10 Best Rock Guitar Riffs Of The 1980s
8. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (1980)
There has been numerous accounts of how Randy Rhoads landed the job with Ozzy Osbourne. All sources agree that Ozzy was heavily intoxicated during the audition process. Given the man's legendary status for consuming a truly heroic amount of just about anything, this seems likely.
Where the stories start to differ, however, is whether or not Ozzy actually met Rhoads during the initial sessions.
Apparently, the Prince of Darkness remained sequestered in the control room while Rhoads plugged in and began to warm up. It took a few practise riffs for Ozzy to exclaim that Rhoads was hired, but the news was given by an assistant, while Ozzy remained semi comatose in the control room. Of course, the bumbling Brummie remembers it differently...
The story of the Crazy Train riff is similarly shrouded in confusion. Several other guitarists, including Quiet Riot's Greg Leon, claimed they helped write the piece. But regardless of its true origins it was Randy Rhoads who made the track what it is.
The riff feels like it was pulled straight out of the late '60s and early '70s, but Rhoads throws in just enough pinched harmonics and fast finger work to give it that heavier '80s guitar sounds.