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So imagine you’re a kid growing up in Southern California in the 1970's and your best friend is Randy Rhoads. One day walking home from school Randy says "Hey, let's start a band and rock the planet!" ~ And then the rest is rock n' roll history.

Well, that fantasy was reality for bassist Kelly Garni. He was one of the original founding members of QUIET RIOT along with his childhood friend Randy Rhoads (Guitarist BLIZZARD OF OZZ). Kelly would be the first to admit he's just another rock n' roller with one foot in the grave and still alive to tell about it. He would also tell you his best friend Randy Rhoads is exactly that, his best friend. In Kelly's eyes, Randy is not some sort of Guitar God to slap up on a pedestal and worship. He's his childhood friend and the blood brother he never had. At one time they were just a couple kids jamming on Alice Cooper Records after school discovering music and the meaning of life together. Together they grew their wings as young artists as they began their onslaught with QUIET RIOT igniting the local Hollywood Rock Scene in the pre MOTLEY CRUE days with their colorful counterparts VAN HALEN. And then of course we all know what happens next! ~ Or do you really?

KNAC chats exclusively with Kelly about his new book "Angel's With Dirty Faces", his true untold story of life on and off Sunset Strip in the glory days with his polka dot axe wielding partner in crime Randy Rhoads.

KNAC.COM:: So you’re the guy that shot at my favorite guitar player?

GARNI: : (Laughs) Well, it's nothing what they made it out to be. Gosh I wasn't looking for publicity or anything, I was telling a little story and soon as they put it in the magazine and then my world went ballistic. People were like "Oh man you tried to kill Randy Rhoads?" I'm like "Umm no I didn't." The gun was never pointed at Randy, we were arguing about Kevin and I asked him to leave and he wouldn't leave so I pulled out the gun pointed at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. Then he got mad and charged me and the fight was on, it was nothing extraordinary. The whole time I was friends with Randy we'd probably gotten into 12 to 15 fist fights.

KNAC.COM:: Wow, you guys used to drop the gloves a lot.

GARNI: : Yeah it's just kid stuff. Everybody made such a big deal out of it like "Oh my God it's Randy Rhoads!" That's the thing, I understand people like to put him on the pedestal like Jesus Christ or something. That’s great, but he's my friend. I don't have him on a pedestal and if somebody pisses me off I pull guns (laughs). I don't anymore, that's just how it was back then.

KNAC.COM:: What motivated you to write "Angels With Dirty Faces" and tell your story?

GARNI: : I knew I was going to have to write this book someday because I had a perspective that no one else had. It took me two and a half years to write and it was not fun at all. I was approached by some big rock book publishers that wanted to put it out as an e-book and I said "No. I like paper, ink and the smell of a book when it's old, so I want a real book!" So my current publisher Andrew Carlson at Darkhouse was willing to work with me on that.

KNAC.COM:: How did you come up with the title?

GARNI: : It was originally an old 1940's "Bowery Boys" movie. I always liked the title and since an "Angelic" image has been painted of Randy over the years, I thought it very appropriate. We weren't bad kids, we just made up our own rules.

KNAC.COM:: So you grew up with Randy in the early 70's riding bikes and skateboards?

GARNI: : Well, not exactly. Our main thing was the music. That's what really bonded us. We became good friends simply by meeting. Neither of us really had any friends. Randy didn't own a bike. We had those Flexy Flyer wheeled sleds and we liked those a lot. So that was really the only kinda play things we did.

KNAC.COM:: You lived in the same neighborhood?

GARNI: : Yes, we lived right around the corner from each other in Burbank. Went to school together in the same grade and everybody in school despised both of us. We gravitated towards each other because of that. He was so heavily into music and I wanted to share that with him. So I said "Well lets get me playing something" and he suggested a bass. So we went out and stole a bass and started practicing all the time.

KNAC.COM:: Did you play baseball or any youth sports together?

GARNI: : No, we never did anything like that. In the 7th grade we were forced in school to put a soccer team together. And that team never lost one game, we were the basically the Champions and the jocks couldn't figure it out.

