On February 2, 1990, Christi’s brother Keith and I travelled from their home in Beavercreek to Fairborn to meet two guys from the heavy metal band Whitesnake. These members were Adrian Vandenberg and Rudy Sarzo and they were making an appearance at the music store Absolute Music (not a record store, but a store that sells musical instruments) in support of their 1989 album Slip of the Tongue.
I was never a huge Whitesnake fan, so I opted to take the cheap way out and have them sign my CD of their self-titled Whitesnake album (the one that had their number one hit song “Here I Go Again” on it), despite the fact that neither Sarzo nor Vandenberg had played on it. I also ripped a page from a recent copy of “Metal Edge” magazine for them to sign (see below).
In addition, I had Rudy Sarzo sign a Quiet Riot 45rpm picture sleeve and my cassette of Ozzy Osborne’s Blizzard of Oz and Quiet Riot’s Metal Health. He had graduated from both of these bands. Hair metal ruled in those days!
It was more than 20 years later when I ran into Rudy Sarzo again. He was making an appearance at the Chiller Theatre show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 30, 2011. I was resigned to just getting a picture taken with him, but when I saw the cool montage below – for $10, no less – I opted to pick that up too.
He was a very nice guy, and we chatted briefly about the time I had met him in the past. When I told him that it was at ‘a guitar store in Fairborn’, he immediately remembered the year that he had been there. Cool guy, and based on the number of very famous acts with whom he performed, a legendary heavy metal hero.
Meeting the dude from Whitesnake again – over 20 years later
Return to the 1990’s here…
Celebrities of the Spring 2011 Chiller Theatre show will continue…
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