This song is great, but it always makes me contemplate the irony in it.
As he was accustomed to doing, Randy Rhodes shredded up a storm on this particular track on what turned out to be his last album with Ozzy (or ever for that matter), "Diary of a Madman".
Rhodes ended up meeting an early death while on tour in Florida with Ozzy and company in March of 1982.
"Randy Rhoads played his last show on Thursday, March 18, 1982 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee. The next day, the band was headed to a festival in Orlando, Florida. After driving much of the night, they stopped on the property belonging to Jerry Calhoun, owner of "Florida Coach", in Leesburg, Florida. On it, there was a small airstrip lined with small helicopters and planes, and two houses. One belonged to the tour bus driver Andrew Aycock, and the other was owned by Calhoun. Aycock, a licensed pilot, talked the band's keyboardist Don Airey, into taking a test flight with him in a '55 Beechcraft Bonanza. By some accounts the manager Jake Duncan, was also on this first flight. The joyride ended and the plane landed safely. Then Aycock took Rhoads and hairdresser/seamstress Rachel Youngblood on another flight. Rhoads was persuaded to go on the second flight, despite his fear of flying.
Rhoads apparently agreed to go for two reasons: the seamstress had a heart condition so Aycock agreed to do nothing risky, and Rhoads wanted to take an aerial photo as one of his hobbies was photography. During the second flight, attempts were made to "buzz" the tour bus where the other band members were sleeping.[5] They succeeded twice, but the third attempt was botched. The left wing clipped the back side of the tour bus, tore the fiberglass roof then sent the plane spiraling. The plane severed the top of a pine tree and crashed into the garage of a nearby mansion, bursting into flames. Rhoads was killed instantly, as were Aycock (36) and Youngblood (58). All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and were identified by dental records and Rhoads' jewelry.
It was later revealed in an autopsy that Aycock's system showed traces of cocaine at the time. Rhoads' toxicology test revealed only nicotine. The NTSB investigation determined that Aycock's medical certificate had expired and that his biennial flight review, required for all pilots, was overdue.[6] In Ozzy Osbourne's autobiography, I Am Ozzy, he writes that the night of Rhoads' death, he told his wife, Sharon: "I don't think I want to be a rock 'n' roller anymore". Rhoads' funeral was held at the First Lutheran Church in Burbank, California. He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery[7] in San Bernardino, California, where his grandparents are also buried."
Kind of brings new meaning to "Flying High Again" huh?
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2087