KNAC.COM:: Who had all the albums, you or Randy?

GARNI: : Neither one us at first because we were so young and didn't have any money. I had a little stereo at home, and the only stereo he had in his house was his sister Kathy's. She would occasionally let us use it, but we couldn't play loud music and learn off it. Basically we didn't have anything to play records on but that didn't stop us from eventually buying them.

KNAC.COM:: What were your first favorite records?

GARNI: : There was one record that we really wanted which was a bootleg of Alice Cooper Live at the Hollywood Bowl which was a show we had both gone to. That's back when record stores would sell a bootlegs and it was just a white plain card board cover with a Xerox Artwork Sleeve slipped into the cellophane. That was probably our most listened to record. The records we were listening to were like David Bowie and Johnny Winter Live. That was a great record that we listened to all the time. And of course anything Alice Cooper we could get our hands on.

KNAC.COM:: Where did you and Randy see your first concert? Do you remember how much you paid for your ticket?

GARNI: : Alice Cooper at the Long Beach Arena was our first show. I believe our tickets were $12. My favorite place to see bands back then was at the Hollywood Palladium. We saw Alice there as well and David Bowie with West, Bruce and Laing as the opening act.

KNAC.COM:: Talk about sitting down one on one with Randy playing guitars.

GARNI: : In the very beginning I had no idea what I was doing. Before we got the bass, he had a special Army Navy Gibson Acoustic Guitar. He told me just to play the first four strings on it. We would jam like that and he was just learning his leads. He hadn't learned how to play lead yet. With me there, he would teach me little patterns and I'd play them and he would practice his leads over the patterns.

KNAC.COM:: (Laughs) You were Randy’s first loop sampler! What were some of the first cover tunes you guys jammed on?

GARNI: : We learned the entire Alice Cooper Love it to Death album, David Bowie Spiders From Mars. There was one album called West Bruce and Laing. Lesley West (Guitarist/Vocals MOUNTAIN), Jack Bruce (Bassist CREAM) and Corky Laing on drums. They had a song called "Why don't cha". We loved that song so we learned it. We just picked up songs here and there. Randy had a great ear, so if we heard something on the radio we liked, he basically went right home and learned it. It wasn't that way at first, but eventually it got to that point.

KNAC.COM:: When did Randy start getting heavy into playing diminished and harmonic minors scales? Was that Eddie Van Halen influenced?

GARNI: : It's hard to say when Randy started doing anything. The scales Randy used were from Glen Buxton (Guitarist Alice Cooper) and Mick Ronson (Guitarist David Bowie). If Randy was influenced by Eddie Van Halen, it wasn't in his formative years.

KNAC.COM:: Where you with Randy when he bought his white Les Paul?

GARNI: : Um, no because he wasn't there! (chuckles) The way that Les Paul came about was Randy had expressed some interest in it. So our manager for QUIET RIOT at the time Dennis Wageman went out and bought it for him. We rehearsed at our managers house, so when we showed up to rehearse Dennis had put the Les Paul on his bed and told Randy to go into his room to get something. When Randy went in there, there was the Les Paul.

KNAC.COM:: Whoa ~ That's a cool story.

GARNI: : Yeah. Well kinda (Laughing). At the time I had access to this one bass cabinet Dennis owned that augmented my set up great. He didn't have quite enough money for Randy's Les Paul, so he took that cabinet unbeknownst to me and used it to trade in against the Les Paul. So I was out a cabinet, but Randy got a guitar. And I threw a minor fit about it, but he was so happy to get that guitar it didn't really matter.

KNAC.COM:: That guitar became famous.

GARNI: : Yeah, the guitar became part of him. That Les Paul is Randy Rhoads!

KNAC.COM:: Did you guys frequent Denny's on Sunset?

GARNI: : Yeah, we mostly went to Denny's. We thought everyone went there to eat, but all they did was throw food around (Laughs).

