Interviews

Published on September 11th, 2018 | by Darren Paltrowitz

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Rudy Sarzo On Joining The Guess Who, Playing With Ozzy Osbourne, Keeping Up On Music & More

One of the most prolific bassists in hard rock history, you have undoubtedly heard Rudy Sarzo play bass. In addition to being a founding member of Quiet Riot, Sarzo’s credits as a bass player include Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Blue Öyster Cult, Dio, Queensryche, and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force. Most recently, Sarzo joined the legendary Canadian group The Guess Who, as known for hits like “American Woman,” “No Time,” “Clap For The Wolfman,” “Rain Dance,” and “Share The Land.”

I had the pleasure of speaking with Rudy Sarzo — also a published author, computer animator, and as of earlier this year a podcaster — by phone about his recent joining of The Guess Who and more. Highlights from the chat are below. More on Sarzo can be found online at www.rudysarzo.com.

About joining The Guess Who, had you worked with anyone from the band before joining?

Rudy Sarzo: Actually no, I never did. Even though I kind of knew about Derek from, I have worked with Sass Jordan before. We were actually in a version of Queensryche that Geoff Tate put together, and we toured. So I got kind of like a glimpse of Derek even though he wasn’t there, but by knowing Sass, I had an idea basically of what a kind, wonderful human being he is.

Sure, now how many songs did you have to learn to join The Guess Who?

Rudy Sarzo: Actually, joining the band was a process, because what I started doing was subbing for Jim Kale, and that started happening like about maybe a couple of years ago or even more. Then I was sharing the subbing duties with Michael Devin, who had been doing it before I was doing it; he is the bass player for Whitesnake. And so it was a slow process, but nevertheless I had to learn the whole show, of course, and then as we continued then I started learning some of the new material that we’d been playing from the new album.

You have basically been able to go from gig to gig, from major band to major band over the years. When you joined The Guess Who, what were you working on? Were you part of Blue Oyster Cult still?

Rudy Sarzo: Oh no, I haven’t played with Blue Oyster Cult for a while now, maybe 5, 7 years now. I was in-between projects… I was doing that Geoff Tate thing with Sass, and then I started doing GUNZO, basically I went out with Tracii Guns, we toured a bit. So when this came about, which is at the tail-end of me finishing touring with Tracii in our own band called GUNZO.

Having gone from band to band, you know, almost like how a regular non-musician works a new job every two to three years, when did you realize that it could be a viable career to be a sideman?

Rudy Sarzo: Well, actually, I have not been a sideman all my career, because I was also a founding member of Quiet Riot… But you get to take a look at both sides of the industry. Yhere is something to be said about being a sideman, and there is something to said of course about being a founding member of a hugely-successful band, and they all have benefits and they all have certain drawbacks. But being an equal member of a group does not guarantee musical happiness, I can tell you that.

I think that the book that you wrote a little over a decade ago, Off The Rails, is one of the greatest books about what it is like to actually be on the road. It showed how much idle time there is, how unglamorous it could be, even when you are in a huge band. Did you get the reaction that you were hoping for from the book?

Rudy Sarzo: You know, that is a really really good question on two levels. First of all, the idle time that we used to have 35 years ago is pretty much non-existent if you embrace technology. Because right now it is all about social media, being in touch with your fans, helping promote the shows or helping promote the record. So that kind of like takes the gap of the idle time, now that I have answered the question, what was the other question?

Whether the book got the reaction that you were hoping for.

Rudy Sarzo: Oh yeah, the reaction, thank you so much. Thank you for refreshing my mind on that. Well, the book, you set out to write a book basically to… I set out to write Off The Rails just for one purpose only, which was to answer the number one question I get asked when I travel around the world, which is what was it like to play with Randy Rhoads. So that was my motivation, and yes, I am very grateful for everybody that has read the book, including yourself, because I get to share my experience of playing with Randy Rhoads, not only in Ozzy but also in Quiet Riot, which was really interesting because while he was a member of Quiet Riot. We were pretty much chasing a record deal that really did not exist at the time because it was the late 70s, and record companies in Los Angeles were looking for more of the new wave pop and punk bands, and were definitely not that.

