The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has announced that later this year, they will posthumously induct guitarist Randy Rhoads in the Musical Excellence category. 

Of course, Rhoads became a household name as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, appearing on Ozzy's 1980 solo debut, Blizzard Of Ozz - and its enormously successful single "Crazy Train" - as well as the 1981 follow-up, Diary Of A Madman. Tragically, Randy Rhoads was killed in 1982 at age 25 in a freak plane accident, while the band was on tour in The United States.

In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone writer Kory Grow, Ozzy looks back at his time spent with Randy and the music they made together, an excerpt follows:

"I must have a sixth sense or something, but I kind of knew that he wouldn’t make old bones. Some people are just too good. He didn’t take drugs. He didn’t drink much. We [in the band] were all like pirates, and he would say to me, 'Ozzy, you’re gonna kill yourself.'

I was kind of emotionally wounded after Randy died. It took me until No More Tears to get back on the right path with recording. He died really young, and he didn’t deserve to die. It’s really strange for me to sit here and reflect. Like, fucking hell, 40 years, it seems like it was yesterday.

I knew him for a very short amount of time. But what he gave me in that short amount of time was immeasurable in f**cking greatness. To get somebody like Randy Rhoads to play on two albums, and for those two albums to sound as good as the day they were recorded, is something else. And I’m forever in gratitude for that. God only knows where that man would be today. The very fact that he’s not here to breathe the air is just a f**king crime."

To read the complete interview, visit this location.