KNAC.COM:: You've saved personal items from growing up with Randy like school notes and band flyers, are you sharing any those in your new book?

GARNI: : Yes! My book was going to be loaded with pictures like this other book that was just put out by the people involved in this Randy Documentary that never happened, so they managed to put out a picture book. That book is by no means the Bible on Randy Rhoads. Certain people were given room to speak and really went for that Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame that we're all promised. I can't tell you enough how much these people weren’t apart of anything that was going on back then and weren’t there for 99.9% of what they're talking about.

KNAC.COM:: What are your thoughts on writers publishing cookie cutter books?

GARNI: : They don't really ying my yang. I don't think those guys are real writers. They make their living by going out writing what other people wrote and that's not a writer (Laughs).

KNAC.COM:: One writer said you called him a cunt!?!

GARNI: : I did! I never say no to interviews, I'm always willing to talk with somebody about Randy. That's the main thing is to keep his name and legacy alive. I do a lot of interviews so it's hard to keep them all straight.

KNAC.COM:: Was it hard to find a singer back in the early days?

GARNI: : Eventually that became very problematic for me and Randy because we were so young and we knew what we wanted. We wanted an Alice Cooper guy! We wanted to be the next Alice Cooper Show out there. So to find somebody that looked that way and looked that weird for the decade for that time in music. They were pretty few and far between. There wasn't a lot of freaks around, if they were, they were hippies or something. We wanted somebody like Alice, and you just couldn't find a guy like that. A couple times we tried to invent people like that. Here we are 15 years old and we're calling up some guy that's 25 who had an ad in the Recycler or the bulletin board at Guitar Center and his attitude is like "What are these little kids bugging me for?" We're calling him saying "Well we'll come over and hear you but we're going to have to see if we can get a ride." And they're like "Screw these little kids!" But once they heard us then it was a different story. Then it was like "Oh ok, so you guys are good! OK now I'm interested! And then our age didn't matter. Getting to point A from B was sometimes a little difficult for us. There was an odd period in me and Randy's early history where we had a girl singer. Her name was Paulette and I had the hots for her, but of course she had the hots for Randy and that was normal. My parents at the time ran a restaurant on Magnolia and Burbank and they let me and Randy rehearse in there because the restaurant wasn't built yet. It was right across the street from the new K Rock Station and we longed for the day we could actually hear ourselves on that station since it was in Burbank and we could get that station in clear.

KNAC.COM:: Did you and Randy listen to KNAC Radio in your early days?

GARNI: : Absolutely! That of course was the premier rock station for L.A. at that time. We lived up on the hill in Burbank, we had such a hard time getting radio reception. I remember one time we were using Randy's mom's clock radio trying to get KNAC really bad because we wanted to hear a new Alice Cooper song called "I Love The Dead" so we could learn it. We couldn't afford the album yet, so we tried as hard as we could to dial in KNAC. We got to hear half the song and we were able to play it after that.

KNAC.COM:: So eventually you finally found a singer and began rehearsing at your managers house?

GARNI: : Yes, once we got Kevin in the band, things kinda started happening for QUIET RIOT. He got us a manager and we started rehearsing at his house in Van Nuys.

KNAC.COM:: Who were some of the bands you played with on Sunset Strip? Did you play with VAN HALEN?

GARNI: : We played with VAN HALEN once in the Valley. On the strip we played with bands like WOLFGANG, SISTER and EULOGY" who eventually became bands like AUTOGRAPH, WASP, and RATT." I used to look down from the stage and see the MOTLEY CRUE guys standing in front of me.

KNAC.COM:: You still have Randy's thumbnail he broke off in your infamous band break up brawl?

GARNI: : Yes. The thumbnail was used in a bass I had made as a tribute to Randy by Perry Ormsby in Australia. The thumbnail is prominently displayed in the head stock. I had to sell the guitar because there was nothing I could do with it. I was first threatened for even having it made. Then I was getting info that people were planning a home invasion on me to steal it. I kept it hidden all the time, I could never tour with it. It's now part of a collection that is quite extensive. It was just better that I didn't have it.

