In 2021, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello was instrumental in getting Randy Rhoads into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, eventually inducting the late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist via the Musical Excellence Award.
As part of the celebrations, the Hall of Fame launched an exhibit showcasing items associated with the inductees, including an Ampeg Dan Armstrong guitar used by Dave Grohl, a purple embroidered suit worn by Todd Rundgren, and the red lace dress worn by Tina Turner during the making of the video for her 1984 track, Private Dancer.
Pride of place, however, went to the iconic Flying V-inspired Jackson Concorde guitar designed and played by Rhoads. And now Morello has spoken about his encounter with the historic instrument.
“His sister, who’s lovely, is very protective of all the stuff,” Morello tells Classic Rock. “It’s sealed away somewhere in a secret vault, and no one knows where it is. I’d asked her if I could see it, and she said: ‘Nobody sees it.’ You gotta respect that.
“But then she texts me one day and says: ‘Randy’s guitar is on its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it’s going to be at my house this afternoon if you’d like to come by and see it.’ But I was away on tour, so I couldn’t go.
“Cut to about a year later, and she texts me saying the guitar is at her house that afternoon, on its way back from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and now would I like to go see it? His mom didn’t want anyone else to ever play it again, but I got to hold it.
“That was pretty emotional for me. The crazy thing was that the leather guitar strap still smelled of cigarette smoke. He was performing up until the day he died, so the strap had smoke from 1982 left in it.”
The full Tom Morello feature, in which he talks about encounters with Lemmy, Gene Simmons, Vince Vaughan, Jack Black, Joan Baez, Neil Young and others, is available in the new issue of Classic Rock.