Musician Rudy Sarzo
00:00 - Intro
01:46 - Rudy Sarzo and Connections
02:24 - Life in Cuba
04:45 - British Invasion in America
06:50 - Early Struggles
09:45 - SOUND CUT OFF (about 90 seconds of silence edited out)
09:46 - Off the Rails Book and Memories
10:22 - Turning Down the Ozzy Gig
13:45 - Accepting the Ozzy Gig
15:55 - The Ozzy Bat Biting Incident
18:30 - Sharon Osbourne Piss Throwing Incident
19:30 - Quitting Ozzy
21:38 - Moving on with Quiet Riot
26:03 - Quitting Quiet Riot and Issues with Kevin Dubrow
26:53 - Frankie Banali Relationship
28:28 - Whitesnake Music Video
29:55 - Sun King and John 5
31:45 - Yngwie Malmsteen and Other Guitarists
33:02 - Ronnie James Dio
34:17 - Ability to Adapt to Bands
36:00 - Lack of Trust with Musicians
36:40 - Sum of All Parts with the Band
38:11 - Songwriting
40:10- Hard to Work with Musicians
41:15 - Motley Crue
43:25 - Animal Rescue Charity
44:09 - Summary and Radio Show
Rudy Sarzo Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sarzo.rudy/
Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/
Animal Rescue:
https://www.aspca.org
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Musician Rudy Sarzo
00:00 - Intro
01:46 - Rudy Sarzo and Connections
02:24 - Life in Cuba
04:45 - British Invasion in America
06:50 - Early Struggles
09:45 - SOUND CUT OFF (about 90 seconds of silence edited out)
09:46 - Off the Rails Book and Memories
10:22 - Turning Down the Ozzy Gig
13:45 - Accepting the Ozzy Gig
15:55 - The Ozzy Bat Biting Incident
18:30 - Sharon Osbourne Piss Throwing Incident
19:30 - Quitting Ozzy
21:38 - Moving on with Quiet Riot
26:03 - Quitting Quiet Riot and Issues with Kevin Dubrow
26:53 - Frankie Banali Relationship
28:28 - Whitesnake Music Video
29:55 - Sun King and John 5
31:45 - Yngwie Malmsteen and Other Guitarists
33:02 - Ronnie James Dio
34:17 - Ability to Adapt to Bands
36:00 - Lack of Trust with Musicians
36:40 - Sum of All Parts with the Band
38:11 - Songwriting
40:10- Hard to Work with Musicians
41:15 - Motley Crue
43:25 - Animal Rescue Charity
44:09 - Summary and Radio Show
Rudy Sarzo Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sarzo.rudy/
Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/
Animal Rescue:
https://www.aspca.org
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Well podcast, very excited today to have Rudy Sarzo. The bassist who played originally with Ozzy Osborne was also with quiet riot Whitesnake DEO in gay Malmsteen. Uh, currently in the band, the guests who is a kind of a 60 seventies band. Um, also he played with the John five before John five was even John five. Um, it was John Lowery and then he went on to be John five and play with Rob zombie and melon Manson. So he's worked with some of the most amazing guitarists, singers, drummers, musicians, basically. Um, so he's got a lot of stories to tell and also it's amazing how he, I can remember everything. Um, he's had a long career and if you read his book off the rails, he talks about his time with Ozzy Osborne and Randy Rhodes. And it's not just like he's telling a story and things are kind of finding he's got the details down and he corrects me in this interview several times because I screwed up the details. Or, uh, maybe the book was not entirely accurate, but he remembers this stuff and he remembers the details. It's pretty, pretty, uh, impressive that he can do that. And he's still obviously on top of his game with the base and everything. So, and he's also got a podcast, which we'll talk about a little bit and of course he'll talk about his charity as well. So please welcome Rudy. Sarto. Okay. Well first of all, um, thank you for coming on my show and taking the time. I really appreciate that. I know we have a actually a couple of connections. Um, are you friends with Craig gas and Brandon Gibbs? I've had both of those guys on my show.
Rudy Sarzo:Oh yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good friends.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Cause you were actually in a band with Brandon, right? For short?
Rudy Sarzo:No, I kinda like stepped in and I did a video, uh, for a song on the record. That's about it. We never really recorded or played live. I just happened to be on the car.
Chuck Shute:Oh, okay. Okay. Interesting. All right, well, so yeah, you like to start at the beginning. Um, you were actually born in Havana, Cuba, and you spent the first 11 years of your life there and that's where you had your first musical musical experience. So I was reading about that. It was interesting that kids would gather around these metal cars in Cuba and hit the Cub caps or the fender and kind of create a beat and a rhythm. And you kinda, you called it a Afro Cuban music and S and Spanish rock. Is that right?