KNAC.COM:: Did you save old tapes from jamming with Randy?

GARNI: : Nope! There was really not much that existed. We didn't have things like tape players. Tape players and video came a lot later. The one rehearsal I did have someone stole from my house and by the time I got it back along with my other stuff, it had been erased. I sent it to 2 of the best date recovery places in the country and neither one could get the contents back. One said they think it got put in a microwave oven.

KNAC.COM:: Was that a QUIET RIOT rehearsal?

GARNI: : Yes. One day I went over to Kevin's and he gave me a CD and said "Here I made this for you! It's a whole QUIET RIOT rehearsal recorded at their mangers house on a boom box." You could hear us writing the songs and jamming. At the time I thought "Well that sounds totally boring, well ok thank you!" And I didn't think anything of it. I listened to it for about 2 or 3 minutes, put it away and never listened to it again. A number of items were stolen from me during the filming of this so called Randy Documentary, and that was one of the items. After two years I finally recovered that CD along with all my stolen property. The person who did this was very vindictive for example there was a statue about a foot tall that Randy actually made of me out of clay. Most people don't have a statue of themselves crafted by Randy Rhoads. I did and that was one of the items that they stole, when they gave it back to me they had smashed it into a thousand pieces. It was quite obvious it had been done maliciously. I did get my statue pain stakingly resurrected.

KNAC.COM:: Did you talk to Randy before his Ozzy audition?

GARNI: : I didn't talk to him much around that time because was out of the band and going to Paramedic School. I studied at night and had no free time to hang out. I didn't have that many friends after I left QUIET RIOT, all my friends were in that circle and once I left the band that was it. Once I graduated school I wasn't home much, I was in an ambulance working long hours.

KNAC.COM:: Did you save any lives?

GARNI: : Of course. I couldn't tell you how many. You never just keep track of that kind of thing. It's like asking a musician "So how many gigs have you done?" I can tell you things like I delivered 8 babies! I kept track of that. But how many people died on me? I do not know. How many peoples lives did I save? I have no idea. Those are numbers you just don't tally.

KNAC.COM:: USC County Hospital is crazy place on a Saturday Night.

GARNI: : There's quite a bit written about that place in my book actually, I spent a lot of time there. It's a rough place.

KNAC.COM:: So then when did you actually first hear Blizzard of Ozz?

GARNI: : Randy played it for me in his room at his house. That's the first time I heard it.

KNAC.COM:: Wow ~ Would you have joined BLIZZARD OF OZZ with Randy if Ozzy had asked you?

GARNI: : Yup! Let me put it this way, where Randy went, I would have gone! Quite frankly as much as I hated Kevin Dubrow at the time, I might have seen the Ozzy thing as an even bigger problem than Kevin was.

KNAC.COM:: When was the first time you saw Randy play with Ozzy?

GARNI: : He came to Las Vegas and I went to the show at the Aladdin Theater.

KNAC.COM:: When was the last time you saw Randy?

GARNI: : That was the only time I saw him play with Ozzy and the last time I saw him alive. Randy was always gone all over the world while I was just gone in somebody else’s world in the back of an ambulance. We were in two totally different worlds

. KNAC.COM:: Did you and Randy hang out in Las Vegas while he was in town?

GARNI: : Yeah, actually we had a lot of fun here! He got in the day before the show and called me up, so I went down to Caesars Palace and picked him up. We hung out all night until the sun came up. Funny part was, soon as he got in the car and we started driving around the strip he became interested in all the buffets. He wanted to go to buffets. I said "Well alright!" And a little while later he'd see a sign for a different $1.99 buffet and he'd say "Let's go to that one!" I'd reply "Why? It's the same as the last one!" And he'd say "Oh their sign looks better." (Laughs) So by the morning we ended up going to 5 different buffets and we don't even eat that much.

KNAC.COM:: He was probably sick of British food. Does anything stand out in your mind from that night?

