10 Greatest Rock Music Guitar Solos Of The 1980s
6. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
On the subject of guitar prodigies who died way too young, there's Randy Rhoads, who was killed in a tragic aircraft accident aged just 25.
In his short life, Rhoads left a legacy behind that cannot be argued with. He helped pioneer the fast, yet technically solid style of playing that would dominate metal over the next decade, particularly through his work on songs like Crazy Train.
The lead single from Ozzy Osbourne's debut solo album, 1980's Blizzard of Ozz, Crazy Train features an all-time killer riff from the mind of young Randy, and is basically carried by the departed maestro's insanely distorted playing.
He really comes into his own on the solo, which begins with a tapping section that would have made Fred Astaire envious. He keeps up the high energy when he transitions into picking, filling the air with a heavily-produced sound that only an early '80s metal track could have created.
The whole thing is effortlessly cool, acting as the icing on the cake for the one of the great guitar-focused pieces of the entire era. Randy truly was something else.