Rudy Sarzo:Well, I wasn't really Spanish rock. I mean we're talking about, you know, uh, we really didn't have much of a name for it, which is a bunch of kids gathering the car, you know, playing. And it was, it was the thing, traditional music of the time and, and the country and, and it was like the normal thing to do. And you don't like people do social media today, virtual media or specific to where I was born. And that was part of the culture. Something that just came out over the years of, uh, of, uh, you know, I don't know, just years of that cultural being, being developed, you know, the Spanish and the African, basically embracing each other and, uh, you know, in Spanish and a Spanish and a carrot, carrot, Caribbean, Spanish colonial Longo country, which is a very different experience for me, for me, Spanish, uh, and South America because South America, uh, the made it in the Caribbean were basically wiped out. So, you know, the Indians, the indigenous people, you know, so we didn't have much of the indigenous experience, you know, growing up it was more cultural or through the African and Spanish of course.
Chuck Shute:Right. And then, so then when Fidel Castro came in in ninth, around nine 59, they actually banned all American style music, but then that's when you ended up moving to Florida. Right. And then, um, and then New Jersey, which was even a bigger culture shock, I'm sure. Um, and then that is that kinda when you started learning the bass and there was no, there was obviously no YouTube, so you had to find someone to teach it to you, right?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. I mean, you know, we're talking about the very early days of, uh, of the British invasion and, uh, and I call it specifically the British invasion because of course we had the first wave or brought on roll back in the 50s. And, but it wasn't until the bitter conurbation that actually brought back the essence of rock and roll coming from, from England. And, uh, because basically, you know, these, the founding fathers of, of rock and roll, you know, the early pioneer, Chuck Berry, little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis of course, and you know, they were putting my out of the picture of popular music coats, you know, and Oh, I actually am budding. Hollywood had passed away. So by the time that I arrived in 1961 wall and in the United States, you know, it was pretty much a middle of the road music, you know, anything from the platters to, to, you know, Frankie Avalon and you know, we had some, uh, the four seasons, so I wasn't really rock and roll as at roots rock and roll. That was, you know, that was coming from, from little Richard and Chuck Berry, you, it wasn't really that it was a little bit more middle of the road, more, more sanitized.
Chuck Shute:Okay.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. And so like the Beatles came out and the whole basin patient group and you know, with the stones that they were actually bringing back the roots of rock and roll, which is arm, DM, blues influence.
Chuck Shute:And then, but you ended up playing in some bands in New Jersey with your brother, I think. And then eventually,
Rudy Sarzo:no, I was never, I was never in a band in New Jersey. It wasn't until we moved back to Miami,
Chuck Shute:Back to... Right... Yeah. And then you ended up right... And then you end up moving to LA in 77. Um, so talk about those early days. Like it sounds like you made a lot of sacrifices. I mean, obviously you're really successful now, but back in the early days it sounds like you were like sleeping on the floor and you, you kinda had to starve yourself a little bit. Like, it sounds like there was a lot that was a long time, right? It wasn't just like a few months.
Rudy Sarzo:I was not the only one. I mean the, you know, we were, just uh, surviving trying to, uh, to get noticed in the music industry. I wasn't the only guy who went through that. I was one of everybody... Everybody went through that. You know... to be clear, everybody that you heard of in the 80s guys, gusy from Ratt or Motley Crue and Dokken a nd whatever, you know, especially musicians who h ad moved to L A, not musicians that were native to LA, you know, as much as the other g uys in Quiet Riot. R andy R hoads and Kevin Dubrow and guys like that I play with, t hey were native to LA s o they were either living at home with t heir parents, or you know, doing some other stuff. But it wasn't like in a situation like me and a lot of the older guys on the strip, you know that on the sunset strip a nd that we actually moved from, you know, we left home to come to Los Angeles and I s aw a little bit of a more of a difficult situation because you really don't have any hope, your family roots t o fall back on it.
Chuck Shute:Right. But there must, yeah, there must've been something keeping you go. Like you must have had some sort of sense that you had the ability to make it and you just persevered. You never really gave up. Like you kept going with it.
Rudy Sarzo:Well, it was all blind faith. it was all like I didn't have a plan B. I didn't want to have a plan B. I had many plan Bs growing up and I decided to forgo those for what I really wanted to become... It's not about being a musician because I was a musician. I think anybody is a musician who even if you might, even if you don't make a living from being playing music, you're still a musician. You're playing an instrument. But I, I want it to be a professional recording and touring musician.