GARNI: : Probably the most significant thing at the time was, I lived in a three bedroom house. We drove back to my house because he didn't have any clothes with him. When he showed up in Las Vegas all he had on was a pair of shorts, some sandals and a half a t-shirt. I said "You can't go out like that, I still have some of your clothes at my house and you can wear those." So we went to my house and he was just amazed because he looked around and said "Wow, I would give anything to have a place like this!" And I replied "Well, and I'd give anything to have your life." Randy said "Well, it's not all that great. I'd love to have something like this where you could just be by yourself and it's nice and quiet and people just leave you alone." And I replied "Yeah that's pretty much what we got a lot of around here."

KNAC.COM:: What did you think seeing Randy perform live with Ozzy?

GARNI: : As far as his ability, nothing really stood out to me. I was so use to listening to him over the years that it just sounds like Randy playing to me. Say if you had a wife and she's talking, it's just your used to hearing it.

KNAC.COM:: A familiar voice.

GARNI: : Yeah, everything was just very familiar to me. I wasn't like knocked out, but it was nice to see him on a big stage. Clearly he had moved up in the world, but it was nothing that I didn't expect him to do. Of course that's where he's going to be.

KNAC.COM:: If Randy were alive, what do you think he would be doing right now? Maybe he would be back his Mom's music school teaching?

GARNI: : He wouldn't be in Ozzy I guess. I'm sure he'd be doing his own thing as a solo artist. Maybe teaching to. It's really hard to say what he would be doing because he had a relatively short life. He was going in one direction yet he seemed to want to go in the opposite direction.

KNAC.COM:: Did you ever catch wind that Randy wanted to leave Ozzy and he couldn't because he was bound in a contract? Did that make you angry considering he was killed in the plane crash?

GARNI: : I've never had any anger towards anyone in the Ozzy camp over this crash business. In fact, I think people have too many speculations and an unhealthy obsession with the crash. It was an accident pure and simple. No one persons fault. The amount of energy put into "theories" is ridiculous. As far as Randy's fear of flying, it was basically non existent. By the time of the crash, Randy was all too comfortable with flying, I was once afraid of flying too, but after a stint of always having to fly somewhere, I just got used to it. Certainly Randy preferred trains. I do too. But the time comes when you have to accept the fact you might as well get used to it. Also he was quite excited to fly on the Concord. He even named a guitar after it. I was not aware at the time that Randy was even trying to leave that band. The only person I can find any bad feeling for in that whole deal is myself. Perhaps if things had turned out differently, me and Randy might have gone in a different direction from QUIET RIOT and he would have bypassed the Ozzy gig, and he would be here today. I very firmly believe his style would have taken the exact direction it did and he would have still been a huge influence. It just would have gone down different if I had been around.

KNAC.COM:: If Randy always had wanted to be in an Alice Cooper type act, why do you think he wanted to leave Ozzy? Was it because he wanted to be part of a BAND and not be a hired gun?

GARNI: : It would be easy to think that Randy found a home in Ozzy, he is a bit like Alice in some regards. The music clearly shows Randy leaning in an Alice direction. To be honest, Randy never really discussed it me with the exception of when he first told me about it. Our general feeling was that Ozzy was even further away from Alice than QUIET RIOT. Most of Randy's reservations in Ozzy were based on the general dynamics going on behind the scenes. I know Randy really was happy playing with Bob Daisley (Bassist Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, URIAH HEEP) and Lee Kerslake (Drummer Ozzy Osbourne, URIAH HEEP). But our longtime perception of Ozzy was something that could be overcome in our minds. Add to that the usual record company money bullshit and usual general confusion as to the bands direction, and all the cancelled shows. Well, it wasn't too different than QUIET RIOT. And I know he was sick of all that shit.

KNAC.COM:: Have you ever been to the plane crash site in Leese, Florida?

GARNI: : I would never, ever, ever go there! And I don't understand why people do.

KNAC.COM:: If the guy flying the plane had survived the crash, what would you say to him?

