Ozzy Honors Randy

Throughout the Tour’s second leg launching tonight in Minneapolis, Osbourne is honoring the late guitarist Randy Rhoads by stocking every tour stop’s VIP room with plenty of vino bearing the axeman’s name. Produced by Rhoads’s sister, Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio in California’s Sonoma County, the Cabernet Sauvignon is a 2005 vintage with proceeds going to the Randy Rhoads Charitable Trust.

While the wine is offered at every VIP room on the tour, it’s the Los Angeles stop where it almost rivals Ozzy as the headliner. That’s because the Feb. 1 show at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal CityWalk will feature a one-time Randy Rhoads VIP Wine Room where members of the Rhoads family will be on hand along with a special space dedicated to the guitarist and featuring photos and videos of his performances.

Coinciding with the L.A. show is Gibson’s release of the Randy Rhoads Gibson Les Paul Guitar. To recreate Rhoad’s instrument of choice, Gibson re-created all of the original guitar’s details, including mother-of-pearl block fingerboard inlays and the split-diamond headstock inlay. The manufacturer is also proud of the guitar’s finish, dubbed “Randy Rhoads White,” which is intended to make the guitar look as if it’s been around for three decades.

A limited-edition instrument, the first 100 Randy Rhoads Gibson Les Pauls were aged by hand while another 200 were finished using the manufacturer’s VOS process. As with the wine, sales of the guitar will benefit the Randy Rhoads Charitable Trust.

Meanwhile, a limited number of meet-n-greet packages and “possessed party” packages for Ozzy Osbourne’s tour are still available. For more information, visit Ozzy.com.