Chuck Shute:So I think your first big break you, you actually were trying to go to see Van Halen at the Whisky a Go-Go and it was sold out. So then you ended up at the Starwood and you saw a band called Quiet Riot and you struck up a friendship with the singer and then later he called you and asked you to audition and then you, I think that that was, were you in New Jersey at that point? Is that correct? I think anyways, you flew out to LA, right?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Yeah, but, but, but to call it a friendship with Kevin at that moment is a stretch because, yeah. Have you ever had any thing in your life that was actually life changing?
Chuck Shute:Oh yeah, absolutely.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure you remember a lot of about it.
Chuck Shute:right? No, I just, there's like so many, it's not just like one or two incidents. It's like so many. But the first one that you talk about that's like another big life changing one is, you know, you fly out, um, you're in that version of Quiet Riot with Randy Rhoads as a guitarist. Then he leaves to join Ozzy, but then eventually he recommends you to play with Ozzy. So this was so fascinating to read this part where Sharon Osborne calls you and asks you to audition and you actually turned her down because you were in another band, Angel at the time. Right?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah.
Chuck Shute:Is that just kind of, it's like a loyalty thing? Is that just how you are? Like you're a very loyal person and you don't want to,
Rudy Sarzo:I know I never walk out of a situation. I never leave people stranded. Uh, you know, even even if it's in situation, you know, I was sleeping on the floor. I wasn't making any money on the road with Angel, you know, it was just, I was just another starving musician in LA that happened to be in the band call Angel, who at the time did not have a record label and they were struggling to get signed to another label. You know, it wasn't no real promising, you know, future. Right. I wasn't in the band, so I wasn't about to like jump ship immediately. I had to, you know, I have to really think about an and it was the situation. Like, you know, after I got a call from Sharon and I, and I told her, no thanks. I know the band...... And I hung up the phone and, and yeah, but you know, you have to put things in perspective. First of all, when we talk about Sharon Osborne today, everybody knows Sharon.
Chuck Shute:Sure. Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:And you know, 40 something years later, it's in our, especially with people that have never met her, they have a certain, uh, image about her, you know, very powerful, successful woman, married and managing a, one of the most recognizable and successful individuals in the entertainment industry, Ozzy Osbourne. It wasn't like that 40 years ago, you know, did not have the profile that he has today, uh, because nobody could really predict the future back in 1981 and Sharon, she was just Ozzy's manager or not even Ozzy's manager, she was the daughter or Ozzy's manager who happen to be taking care of his business or the company, Jett management. So, you know, it wasn't like, Oh my goodness, I got a call from Sharon Osbourne and blah, blah, blah. No, it wasn't like t he person that c alled me on behalf of Ozzy because Randy recommended me a nd, and basically, n o thank you. I mean,
Chuck Shute:But Ozzy was still pretty big. He has been in Black Sabbath. I mean, it still a pretty big name at that time, right?
Rudy Sarzo:Yes, yes and no. Yes and no.. Black Sabbath. All of a sudden before that happened, uh, already had a singer named Ronnie James Dio. They were kicking butt without Ozzy, you know, and, and I, I, it wasn't like, Oh yeah, Ozzy Osborne, you know, the guy who's got, you know, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. And I know those records... they there were not on the radio.
Chuck Shute:Right. Okay. Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:I had never heard the record. I knew nothing about the music or they knew was, they have my, my best reference was that Randy Rhodes was in the band.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. And he was your good friend. So eventually you did come to your senses. You did come to your senses. Then Ozzy himself called you and then you did
Rudy Sarzo:Then yeah, Ozzy call me the next day and uh, asked, you know, asked me to come down just because Randy kept insisting, you know,
Chuck Shute:yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:They have less, less than 10 days before the beginning of the tour. And it all came down to trust. They didn't know any of these people that were auditioning for the gig. They needed a bass player that not only could play, but they could trust to be in the bus, traveling would Ozzy and not be a bad influence.
Chuck Shute:That's a big part.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. And, and Randy kept saying, well, you know, Rudy, Rudy's the guy, so you know, thanks to Randy's recommendation, I got the gig. Of course, I, I had to learn how to play.
Chuck Shute:Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:You know, and Randy came over the morning of the audtionwhich was the following day, you, he, me, you know the songs basically. And I have to like remember them and within 10 minutes play them with Ozzy.
Chuck Shute:Right. So then in less than 24 hours, you went from sleeping on the floor of that apartment to sleeping in a King size bed in Ozzy's mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Like that's pretty cool story.
Rudy Sarzo:Actually. It was not Ozzy's mansion. It was a Don Arden, Sharon's father who owned Dimension. He was the, uh, the, uh, he owned Jett records and Jettt management. And um, actually he was also managing Air Supply, Electric ELO and I believe during that time on and off with Black Sabbath because he, at one point he was managing, uh, both, both bands, Ozzy and Black Sabbath.
