Former Ozzy Osbourne bass player Bob Daisley recently talked about Rhoads’ passion for incorporating more classical-leaning flavors into his compositions.

“Diary of a Madman came about because everywhere we went, he’d find a classical guitar teacher, and he was practicing a piece called Etude that his tutor had given him,” Daisley said in an interview with Johnny Beane.

“He was turning that into an intro for a song. It was an embellishment, or an elaboration, of the exercise that he was doing.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Sarzo confirms Daisley’s story of Rhoads frantically looking for teachers at every tour stop. “Once he got the Guitar Player Magazine ‘New Best Guitar Player’ [vote in December 1981] he said, ‘I got to take this to the next level.’

“He started taking guitar lessons in every city that we played at. We’d check in early at the hotel and Randy’s with the Yellow Pages, looking for ads for a music school and a guitar store or something like that. And then he would go.

“Usually he would end up giving the lesson to whoever was teaching because it is Randy Rhoads, but he never lost that [drive]. It became his mission. How can I be the best guitar player, the best composer, the best Randy Rhoads?”