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The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Rudy Sarzo Part 1 | The Magnificent Others

The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan

Music, Arts, Performing Arts

4.6731 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Billy Corgan sits down with legendary bassist Rudy Sarzo for Part 1 of a sweeping, emotional journey from Havana to Hollywood, escaping Castro’s Cuba, discovering the Beatles, and finding identity through rock. Sarzo recounts his path from Miami and New Jersey club bands to Chicago glam dreams and, finally, Los Angeles, where Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads, and a fateful call from Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne led to a whirlwind “Crazy Train” audition that changed his life. Along the way, he shares stories of faith, spiritual awakening, and the belief that rock’s true power lies in its brotherhood and integrity.


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I said, I want to be in your band and say, well, we have too many guitar players. If you want to join, you've got to play bass and then go, what's that? They say, oh, there's nobody wants to play bass. I could adapt. I became very adaptable. That's one of the things that I learned when I was very young. I must adapt. But it's like we're going to make it and nobody wants us. Little heart breaks. Yeah. Oh, painful.

0:27.2

Well, that's rockin' roll, right?

0:28.5

It's like, what are you gonna do?

0:30.9

Kevin DeBron says to Paul and he says,

0:32.3

hey Rudy, this is somebody calling you on a call.

0:35.1

What are you nose-to-mouthing?

0:36.0

Yeah, that's right.

0:37.0

Hello.

0:38.0

The old high Rudy, this is Sharon.

0:40.4

All these managers, the Randy tells me about you and we want you to come out to audition.

0:46.9

Then I'll see how it gets up on stage.

0:48.2

We play the songs again.

0:51.2

And I'll see turns to me and says,

0:52.3

Hey man, do you want the gig?

0:55.3

Listen, yes.

0:57.9

And my life went into the Pan-Avision color.

1:01.9

I had that.

1:02.9

I'm gonna be.

1:03.9

It was like, wow. I'm in this world now. Boom. So nice to see you. Thank you for being on my show. Oh, my place. All right, here we go, right? Okay. Rodolfo Maxi Lano. Maxi Minano. Thank you. Sarso Laviel. Grande. Grande Ruiz. Hi-ray. Shaman. Shaman. Yeah. Oh, my ancestors. What a beautiful name. Well, it's too long for an email. So it's like, I'm at. So actually, that was my birth name, you know, an in Cuba being a Catholic country. Is that normal? Yeah, you get all your ancestors name and then you, uh, Maximiliano is my saint day. You know, there's like, you know, I'm saying Patrick, right? Yeah. So mine was Maximiliano. And so, but what was he known known for? St. Maximiliano. That's a bass player. The bass playing scene. That's right. Anyway, cut you off. Okay. Do you want to know the origin? No, no, I didn't. I mean, you got changed. So we moved from Cuba to the United States and in Miami, we became Rudolph. Okay. You know, okay. So a couple of years later, from 61 to 63, we were relocated to West New York, New Jersey. Okay. My first day in school, I arrived late in the school year. So they gave me the last seat in the back. And so I'm putting my books away and I hear it really, really. I'm like, who's Rudy? What is that? What's wrong with the teacher? Who's the yelling? Who's the yelling at? So I look up and he goes, yes, you. And I go, oh, Rudolph is this? No,'re rooting from now on. Now, today that tissue we're getting fire because of you, because the... My broke actually. Yeah. But 60 years ago, that was normal, you know. So this is a partialist, but quiet riot. I was the Osborne White Snake, Manic Eden, Dio, Blueuestre Cole, Jeff Tate's Queensrike, Devil City Angels and the Guessu. Yeah, Devil City Angels is the band that... It was a situation because there was an album that was recorded. I had nothing to do with it. It was the other basses for Cinderella. Okay. Played on it and the other guys in the band, Ricky Rock, they had an Tracy guns.

3:49.0

I was doing something with Tracy.

3:51.8

And, and so he was a member of,

3:57.2

Angel, what is this?

...

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