Chuck Shute:Okay. Yeah. So, wow, that's pretty cool. And then obviously, I mean, you had, there's, like I said, people can read more, but there is a couple incidents I want to talk about from the book. Obviously one of the most famous incidents in rock and roll history was January 20th, 1982 in Des Moines, Iowa. And you a re not only on stage with Ozzy when this happened, but you actually, I think in reading the book i t's, you kind of instigated this so someone throws like a crumpled up black thing on the stage and you pointed it out to Ozzy, but then he grabbed it and put it in his mouth and that turned out to be a bat and he bit the head off. Can you describe your recollection of this incident?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, very simple. Somebody, you know, somebody throws something on stage and it looked pretty weird and Ozzy standing next to me and I kind of like, you know, I'm headbanging, I'm doing my thing...
Chuck Shute:Yeah,
Rudy Sarzo:Sol... I didn't stop playing. I did not. I kept playing and by while I'm doing that I look at Ozzy and I'm playing with my bass through the thing on the floor. Then I just, I just kept playing. I personally did not even see him put it in his mouth...
Chuck Shute:Right.
Rudy Sarzo:Hey, I did not see him spit it out into, into the pit. No, because I was busy playing, we're all playing...
Chuck Shute:Sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:It was not until the show ended and I see on the side of the stage there was an ambulance waiting and they, they put Ozzy in the ambulance and they take off. That's it. Then I go, what the hell happened? Then they tell me, you know what actually happened? And then we took the bus over to the hospital emergency where Ozzy was being treated for possible rabies and they'd gave him rabies vaccine and then they gave him some vials of monkey serum that we had in the refrigerator of the tour bus. And we travel with that. And he would administer every day a monkey serum vaccine.
Chuck Shute:And you actually took pictures of, of him getting the Rabies shots, right? That's what you said in the book.
Rudy Sarzo:No, I didn't say I t ook pictures, the tour manager, borrow my camera. I never left the tour bus and they went inside and took a picture of Ozzy o r getting the, u h, the rabies s hots. They use the publicity s hots.
Chuck Shute:Okay. Yeah. Cause I think he thought it was fake. Like he thought, you know, it was like rubber or something like that, but it wasn't, it wasn't fake. It was a real actual bat. And he really did have to get the rabies shots.
Rudy Sarzo:Absolutely.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Wow. So another crazy story that I read in the book was the time that Ozzy was drunk and there was a waitress and she wanted to cut Ozzy off from ordering more drinks and this pissed Sharon off. So, uh, Sharon Osborne off so bad that she went and pissed in a glass and then threw it in the waitresses face that that was a true story too?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. And this is what happened. Sharon claimed that she pissed in the glass, you know that she pissed in the glass. Now.... we can't tell if it was pissed o r n ot. Y ou k now, sometimes people make things up just to get, you know, be dramatic. But that's what she s ay she did and whether it was real or not, I don't know.
Chuck Shute:Thanks.
Rudy Sarzo:That's the way things were back then.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. It sounds like there's a lot of crazy stories like that that are obviously, you know, more even more in the book and such, but, um, so yeah, I mean obviously, uh, you know, it's really sad. Obviously Randy passes away and then you're kinda questioning your future with the band and Ozzy's heavy drinking, so you decide that you're going to go rejoin Quiet Riot. Right?
Rudy Sarzo:I wasn't KINDA, I was completely re-thinking about yeah. Out of find my joy playing music. Yeah. Again, it wasn't like, like kind of
Chuck Shute:I, yeah, it was okay. You had decided you wanted to get out. Um, so again, you being, you being the nice guy that you are, you ask Sharon if, um, if, if she needs your help to fill in for the shows until replacement basisst is found. But she just said, nobody can, nobody leaves Ozzy and then hangs up the phone on you. Right. Is that pretty much what happened?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, but you know, that's, that's typical people when things like that happen.
Chuck Shute:Were you in, you were scared to make that phone call, I'm assuming, right? I mean, it seems like, like I would be afraid of, or were you just like, ah...
