Tag: Crazy Train

Night Ranger – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC – August 6, 2023 – Concert Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic34 Comments

Back on Sunday, my neighbor had lawn seats to the Bret Michaels Party Gras concert that he couldn’t use. He asked and I said I would love to use them and why not as the show had Jefferson Starship, Night Ranger and Bret Michaels with friends Mark McGrath and Steve Augeri. Night Ranger was the only one I really wanted to see so it was a no brainer to take those tickets.

I was getting ready to leave when the rains came. I braved it and went anyway as the rain was supposed to stop soon. I had my lawn chair, some water and snacks ready to not only Rock America, but Rock Charlotte. I get to the show and stand in line holding my chair when I was told the lawn was closed tonight…WTF?? But good news, they were giving us seats. Apparently, tickets didn’t sell so they wanted to move everyone closer so the place looked full and it did. First though, I had to take my chair back to the car and then walk back and get in line…again.

Once in, I had to go to a table and pick up an actual seat ticket. I told the guy that if he only had front row left, I would make the sacrifice and take it. Sadly, he did not. I did get decent seats though as they were in Section 3, row S so it was fairly close off to the left of the stage. Once seated, I was ready to get started.

JEFFERSTON STARSHIP

Continue reading “Night Ranger – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC – August 6, 2023 – Concert Review” →

‘Off the Rails: Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz’ by Rudy Sarzo – Book Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic13 Comments

I have been reading a lot lately and I was able to get this book on my Kindle for the super low price of nothing so I thought, what the hell. I really like Rudy Sarzo, I like Ozzy, I like Randy Rhoda’s so why not check this out. The book was written by former Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne bassist, Rudy Sarzo and he chronicles his short time in Ozzy’s touring band the Blizzard of Ozz. This time period is that same time period as when Randy Rhoda’s was in the band and Rudy wanted to capture those moments and felt the story needed to be told. I have to say, I think he is right and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through in great detail, the tours he played on.

The book starts off the day Randy went up in the plane and would crash and end his short time on this planet. The story then immediately jumps back in time to right before Rudy was brought in to Ozzy’s band. Rudy had been in Quiet Riot for a short time with Randy and the band got famous in Japan, but not in the U.S. The group had stalled and Randy went and joined Ozzy’s band and Rudy joined a band called Private Army with his friend Frankie Banali. In the meantime, Ozzy’s debut solo album was released in 1980 and right before the band was to go on tour in 1981, Ozzy fired the drummer and bass player. Randy was still in the band. Tommy Aldridge was quickly brought in, but the band needed a bass player. Randy called Rudy and Rudy would go to Don Arden’s house (Sharon Osbourne’s day and Jet Records President) to meet Ozzy and Sharon and audition. Well, needless to say, things worked out or this book wouldn’t have been written.

Rudy chronicles the entire journey through the tour for Blizzard of Ozz and the Tour for Diary of a Madman. It feels like he kept a lot of notes about what happened at each show, but also, he had help. At the end of the Blizzard Tour, Sharon gave him a scrapbook of every show including newspaper clippings of the reviews of the shows. What is funny is the fact that a ton of these reviews would list the original band which was not Rudy or Tommy which goes to show the writers knew nothing about the band and didn’t even bother going to the show.

Continue reading “‘Off the Rails: Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz’ by Rudy Sarzo – Book Review” →