OZZY OSBOURNE – Live in Montreal 1981 featuring Randy Rhoads (2024) HQ *Exclusive*

More music from metal icon OZZY OSBOURNE has been requested, and here we have this album recently released; “Live in Montreal 1981 featuring Randy Rhoads“, showcasing Ozzy’s perhaps best band ever; Randy Rhoads – guitar; Rudy Sarzo – bass; Tommy Aldridge – drums; Don Airey – keyboards.
Recorded at St. Denis Theatre, Montreal, Quebec, 28 July 1981, the concert includes songs from Ozzy’s debut LP
‘Blizzard of Ozz’, but also from the not-yet released ‘Diary of a Madman’.

But what makes this Canadian appearance so special is that it is one of the few professional live recordings made of Randy Rhoads, who would die in a senseless small plane crash the following May, while taking a joy ride on a rare day off from Osbourne’s hectic touring schedule. While he was alive, critics and fans were saying Rhoads was as good as Eddie Van Halen; who knows what great music he could have made had he not died so early in life.
While a couple of tracks from this show were released on expanded reissues of Ozzy’s studio albums, the complete show never was released until now. Ozzy and Sabbath fans alike will love this recording, even though he only does one song from his Sabbath days, the set-closing “Paranoid.”

Ozzy Osbourne had only been out of Black Sabbath a couple of years when he formed this now legendary solo band and embarked on his controversial Blizzard of Ozz tour (rumored to be a reference to his ongoing cocaine use). Now supporting a wife, Sharon (the daughter of Sabbath manager Don Arden), Ozzy was essentially broke, and had to start from the ground up when launching his newfound solo career.

Unlike most lead singers who go solo in order to distance themselves artistically from the band they had just left, Ozzy stuck with the type of music he knew: deep, heavy, slow moving rock with lyrical themes centered around the occult, the presence of evil in the world, and drug use (just listen to the first track here, “Flying High Again”).
Needless to say, Osbourne and the Blizzard of Ozz simply picked up where the Osbourne-led Sabbath left off.

The rhythm section of bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Tommy Aldridge is rock solid in this show, but it is the innovative and fluid guitar work of Randy Rhoads that makes this period in Osbourne’s career so important.
Consisting mostly of material from the first LP, Blizzard of Ozz, and what was to be his second album, Diary of a Madman, this show clearly demonstrates the excitement Osbourne was experiencing with his solo project.
Highly Recommended

01 – Flyin’ High Again (Live)
02 – I Don’t Know (Live)
03 – Crazy Train (Live)
04 – Believer (Live)
05 – Mr. Crowley (Live)
06 – Suicide Solution/Guitar Solo (Live)
07 – Revelation (Mother Earth) (Live)
08 – Steal Away (The Night) (Live)
09 – The Drum Solo (Live)
10 – Paranoid (Live)

Ozzy – vocals
Randy Rhoads – guitar
Rudy Sarzo – bass
Tommy Aldridge – drums
Don Airey – keyboards

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www.amazon.com/Live-Montreal-1981-Limited-Colored/dp/B0DL6VYJLR/