Rudy Sarzo:no, no. I mean it's, it's a phone call that it's a hard phone call because not being a scared, it's a matter of, you know, I had no other reason to leave the band except that I, because Randy had passed away and he wasn't there anymore. And, the traumatic experience of being present during the crash, we were s hellshocked we were traumatized, all of us, all of us that experienced that. So it was k inda like how am I going to find joy i n making music again? And, and my way of dealing with that at that time.... Cause, you know, people grow and they understand things about life, you know, with time, the only way t hat c ould deal with that at the time w here y ou actually move on... And y ou have to take into consideration, I moved on to a band that nobody wanted in, Los Angeles. You know, that record that went to number one? That became the first debut metal record to go to number one? Well just a few months ago we couldn't find a manager to manage the band with that record already done and ready for the release date. Nobody believed that metal was gonna come back or you know, hard rock, whatever you want. They were calling it back in the day, you know, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Quiet Riot. We were all labeled metal bands back then. Of course metal, they had different faces today, but that world was considered metal, you know, and case in point, you know, we were, we went on tour with Scorpions. We weren't sure where the Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, you know, b onafide metal b ands. You know, Judas Priest was another band that we toured with and you know, it was l abeled metal was l abeled v ery different back then than it is today.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. It was just cause back then it was just heavy metal. They didn't call it hair metal or any, any of that kind of thing.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Or dark metal, death, metal, speed metal, you know, whatever, you know, they wouldn't, different categories. They were just metal, you know. And, so it, it wasn't like a like,"Oh yeah, sure, I'm going to leave Ozzy and I'll join the band(Quiet Riot) and we're going to have a great record. And no, the only reason why I did it is because I went back to playing, you know, with Kevin, who I already been playing with and in Quiet Riot and Dubrow. When he h ad the band after Quiet Riot, before I joined O zzy, I was living with him and playing in DuBrow, whenever DuBrow played around town, you know, just to make some money s o I could pay the rent.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. So you, you had no idea this was going to be a huge hit, these Metal Health... it was a monster success.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. I mean not only us, but no, you know, the genre of music alone, forget about the Metal Health being being a success. Nobody in Los Angeles could see at the end of the tunnel that eventually, not only Quiet Riot, but everything else that was coming, you know, whether it was British metal, the new wave British metal that I was already a part of with Ozzy. But I knew that because I was already touring in England and Europe and I knew what was coming. Motorhead was on our bill in 81 so with Def Leppard, you know, and then U FO and bands like that. So it was like, yeah, there's this movement of metal that's really a lready playing arenas. But, but the labels in the United States are not really paying attention to that. T hey're still, you know, looking at new wave and punk, you know, o kay, that's fine, but this is coming. And what it took was actually MTV. It took MTV to actually start playing metal, Def Leppard, and Quiet Riot of course and then later on Motley Crue and Ratt and Dokken an everybody else said that Twisted Sister, they came along and, and that's solidified the metal as, as coming back, Maiden, everybody, everybody started, started getting into the MTV video scene.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. And you guys had a lot of success in fact, and you were actually named the 1980 in 1983 you were voted the best basis in circus magazine. Did you like those getting those kinds of like award? Does that mean anything to you?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, there's actually no award for one of the best bassist. Yeah. It's a popularity contest. That's all it is.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. So then the problem with what happened with Quiet Riot with you leaving was, I don't know if this is true, but it said something. I read something about that Kevin was k inda, he's basically talking shit about too many other bands and that, that k ind o f bothered you and that's part of the reason that you left Quiet Riot. Is t here truth in that?
Rudy Sarzo:Well, you don't leave one of the biggest bands in the world because something is kind of bothering you.
Chuck Shute:Right. So it really bothered me.
Rudy Sarzo:It became a problem. It was a problem. It was an issue and there was nothing I can do about it because his mindset was that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
Chuck Shute:Oh
Rudy Sarzo:Well he rolled with it. And I moved on..
Chuck Shute:but you stayed in touch with Frankie, so I did want to bring him up. I know he's, he's struggling right now with his cancer or have you, have you been in touch with and he was the best man at your wedding? You guys are still really good friends. Are you still in touch with him right now?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Chuck Shute:How is he doing? Okay. Cause I thought that was really cool that despite having that cancer, he's going out and he's still wanting to play music. That's like still one very important thing for me. Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. That's what he does. I mean this is the challenge that, he's fighting incredibly, heorically, he's my hero. You know wha t I mean? You know, Frank has been my hero for a long time. Even before, this unfortunate, c a ncer came about. We've been frie nds way before we played in Quiet Riot. He is t he drummer that taught me what my role as a ba s sist in a rhythm section was all about because I had no concept of it prior to that, my, or t o play with him in 1972 we met on my birthday in 1972 at a THE hang out in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the time, called the F lyi n machine. And we started playing it ba ck then. So it wasn't like 10 years later that we were actually, you know, in Quiet Riot together.
