13th Floor’s Marty Duda Remembers Randy and Ozzy

Time for a walk down memory lane… little did I know that 40 years ago I was helping to making a little rock & roll history with Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads.

At age 25 I was fresh out of University, freshly married and freshly a dad working as a TV technician at WUHF-TV (Channel 31) a new independent station that had gone on the air just the previous year in Rochester, NY.

Now, in addition to my full-time gig at Channel 31, I was also a part time jock at WCMF-FM, doing overnights on the weekend.

So, it was just a matter of time before I put two and two together and proposed producing a music TV show that would be simulcast on WCMF in glorious stereo.

To my great surprise I somehow pulled it off and After Hours was born.

This was an hour-long show with a mix of live music (recorded in our studio) and music video clips (MTV had just hit the air).

In addition to bands like The Psychedelic Furs, The Good Rats and Steve Hackett (along with local favourites New Math, Pearl and The Hi Techs) we scored Ozzy Osbourne and his band who came in to record a “Video Session”.

The reason this stands out is because it was a young guitarist by the name of Randy Rhoads who was a part of Ozzy’s band, along with drummer Tommy Aldridge (formerly of Black Oak Arkansas) and bass player Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot). They were carrying a keyboard player, Don Airey (now in Deep Purple) who the band seemed to loathe…and we were asked not to show his face by Ozzy’s people.

What brings this all up is that I was recently contacted by a Metal Podcaster named Jon Verno, who asked me if he could talk to me about this “historic” event. I thought, “Why not?”

Jon has just posted the interview… click here to find it.

I thought I would share it with my 13^th Floor family along with a few memories.

We recorded the session in a small studio in downtown Rochester, New York… I think we had three cameras…you can see cameraman Mark Phillips with his RCA TK-76 in the shadows next to Tommy Aldridge if you look closely.

We had a small studio audience and it was LOUD in there. The fans were sitting right on top of the Marshall stacks and the tubes were vibrating in the cameras…you can see the horizontal lines.

My “fondest” memory is dealing with Ozzy when he was about to go on. Even back then he was accompanied by Sharon Arden who was his manager and later his wife. Ozzy was concerned about his throat so asked if he could have some mouthwash to gargle. We found some Listerine, handed him the bottle. I watched in astonishment as he guzzled it down! What a guy!

Publisher’s note: What Marty DIDN’T see was what happened immediately following! I was working backstage trying to control the chaos, when Ozzy came running directly at me – his eyes bulging and his hands over his mouth as he was about to explode. Directly on me! I managed to grab him and hold him back. Spied a filthy janitor’s sink a few metres away and dragged him there in the nick of time. I held his hair and rubbed his back while he puked his guts out. When he was done, he straightened up, grinning sheepishly. “So sorry Miss! Back home we have stuff that tastes like cherries!” And off he went… (Veronica McLaughlin)

It was a long shoot. Ozzy’s voice was cracking (its since been “fixed” in post by Ozzy’s people). We shot the interview segments with Ozzy at the CMF studios. Randy was very quiet… I don’t remember having much interaction with him as it was all about Ozzy.

But watch the video and it is clear that Randy was on fire. I’m so proud to have been part of this.

They cut four songs: I Don’t Know, Crazy Train, Suicide Solution and Mr Crowley.

Now, 40 years later, I have my own studio (about the same size as Channel 31’s) and we shoot bands here all the time.

We’ve had some seriously great artists up at The 13^th Floor Studio, but no one like Randy Rhoads.

Marty Duda