Where I hear Randy going, had he stayed in rock was some of his live playing which had some serious fire in it. Agreed, he was very compositional in his solo's but I think he might have stepped out side of that box like some of his live playing. Again, obviously we'll never know and pure supposition on my part.
And what you get from Jake, I got the moment I first heard Randy. In fact I was content to be the rhythm player in my little bands at the time even though some of my main influences are G Moore, Schon, Gorham and I had gone through the EVH onslaught...it wasn't until I heard Randy where it all clicked for me. Then I circled back around to Moore, Schon then the Lynch's, Campbells and Sykes. Great times. It'd be two and half decades before I shared the guitar spot with another player in a band lol.
I like Jake, specifically with Ozzy. In fact I think he was the perfect follow-up to Randy not only in style but look but he probably influenced my more from a rhythm standpoint as opposed to lead. The worst thing Ozzy could have done is rolled out a Rhoads lookalike right at that point. I liked Badlands but honestly I was more of fan of what they represented than of the music itself, hope that makes sense.