Chuck Shute:That's so cool. You got to play with all your, it sounds like you were friends with all either before or you became friends with a lot of these people that you've played with over the years and then, and so then you joined Whitesnake and you're with them for a while. Um, you didn't actually get to play on the song. Here I go again, but isn't it, is that you in the music video?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, that's, that's the whole band. The only person that actually played on that song on the record was Adrian Vandenberg. He did the solo.
Chuck Shute:Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:On that record. And um, everybody else got together after the record was finished.
Chuck Shute:Did you know at that time that that would be, I mean that video is an iconic piece of 80s history. Did you know at the time that this was going to be a huge music video and, or is that another one where you just had kind of going in blind there?
Rudy Sarzo:I think you're giving my psychic abilities a lot of.. No, I wish I had a crystal ball and I knew all the st uff, but then again, it's I'm just happy that I was there for all the wonderful things. Nobody knows. Not even the record company knows. They're just hoping for the best. They're hoping that, that what you believe in, everybody else would come to appreciate it.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, no, definitely. Um, and then so then you were a white state and then you, you're, you've been in so many bands. You were in a band called a sun King and I found this really interesting because there was a guitarist named John Lowery who obviously more people know him as John five. He played with Marilyn Manson and Rob zombie. Huge, hugely famous. I guess, again, I'm giving you credit with your psychic abilities, but did you take, do you take credit in discovering him and seeing him play in that band alligator soup or, or what stood out about him because didn't you pick him to be in the band?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, he was a guitar player. I know.[inaudible] yeah. Just certain things that are just so obvious. Yeah. And, and you know that certain people just have that X factor about them. And uh, after you've been doing this for a while, you start, you start to recognize who does and who does. And you know, and when you run into somebody, uh, with the X factor such as John five, it's, it's, it's a no brainer.
Chuck Shute:Wow. Yeah. Cause
Rudy Sarzo:Oh, it's just the only person who thought, you know, John five had the potential to become that young. Laurie got it. Had the potential of becoming, you know, John Fry.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Okay. So there was, he was well known around the scene at that. It just not nationally, obviously.
Rudy Sarzo:Well look, look at Randy roads. I mean, Randy Rose, you know, you, you, you have to become a local hero before you become a global legend. And, and, and same thing, you know, the word got around by John five around town. And the only way to do that is to let people know that they, that you exist and that you have this specific talents. You know, just like Randy did when, when he was playing locally in Los Angeles before he ever left LA LA.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Wow. And then you, you played with, uh, you've kinda, you played with so many amazing, you played with in-bay Malmsteen in 2004. Um, one thing that stands out to me about is just how fast he can play and he just really shreds that guitar. Was it, is it hard to keep up with somebody like that or, I mean, I know you're, obviously you're playing the bass and the guitar, but it's still, I mean, is it, is there some guitars that are dip more difficult to play with than others?
Rudy Sarzo:Uh, it all depends on, on, on the tempo of the song, how fast the song is. He could be playing a ballad with a, with a shredder, and it's a ballad.
Chuck Shute:Well, and he's, I guess when he's soloing, you don't, obviously you're not going to do a bass solo, but is he maybe the second best guitars you've ever worked with next? Randy Rhoads? Or, or who would you say is second because you've worked with Steve Vai? Steve, Steven. Zach wild. John five.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. I've never worked with these.
Chuck Shute:Oh, you did? I thought you the rock and roll fantasy camp or maybe you didn't actually like being in a band. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Rudy Sarzo:Anything that happens with[inaudible], a fantasy campus. An isolated event.
Chuck Shute:Gotcha, gotcha.
Rudy Sarzo:Not like you're in a band called rock and roll fantasy camp.
Chuck Shute:True. True. Okay. And then you had time with, uh, you were in dos band for a little bit, um, and you eventually joined up with him. How did he compare to other singers you've worked with before? Cause I mean, again, you've worked with Dio, Ozzie, David Coverdale.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Actually, you know, I wasn't in DEO for a little bit. I was in the band from 2004 until he passed away in 2010. I was his bass player, like six years. And that's not really a little bit
Chuck Shute:right. I know that's a long time.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's a good portion of my life.
Chuck Shute:Absolutely. Yeah. No.
Rudy Sarzo:And, um, we did, uh, we would, we would tour every year, even if it was in the band heaven and hell, we would tour every year. And, uh, it was, it was an incredible experience. You know, I got to learn so much from, from running. I say, you know, how to be a better human being or a better musician, you know, better everything. It just, uh, I wouldn't be who I am today, uh, without having the experience of, of working with running India.
Chuck Shute:All right. And you've credited your success, uh, with your ability to adapt, like being able to join a band and fit into that band. As you said, you're joining the band, the band isn't joining you. Um, and you've played everything from jazz and Cuban music to full on speed metal. So clearly you can adapt. Um, do you think that is hard for a lot of other musicians to do?
