Rudy Sarzo reveals he was asked to rejoin Quiet Riot shortly after Frankie Banali passed away

Rudy Sarzo reveals he was asked to rejoin Quiet Riot shortly after Frankie Banali passed away

It appears that the idea of having 70 year old bassist Rudy Sarzo rejoin Quiet Riot has been in the works for some time. Earlier this month, Sarzo announced that he was “coming home” and rejoining Quiet Riot in 2022 after an 18 year absence and replacing bassist Chuck Wright who has been in the band from 1985-1987, 1994-1997, 2004-2006, 2006-2007 and 2010-2021 (as per Wikipedia).

In a recent interview with Metal Mike for the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast, Sarzo spoke about rejoining Quiet Riot and the influence that his former bandmate Frankie Banali had on him. Banali passed away on August 20, 2020 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Sarzo indicated (as transcribed by the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast): “It’s been in the works for awhile. It was just a matter of doing it with the right timing. It had to be a smooth transition with me coming over from the Guess Who, and for Chuck Wright who’s currently there. We just had to do our best with it and we had to make all sure all the commitments we made were met. In 2020, we faced a lot of difficulties with COVID and it made it almost impossible for Frankie and I to get together. Regina made it happen that I was able to be with Frankie in the hospital hours before he passed. Shortly after he passed, I went to visit with Regina and she asked me to consider returning to Quiet Riot. It wasn’t a decision that I was going to immediately make right there. Here we all were dealing with Frankie’s recent passing. We gave it a lot of thought, and here we are.

Next year marks 50 years from when I first met Frankie. I played with him off and on for 10 years before we recorded “Metal Health”. Frankie was my mentor into rock and roll. I grew up in a Cuban culture. We had musicians and we liked rock…but it was not performed in a traditional anglo British Invasion kind of way. I wanted to play British Invasion music properly and Frankie was the first person I met in South Florida who actually played drums in a John Bonham style. There were no Cubans that I knew that played that way. It was not part of our culture. I didn’t want to be in Santana….. I wanted be in Led Zeppelin, and Frankie was the one who taught me the fundamentals of playing in that style.”

You can listen to the interview with Rudy Sarzo on the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast below: