RUDY SARZO: How QUIET RIOT Ended Up Becoming 'Overnight' Success With 'Metal Health'

In a new interview with "Tommy Röckit's Rhythm Nation Rock Show", former QUIET RIOT bassist Rudy Sarzo reflected on how the band became an "overnight" success with "Metal Health", the first "heavy metal" album to top the U.S. chart. He said (see video below): "[It was] serendipity. Being in the right place at the right time — with the right band.

"There was something about QUIET RIOT, and this went back to the Randy Rhoads version of the band," he continued. "We didn't care where we were playing at. We were gonna give you exactly the same show, whether we were playing for 350 thousand people at the US Festival or we were playing for 10 people in some club in the middle of the Midwest. It didn't matter.

"We had been on tour opening up for the SCORPIONS, who was one of the headliners for [1983's] US Festival. On the last day of the SCORPIONS/QUIET RIOT tour, we played Denver. Denver was the home base for the promoter, the guy who booked the US Festival, Barry Fey — that was his town. Joe Walsh originally was gonna be playing on that day — on the metal day. They moved Joe Walsh to the following day, and it leaves an opening. And this happened immediately. Joe was moved, and, 'Who are we gonna put?' And then he looks up on stage, sees QUIET RIOT and says, 'These guys are perfect. Hey, QUIET RIOT, would you like to play at the US Festival in a couple of days?' We said, 'Yes.'

"So it was a series of serepinditous events that led to us having a Number One album and huge success. Having said that, you have to have the goods — you have to have the right record, you have to have the right band, bandmembers, everything fall into place. But sometimes you have the right record and things just do not manifest."

Drummer Frankie Banali resurrected QUIET RIOT in 2010, three years after the death of founding member and singer Kevin DuBrow.

QUIET RIOT initially featured the late guitar legend Randy Rhoads and went through some early lineup shifts before securing the musicians that recorded the band's multi-platinum-selling 1983 album "Metal Health".

Bassist Chuck Wright has been a part of QUIET RIOT, on and off, since 1982, having initially been involved in the "Metal Health" recordings (he played bass on the tracks "Metal Health" and "Don't Wanna Let You Go"). Guitarist Alex Grossi was in the last version of the band, from 2004 through 2007, before Kevin passed away, and was asked by Banali to return in 2010.

QUIET RIOT went through two vocalists — Mark Huff and Scott Vokoun — before settling on Jizzy Pearl in 2013. Pearl announced his exit from QUIET RIOT in October 2016 and was briefly replaced by Seann Nichols, who played only five shows with the group before the March 2017 arrival of "American Idol" finalist James Durbin. In September 2019, Durbin quit QUIET RIOT and was replaced by a returning Pearl.

Image courtesy of Sweetwater