So that is when Randy got the offer from Ozzy to join the band, to what became known as the, first it was The Blizzard Of Ozz, then became known as Ozzy Osbourne Band, and then it was just Ozzy, you know. (laughs) And then once he joined the band, he, Ozzy just told him, “Listen, be yourself, but write the music that comes out of you naturally.” That is when he realized, “Okay, I don’t have to try to chase the record companies’ taste in music. I am just going to write what I really want to write about musically.” That is when he became the Randy Rhoads everybody really knows from playing with Ozzy.

An interesting thing about the book is that it ends in the early 80s before all this success with Quiet Riot and of course you had a ton of success with Whitesnake. You’ve had success in other bands, did you ever think about writing a second book?

Rudy Sarzo: No, not really, because I don’t have the motivation. The book is not about me, the book is about Randy, and the reason why I wrote it, at the time over 10 years ago, there was a lot of conspiracy theories and misinformation about what happened during the crash. There was some horrible things that fans were conspiring on, and I was like, “Wait a minute, I’ve got to set the record straight, because if I don’t do it nobody else will.” Lies become truth if they are spread far enough, because if somebody doesn’t come and say, “Listen, that is a lie,” this is what actually did happen, you know? So, hopefully I was able to put out those fires a bit.

Another thing that I am curious about is when you started realizing in your career that you were an influential bass player. For example, from the band Weezer, Rivers Cuomo has been very vocal about how important Quiet Riot was in his music development.

Rudy Sarzo: Wow, I love Weezer but I wasn’t aware of that, wow. Well, you have to take a look at whatever the generation after you… They are probably going to be growing up listening to the music, not only our music but the music of all the other bands that got played on the radio at the time or on MTV… I am influenced by everybody. I mean. I go to Spotify and I do research and I listen to people’s playlists, to me that is the best way to find new music and new talents, just find out what everybody else is listening to.

I check out some playlists and I come across some really incredible musicianship. I think that musicianship has really evolved today more than it ever has, thanks to people being able to share knowledge on YouTube, which is something that I take advantage of every single day. There are my certain go-to YouTube professors, music teachers, and not just bass players. For me it is not just extending my technique on the bass, it is extending my musical knowledge.

Beyond the bass, do you play a lot of other instruments?

Rudy Sarzo: I have been playing mandolin, I am a true believer that instruments pick us, and there is something about the mandolin that makes me happy to play. It is a happy little instrument, and I have been spending time in Nashville, so that sound is everywhere. I just love it.

Do you think that we ever might see a Rudy Sarzo solo album in the future?

Rudy Sarzo: A mandolin record, yes. I am working on that, by saying I am working on that I am honing my up my chops… Especially my compositional chops, but it is not necessarily going to be a typically rock record, it is going to be more fusion, jazzy, which is the music that I really grew up listening to back in the 70s, Mahavishnu [Orchestra] and Return To Forever and Weather Report, things like that. Believe it or not, that was what I was really into growing up.

So beyond playing the mandolin, is there something that you wish more people knew about you. And I ask that because your book, again it stops in 1982, 1983, it stops around that mark, and people have always seen you on=stage, but they don’t exactly know a ton about the Rudy Sarzo offstage.

Rudy Sarzo: It is really interesting that you ask me that, because a lot of people look at me and say, “What are you doing in The Guess Who?” Well, actually I grew up playing Guess Who music when I was playing in clubs and when I was playing in party bands, when I first started playing professionally, I mean just getting paid for a gig, not just being in a garage band. That was really part of the soundtrack of all the playlists, my setlist that I had in all the bands. So people might not be aware of that but that is definitely the case.

So when I got the call from Derek Sharp our singer to come in and sub, he asked me, “Do you know any of our music?” I said, “Of course I do, I grew playing it.” So that was a pretty painless transition, because when you enjoy doing something so much, it is not painful. You just like, it doesn’t matter how many hours you devote to it in a day just to get it right, it is fun, it is a joy.

That makes a lot of sense. So, I guess in closing, any last words for the kids?

Rudy Sarzo: Get the best music education. YouTube has become the university of music. Learn your craft, if you want to be a songwriter, there is so much knowledge out there and just do what you love, really do. That is going to be the greatest experience you are ever going to have in your life. Play music, even if you don’t do it for a living, just make sure you have some music in your life.


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About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."


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