He liked biting the heads off birds anyway.
Randy Rhoads was the guitarist on Osbournes solo debut single Crazy Train. He was only 26 end was insanely talented. He died in a bizarre air crash touring with Ozzy in 1982 the circumstances of which are as follows.
After driving much of the night, the bus stopped at Flying Baron Estates in Leesburg, Florida, to fix a malfunctioning air conditioning unit while Osbourne remained asleep.[30] On the property, owned by the Calhoun Brothers tour bus company, there was an airstrip with helicopters and small planes.[15]Without permission, tour bus driver and private pilot Andrew Aycock took a single-engine Beechcraft F35 plane registered to a Mike Partin.[31][32] On the first flight, Aycock took keyboardist Don Airey and tour manager Jake Duncan with him as passengers.[30] Duncan later revealed that Aycock âbuzzedâ the bus in an attempt to wake drummer Tommy Aldridge. The group then landed. The second flight had Rhoads and makeup artist Rachel Youngblood aboard. Rhoads had tried unsuccessfully to coax bassist Rudy Sarzo to join him on the flight; Sarzo chose to get some extra sleep instead.[15]
During the second flight, more attempts were made to âbuzzâ the tour bus.[31] Aycock succeeded in making two close passes, but botched the third attempt. At about 10 a.m., after being in the air for approximately five minutes,[32] one of the planeâs wings clipped the top of the tour bus, breaking the wing into two parts and sending the plane spiraling.[33] The initial impact with the bus caused Rhoadsâ and Youngbloodâs heads to crash through the planeâs windshield.[30] The plane then severed the top of a pine tree and crashed into the garage of a nearby mansion, bursting into flames.[5] Rhoads (25) was killed instantly, as were Aycock (36) and Youngblood (58). All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and Rhoads was identified by dental records and personal jewelry. According to Sharon Osbourne, who was asleep in the bus and awoken by the crash, âThey were all in bits, it was just body parts everywhere.â[33]
Airey was the only member of the band to witness the crash, as the rest were still asleep in the bus.[5]In his account, he reported a struggle between Rhoads and Aycock in the cockpit, seconds before the crash:[15]
I had my camera and was taking photos of the plane to give to Randy afterwards. I had my telephoto lens on and could tell that there was some sort of struggle going on aboard the plane. The wings were rapidly tipping from side to side. At one point the plane almost became perpendicular, no more than six feet off the ground. Thatâs when I put down my camera and saw the plane right in front of me. I quickly crouched to avoid getting hit and looked over my shoulder and watched it clip the bus, crash into the tree and explode on impact into the garage.[15]
As the band members on board the bus tried to figure out what had happened, Sarzo recalls side-stepping broken glass in his bare feet and looking through the gaping hole in the bus to see Duncan outside, rocking back and forth on the ground screaming âTheyâre gone! Theyâre gone!â Drummer Tommy Aldridge took a fire extinguisher from the bus and ran towards the crash site in a vain attempt to put out the fire. Duncan, who had been on board the first flight, explained that although he had been concerned about the pilotâs behavior, there was no sense of foreboding:
It all seemed so innocent. When we arrived this morning, Andy offered Don and me to take us up. I must admit it got a bit scary when he started buzzing the bus trying to wake Tommy up. But after a few attempts we just landed. That was it.[15]
Rhoads was afraid of flying and Youngblood had a bad heart. Rhoads originally had no intention of getting in the plane. Duncan explained how the guitarist ended up on the doomed flight:
Well, right after we landed Andy came up to me and told me that he was going to take Rachel up for a ride. And that being aware of her heart condition he assured me that he was just going to take it easy, circle the property a couple of times and not pull any crazy stunts. So when Randy heard that, he decided to join them so he could take some aerial shots with his camera.[15]
5 Likes
Hulk Hogan
1 Like
71 only.
Wonât be too many tears shed for the Hulkster
2 Likes
Hulkster had an outrageously good Twitter game, racism aside.
Thatâs ancient for a wrestler from the 80s in fairness.
1 Like
WELL LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING BROTHER
Iconic.
But yeah, some more recent legacy tarnishing stuff.
A titan of our sport
2 Likes
Right at the forefront of the 80s entertainment zeitgeist, first wrestling figures I ever got as a young buck were Hogan, Earthquake & Macho man, all dead now.
2 Likes
I had the world of jealousy when, as a 10/11 year old, my cousin went to Boston on holidays to visit and uncle and they met Hulk Hogan. Photo put in local paper on their return Seething i was.
Was all i need to throw my full support behind the Ultimate Warrior from there out
2 Likes
2 Likes