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. You know what, I really appreciate all kinds of music, jazz and, and oper Cuban and all that. But I, I know what I am. I am really a, you know, a, a, a classic metal. And I think classic because I'm not really, you know, I am not a new metal musician. I am a classic metal bass player. By that I mean somebody who performed with Ozzy and you know, back in the day, you know that that original Ozzy Osborne music and you know, from the first two records and got to play with Dio and got to play with Whitesnake and you know, why to Ryan and so on. That's what I am at my best. I complete others and I love other music, but me, you know who I am, my identity personally and from the bottom of my heart, uh, when the beast is unleashed from within me, it's that, that, that, that, that's the music, that's the music that gets the beast out of me.
Chuck Shute:Absolutely. And you're great at it. Um, you also said, as you said earlier, trust is a real, it's, you said it's even more important than musical ability. So do you think there are a lot of talented musicians that didn't make it because their attitude and their lack of trust, like people don't want to trust them even though they're really talented musicians.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Yeah. I mean nobody. Nope. You know, I mean you will get, you are going to gig if you're in Crow when you fish and if you, you would lose the gig if you're an incredible musician but you cannot be trusted.
Chuck Shute:[inaudible] that makes sense. So I mean you're widely known as one of the nicest guys in rock. Do you feel like the nature of playing the bass requires you to have kind of a more down to earth and easygoing disposition? Cause it seems like it's hard to be really ego-driven when you're playing the bass. I mean, unless you're Les Claypool or flee and just taking the center stage, you're okay kind of being in the back. Right.
Rudy Sarzo:Well I've never really, if, if, if, if it would've been okay for me to be in the back, we wouldn't be having this conference.
Chuck Shute:Well not the bad guy. Right. But you're not the front man when you're playing with Ozzie or whites. I mean, you're not, you're not, that's what I'm okay. Not being the front man. I got, you're still on the stage, honestly. Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:But neither was Tommy Aldridge and Randy Rhodes. So, you know, it's the sum of all parts that really make, uh, even even, even at band that it's named by for one person, you know, you know, takes them Halen. Definitely rock doesn't have the last name, van Halen, but he's David Lee rough. Even my gland punny, everybody knows who these guys are. It doesn't matter. It's the sum of all parts that really make up, you know, a, a greatness of, of any, any band, a band, you know, and I'm talking about in the traditional sense, not in the modern modern sense of when artists go up when States nowadays and there's not even a band, it's just them up there and with some prerecorded music.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. And one of the bands that you were in was at Mars project. Um, and it sounds, it looked like you had been credited with a lot of the songwriting, uh, duties on that one. Is there, is there other, it seems like the only other bands that you, no,
Rudy Sarzo:no. You know, sometimes you're young, the situation, and to be completely honest, the bulk of the music was written by 20 McAlpine, but we were, you know, it's kind of like, let's say taking van Halen again, you know, Ben Halen, you know, it's a band where older musicians traditionally, you know, in the first incarnation of the band, they split the, the composition royalty equally. Right. You know, but you can tell that word that music came from, you know, the mainly guitars and you know, the music from, from Eddie and, and the vocal from, from Dave, you know, the lyrics, you know, it was very unique blend of like, like bonehead lyrics with like this incredible, uh, virtual, uh, guitar playing, which is actually definitely made a work because it was kind of, lyrics were very working class and the music was, was Bridwell. So it brought up the lyrics, brought the music down to earth and made it accessible.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. So as songwriting, is that like not something that you're really interested in or do you have song ideas that you pitch? No,
Rudy Sarzo:I'm really interested in songwriting, but when you're talking about guitar driven music, I am not at the level of a 20 mile Calpine to tell Tony, Hey, clean plate, clean your guitar like this.
Chuck Shute:No, that's true.
Rudy Sarzo:I literally know other players that can actually go to one to play.
Chuck Shute:Right, right. Yeah. So, and you've worked with so many musicians, like I said, and your reputation is great, but is there any musicians that you've worked with that were hard to work with or maybe talented musician, but just difficult personalities? I mean, I don't, I don't know if you want to say their names, but,
Rudy Sarzo:well, I'll put it this way. Some were harder than others. There was a very, we say that, no, listen, it's, you know, you have to understand people. And that led that person and I let him get in the way of their music. You know, sometimes he go, it's just a shield for, for somebody not being confident, even though they might have great musical knowledge, but there's something happened along the way in their, in their journey that made them lose confidence in themselves, even though they might be credible musicians. So sometimes they use ego to protect themselves.
