Kelly Garni Not So Quiet About The Quiet Riot Days

Quiet Riot
Kevin Dubrow, Drew Forsyth, Kelly Garni, Randy Rhoads

Kelly Garni, an original member of American metal band Quiet Riot, is paying tribute to his best friend Randy Rhoads (who was also in some ways a brother) by starting a website (RandyRhoads.us) to commemorate his life.

He met Randy as a young kid in school and instantly became friends and "brothers". Randy, who was already a great guitarist at a young age, convinced Kelly to “take up the bass guitar instead keyboards, because it was too heavy to haul around” recalls Garni.

With that advice, Kelly acquired a bass guitar and Randy started teaching him how to play it. They eventually started Quiet Riot. Circumstances eventually led Kelly and Randy to leave the band at different times. History tells us about the days Randy spent with Ozzy Osbourne during his solo career, but less is known about early Quiet Riot and the time Kelly and Randy spent during and after Quiet Riot.

Kelly spent some time with RockStar Weekly to go into great detail about his relationship with Randy Rhoads, Kevin DuBrow and even Kelly Rhoads (who Kelly is playing with now). He also tells the fascinating story of an 8 string bass guitar that makes him feel like Randy is playing right there with him on stage. So sit back, relax, and get to know Randy Rhodes and Kelly Garni a bit better.

You’ve launched a new Randy Rhodes website. What brought that on?

How has the site been doing?

What was your relationship with Randy like?

So you were more like brothers?

When Randy made it big with Ozzy, you must have been proud?

Was Randy a guitar gearhead or was he just someone that loved to play?

You were there, so we want to ask. Was there something that Randy did with the guitar or a certain technique that made him so unique and cool.

How did you write and play bass to compliment some of those incredible licks?

Kevin was the voice of 80s rock. We were lucky enough to have taken some studio shots of Kevin in late 2006 and he didn’t seem to be the bad boy of rock anymore.

That was a bit of a shock when he died in 2007.

Tell me about the early days of Quiet Riot, is there something you could tell me that no-one knows.

When you were in the band it was still a fairly unknown act. Was it a struggle to survive back then?

What happened that had you leave the band after the second album?

How did you get into photography?

What got you back into music?

You mentioned that there is going to be a famous bass. Can you tell me more about the guitar?

What does this bass mean to you?

I can see how it would remind you that he’s always with you.

Did you take any photos back in the Quiet Riot days? Fans would love to see that.

What other famous bands or people have you taken photos of?

Do you have your own gallery?