When you think of Randy Rhoads, Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist for his first two solo albums, System of a Down singer Serj Tankian isn’t necessarily the first name to come to mind. However, he got together with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello to record a cover of “Crazy Train” for the forthcoming compilation Immortal Randy Rhoads: The Ultimate Tribute. Before we go any further, we’ll say that it takes balls to cover one of the most popular rock songs of all time. You can’t not compare it to the original, so on some level, it’s bound to disappoint. That said, the two equate themselves nicely on the cover, which also includes bassist Rudy Sarzo (who’d played with Rhoads in Ozzy’s band and Quiet Riot) and drummer Vinnie Appice.
Tankian has sang Ozzy before, covering Black Sabbath’s “Snowblind” with System for Nativity in Black II compilation. And Morello grew up worshiping Rhoads, he tells Rolling Stone, who premiered the track today:
“Randy Rhoads is my favorite guitar player of all time. It was his poster on my wall when I was practicing eight hourse a day, and I named my firstborn son, Rhoads, after him. Serj, Rudy, Vinny and I rocked ‘Crazy Train’ as a sonic tribute to one of rock’s greatest fallen heroes. Crank it.”
Immortal Randy Rhoads: The Ultimate Tribute will has plenty of other guests on the album, including Jon Donais from Anthrax/Shadows Fall, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Ozzy’s current guitarist Gus G. and more. Randy Rhoads started his musical career with Quiet Riot, joining Ozzy Osbourne’s band in 1979 and playing on Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. He was killed in a plane accident in March of 1982. The tribute album will be released on March 3rd on UDR.