Chuck Shute:Oh, interesting. Well, speaking of egos, um, do you have any opinion on the Motley Crue II reunion? Cause I did read in your book that, um, you went to see them back in the day and you, you actually recommended them to tour with Ozzy back in the day. Um, no I didn't.
Rudy Sarzo:No, no. I, no, no, no. I did that. No, I do not because I was not in any, in any position. You know, it's like I want to keep the gig.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Yeah.
Rudy Sarzo:And, uh, you know, for me to tell at that time in my career, I had, I hadn't done anything, had no resume, I had nothing, was like, I'm just very happy to be playing in the band because it's not like a, well, you know, Rudy, you know, he, he, before he joined nausea, he did this and this and this and that. No nothing. All I did was play in quiet ride with Randy road in Los Angeles.
Chuck Shute:And that was it.
Rudy Sarzo:You know. Well, I hadn't no resume and, and I, you know, I had the time, I only even think Mobley crew had actually released the album. Yes.
Chuck Shute:Shadow.
Rudy Sarzo:I think they might have had the AFP and it wasn't like, you know, these, these guys, you know, that's the job of lesion and that's the job of record company people and management, you know, the business side, especially at that time. Everyone likely to make a decision. Who are we going to have as an opening band?
Chuck Shute:Oh, gotcha.
Rudy Sarzo:That, that will never keep, you know, banned from saying, Hey dude, you know, can you tell so and so?
Chuck Shute:Wow.
Rudy Sarzo:That we're looking for, you know, to, to open up for you guys or whatever. Yeah, everybody does.
Chuck Shute:Oh, okay.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah, that's,
Chuck Shute:yeah. So it's kind of, yeah. It's more or less things they were asking you and you're like, yeah, sure, I'll, but like, it's hard to catch up.
Rudy Sarzo:No, no, I never say.
Chuck Shute:That's cool. All right. Um, so I always like to end with a charity. Is there, is there a charity organization that you're currently working with that you want to promote here?
Rudy Sarzo:Uh, yeah. I mean, there's so many of them and they, uh, I would say animal rescue, animal rescue, and, you know, just, you know, you know, make sure that, um, if you're looking to bring a patent to your life, you know, and just, you know, go to an adoption center, you're, you know, there's plenty of pets available, especially during this holiday season.
Chuck Shute:That's great. Uh, while Rudy, you certainly had amazing career from the early days and quiet riot and Ozzie, um, to now you have a podcast, I think. Do you have a pot? Do you still do the podcast? Uh, the dash and the six degrees of Sarto on the monsters of rock radio.
Rudy Sarzo:Yeah. Well, see that's not a podcast. That's an actual radio broadcast.
Chuck Shute:The dash isn't podcasting. Right.
Rudy Sarzo:The dash he had, I was doing the dash. The dash is what me got the attention of the CEO or Holland Hendrickson, a bunk of rock radio and the cruises and all that stuff. It's what God is. What got me noticed that I was doing a radio thing, I mean a podcast and then he asked me, would you like to bring your podcast? Bring it to month was old rock radio, but not at the podcast.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Chuck Shute:So, and then do you have any other future music plans? I know you play the bass with a, the band guests who, which is another amazing rock band
Rudy Sarzo:I played the bass with. It goes through yet basically it's hard to be, yeah.
Speaker 4:You did play that. You have tried that, right?
Chuck Shute:I thought I'd read that too. Somewhere that you'd tried the standup bass before[inaudible]
Rudy Sarzo:no, I've never only had one. I know I've never owned one because that's when they would bring it home. I couldn't sit in the car.
Speaker 4:We'll check out,
Chuck Shute:check out a Rudy's radio show, check out his book off the rails, see him perform that, the guest who, and you're on all the social media, the Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, all that stuff I think. Right.
Rudy Sarzo:I'm on the interweb.
Chuck Shute:Yes. Perfect. Okay. Anything else you'd like to promote at this time or
Rudy Sarzo:no, I just want to wish everybody a wonderful joy is Christmas, Thanksgiving season and I'm a blessed 2020.
Chuck Shute:All right, well thank you so much Rudy. I really appreciate it and thanks for being on my show. Okay, thanks. Bye bye. Okay. That was Rudy SARS, a basis for Ozzy Osborne. Whitesnake quiet riot Dio. So many. He's been in so many bands and currently in the guests who so checkout all that stuff that we talked about. Check out his social media. Um, you can read more about his story with Ozzie and Randy Rhodes and his book off the rails, which is really fascinating book. I haven't finished the whole thing, but I just, you just open any page. There's a million crazy stories in that thing, so check that out. Uh, I'm on all social media as well. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that stuff. So, uh, follow me and have a great holiday.