George Lynch and Eddie Van Halen – and some of the many guitar heroes he influenced
Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon, the recently-released documentary on the life and career of late Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot electric guitar hero Randy Rhoads, is coming to DVD and Blu-ray later this year.
Narrated by L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns and directed by Andre Relis, the film will be released in physical form on September 23 via VMI Worldwide.
The documentary contains never-before-seen footage, as well as interviews with Rhoads' contemporaries – like George Lynch, Eddie Van Halen and Gary Moore – and some of the many guitar heroes he influenced, like Dweezil Zappa, Joel Hoekstra and Doug Aldrich.
You can see its trailer below.
2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the hugely influential (Rhoads was ranked by GW readers as the third greatest metal guitarist of all time in a 2020 poll) guitarist's passing.
Though he recorded only four studio albums – two with Osbourne and two with Quiet Riot – before his death in a plane crash in Leesburg, Florida, on March 19, 1982, at age 25, Rhoads' marriage of classical influences with breathtaking speed, impeccable feel, and hard-rock muscle helped shape the styles of countless thousands of guitarists.
“We’re still talking about Randy today because of his compositions," Zakk Wylde – who, five years after Rhoads' death, would take the latter's place as Osbourne's six-string sideman – recently explained to Guitar World.
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"The reason the music of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart is still being listened to and played at places like the Hollywood Bowl is because of what they wrote, not because it was fast or flashy. That’s why people are still talking about them hundreds of years later.
“Randy’s relevance is the same as Bach’s, Beethoven’s or Mozart’s. It’s just a timeless thing – because it’s good. Just like the Eagles, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, there’s no ‘best before date’. It’s timeless. And it’s pretty mind-blowing that Randy was so young and creating such incredibly mature stuff. God bless him."
Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon can be preordered now on DVD/Blu-ray via Amazon. It can be streamed across VOD platforms now.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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