Ozzy Osbourne Has Died! While We Grieve We remember
Here is my Ozzy story...I recorded him and Randy Rhoads in a TV studio in Rochester, NY in 1981.
Time for a walk down memory lane… little did I know that in 1981 I was helping to making a little rock & roll history with Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads.
At age 25 I was fresh out of University, freshly married and freshly a dad working as a TV technician at WUHF-TV (Channel 31) a new independent station that had gone on the air just the previous year in Rochester, NY.
Now, in addition to my full-time gig at Channel 31, I was also a part time jock at WCMF-FM, doing overnights on the weekend.
So, it was just a matter of time before I put two and two together and proposed producing a music TV show that would be simulcast on WCMF in glorious stereo.
To my great surprise I somehow pulled it off and After Hours was born.
This was an hour-long show with a mix of live music (recorded in our studio) and music video clips (MTV had just hit the air).
In addition to bands like The Psychedelic Furs, The Good Rats and Steve Hackett (along with local favourites New Math, Pearl and The Hi Techs) we scored Ozzy Osbourne and his band who came in to record a “Video Session”.
The reason this stands out is because it was a young guitarist by the name of Randy Rhoads who was a part of Ozzy’s band, along with drummer Tommy Aldridge (formerly of Black Oak Arkansas) and bass player Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot). They were carrying a keyboard player, Don Airey (now in Deep Purple) who the band seemed to loathe…and we were asked not to show his face by Ozzy’s people.
We recorded the session in a small studio in downtown Rochester, New York… I think we had three cameras…you can see cameraman Mark Phillips with his RCA TK-76 in the shadows next to Tommy Aldridge if you look closely.
We had a small studio audience and it was LOUD in there. The fans were sitting right on top of the Marshall stacks and the tubes were vibrating in the cameras…you can see the horizontal lines.
My “fondest” memory is dealing with Ozzy when he was about to go on. Even back then he was accompanied by Sharon Arden who was his manager and later his wife. Ozzy was concerned about his throat so asked if he could have some mouthwash to gargle. We found some Listerine, handed him the bottle. I watched in astonishment as he guzzled it down! What a guy! (He soon puked it all back up)
It was a long shoot. Ozzy’s voice was cracking (its since been “fixed” in post by Ozzy’s people). We shot the interview segments with Ozzy at the CMF studios. Randy was very quiet… I don’t remember having much interaction with him as it was all about Ozzy.
But watch the video and it is clear that Randy was on fire. I’m so proud to have been part of this.
They cut four songs: I Don’t Know, Crazy Train, Suicide Solution and Mr Crowley.
A few weeks ago, at the Black Sabbath reunion concert, a Jack Black video was screened of him singing Mr. Crowley…a direct “parody/tribute” to my After Hours clip.
Sadly Ozzy is gone, but his influence, along with that of Geezer, Tony and Bill will last as long as there is music.
R.I.P. Ozzy!
Click here to see all four videos: https://13thfloor.co.nz/13th-floors-marty-duda-remembers-randy-and-ozzy/