Interview with bass veteran Rudy Sarzo

Earlier this month, Phil of Fretted Americana rare vintage guitars in Calabasas, California conducted an interview with bass veteran Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, DIO, Blue Öyster Cult). You can now watch the chat in two parts below.

In a recent interview with Detroit Rock Blog, Sarzo was asked how his experiences playing with Quiet Riot and Whitesnake at the peak of each band's success were different from each other:

"Very, very different," he replied. "Quiet Riot was a band I was a member of from the very beginning. I was member through the Randy Rhoads era and through the 'Metal Health' era. And both (versions of) Quiet Riot struggled to make it to the very very top. We're talking about rejection from record companies even after the album 'Metal Health' was completed. We saw rejection from the industry in Los Angeles because nobody thought that record or even that genre of music was going to do anything. We're talking 1982-83. We had that record done in '82 and it was ready to hit the streets in March of 1983. From the moment we finished the record to the moment it was ready to be released by the label, we couldn't find management. So we had to beg our old manager to come back and manage us. Nobody thought the band was going to do anything. So they were different situations, coming from the very, VERY bottom with Quiet Riot to the very top.

Whereas with Whitesnake went to the peak in the U.S., Whitesnake was a very popular band already in Europe, South America, and Asia all the other major markets except for the United States. Matter of fact, Whitesnake was the opening act for Quiet Riot in 1984, which was the last tour that I did with Quiet Riot, the 'Condition Critical' tour. With Whitesnake it was different because all of the members had previously tasted success.Tommy with Ozzy, then Pat Travers, and Black Oak Arkansas.Vivian Campbell with DIO. Adrian Vandenberg with his own bandVANDENBERG. And myself. We knew how blessed we were to be in the incredible situation to be playing in Whitesnake, because we were all refugees from other situations."