GARNI: : I would never have any reason to talk with him. I don't need closure, I have no questions. I would only feel bad for the guy, had he survived he would have been fucked up for life. Again, this was an accident.

KNAC.COM:: Have you been in Randy's room since he passed away?

GARNI: : I have not been in his room since he died. I really don't want to go in there. Too many memories.

KNAC.COM:: Do you think a lot about those early days when you and Randy were just kids?

GARNI: : Of course I think about them, and then writing this book just totally took me back there.

KNAC.COM:: How has the loss of Kevin and Randy changed your outlook on life?

GARNI: : (Pauses) More so than anything, I don't have my friends anymore. (Pauses) So that's what I notice. It's a sad thing for me.

KNAC.COM:: Do you ever receive little signs from them? Like see an occasional Randy t-shirt just to let you know he's there?

GARNI: : Yeah, that happens all the time! It's like maybe they're messing with you. Something good happens in my life and I think they're watching over me.

KNAC.COM:: His family gather each March 19th to celebrate his life with friends, fans and music.

GARNI: : Yes. It's been 30 years since he passed away and I've been to 27 of them. The 3 times I missed I was sick, working or in Japan doing this tribute tour. Anytime I'm on my way into California, I always drop by the cemetery.

KNAC.COM:: Do you ever stumble upon fans there visiting Randy?

GARNI: : Actually I do! Yeah, that happens all the time. I'll show up and there will be somebody there, or while I'm there, somebody shows up. It's very cool and I like to see that.

KNAC.COM:: You've played with Randy's older brother Kelle Rhoads?

GARNI: : Yeah, we've done quite a few shows together me and him with guitarist Ronnie North. We did one or two QUIET RIOT tunes and some Ozzy stuff. I don't do the tribute shows anymore. I'm more about the band that I'm in now GOD MOTHER OF SOUL.

KNAC.COM:: Talk a little about your new project.

GARNI: : G.M.O.S. is fronted by Tomi Rae Brown, she's the window of James Brown and toured with him for 16 years. Her and I have a big history together because I've known her a long time. When she moved to L.A. she hooked up with Kevin Dubrow and they dated so she's been in and out of my life all my life. Having performed with James Brown for so many years she developed the ability to sing unbelievably good. With that we formed this band. We mainly do just rock and soul.

KNAC.COM:: So how are people going to feel after they read your book?

GARNI: : Well, a great deal of the book deals with 2 boys chasing a dream to grow up and be rock stars and that's how I felt. In the end it turns out to be more of a nightmare than a dream. My book is about the separation of roads that Randy and I were on. He went to the left fork in the road and I went to the right. Even though we went our separate ways, our friendship bond was there and will remain forever. That's basically what my book is about.

KNAC.COM:: You've spent quite a few Holidays partying with Randy. Anyone of those stand out in particular?

GARNI: : We usually played somewhere. There was one Christmas we spent together, I bought us round trip train tickets to San Clemente for Christmas one year. That was really a great memory for me.

KNAC.COM:: I noticed a photo of Randy with a dog in his Ozzy Tribute CD jacket. Was he a big animal lover or have a dog growing up?

GARNI: : It's my understanding Randy did have a dog named "Bonehead" on tour with him. It would be an understatement to say he was a dog lover. He loved them, and his family always had one when he was growing up.

KNAC.COM:: If you could go back and live one night with Randy, what would it be?

GARNI: : Any night would do, even the night we had our fight, and I wouldn't change anything. The day/night we spent together in Vegas when he was here with Ozzy was sure great. We had become different people by that point in our lives, but the bond we always had was still there and we even acknowledged it.

KNAC.COM:: So looking back on it all, do you think you've earned your wings?

GARNI: : I suppose, um I have a lot of titles. Some of which I may not deserve and some of which I do I suppose. I'm just more focused on what I'm doing now and until I make some things happen with that, I personally won't feel like I've done anything.

Kelly Garni Website - http://www.kellygarni.com/
Order "Angels With Dirty Faces" - http://www.legendarybydarkhorse.com/