Ozzy Osbourne recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of his seminal solo debut, Blizzard Of Ozz, which was feted with an expanded deluxe edition that includes seven previously digitally unreleased live tracks showcasing the work of Osbourne's late guitarist, Randy Rhoads, reports Steve Baltin of Forbes.

Rhoads, who was tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of 25 on March 19, 1982, was on the cusp of becoming the next guitar icon. His work on Blizzard Of Ozz and the follow-up, Diary Of A Madman, made him an instant star in the rock world. And in the subsequent 38 years he has become a legend to the many diehard fans Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello calls "The Believers."

Earlier this month, Morello spoke to Forbes about his admiration of Rhoads, an excerpt follows:

You started playing in 1981 at age 17. So it was concurrent with when Randy was exploding on the scene. Do you remember when you first heard him?

Tom Morello: "Absolutely, I was in a car with three friends down the block from my mom's house. We just pulled in. It was at a time when we were actually the only house in the neighborhood that had MTV, so we were just basically going to have an MTV-watching event. We had the radio on and 'Crazy Train' came on the radio. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was this cavalry-charged riff that was like the greatest riff I had ever heard. And then clearly it was Ozzy singing, but it wasn't Black Sabbath. And then the guitar solo came. I was in a car with three new wave fans who wanted to get out of the car and go wait for Kajagoogoo to come on the TV. And I was like, 'Everybody just shut up, shut up. I listened to the song to its end trying to keep them hushed so I could appreciate whatever that magical thing was that had just occurred. And then ran out and bought the cassette. And Randy blew my mind."

What were those songs for you when you first listened to Blizzard Of Ozz that just blew your mind?

Morello: "It was kind of top to bottom. It was probably between 'Crazy Train' and 'Mr. Crowley', which has two of the greatest rock solos in one song. It was unbelievable. There's never been a guitar player like that, who had all of that, the underpinning abilities of a classical virtuoso, but unapologetic jamming. He jammed with the fever and furor of an Angus Young, but also had the ability to arpeggio like Paganini."

Did you ever see Randy live?

Morello: "No, but back in the day, before Tribute came out (in 1987), I looked everywhere. There was no sort of internet resource. I looked everywhere for live recordings because the way he would improvise within the structure of the solos of the song was so inspiring to me. Randy Rhoads was the poster I had on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day. And the allure was not just that he was a great player and wrote some songs that I loved. It was that he self-identified first and foremost as a musician, not as a rock star. And reading about his life on the road on days off he would humbly take classical guitar lessons in whatever city they were in, in the midst of this Ozzy Osbourne arena tour. And I recognized that, the desire to achieve as a musician; not just get high and play some songs and there are groupies. Here was a guy that had a point of view that he really deeply cared about music and that was very attractive to me because I deeply cared about music too."

To read the complete interview, which includes quotes from Ozzy Osbourne as well, visit this location.