title: Rand Paul

text: Boucher's attorney, Matthew Baker, described it as "a very regrettable dispute between two neighbors over a matter that most people would regard as trivial". According to a memorandum filed by Baker the dispute was over Paul repeatedly leaving tree yard debris near his property line with his neighbor. Rand Paul and his wife deny this, they claim that the "media" have "misrepresented" this "from the beginning" and that the attack was "politically motivated." They claim that Boucher had threatened Donald Trump earlier and that he was "a vocal hater" of Trump and the GOP.


title: Rand Paul

text: Boucher was originally charged in Kentucky state court, but was later charged in federal court, where he ultimately pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress. The state-court charge was dismissed after Boucher pleaded guilty to the federal charge. Boucher was initially sentenced to 30 days in prison, one year of probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine. The federal prosecutors had sought a 21-month term and appealed the lenient sentence.


title: Rand Paul

text: In September 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated Boucher's sentence of 30 days, ruling it was unreasonably short, indicating "closer review" was in order, and the case was sent back to the lower court for resentencing. An appeal to the Supreme Court was denied. At his resentencing, Boucher received a prison term of eight months, plus another six months of home confinement, and was given credit for the 30 days he had previously served. Prosecutors felt the downward departure from their request for a 21-month sentence was too great, but the judge said Boucher's eight years in the military, being forced to sell his home to pay a $580,000 judgment assessed by the state court against him in the civil case brought by Paul, and his completed community service mitigated against any additional prison time. Boucher expressed his regrets and contrition for his attack.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul announced on March 22, 2020, that he had tested positive for COVID-19 amid the ongoing pandemic of the disease. He was the first member of the United States Senate to test positive. Paul received bipartisan criticism from his Senate colleagues after it was discovered that he attended Senate lunches and used the Senate gym while awaiting his test results; he defended his actions because he had no symptoms of the illness and believed it was "highly unlikely" he was sick. On April 7, 2020, Paul announced his recovery.


title: Rand Paul

text: In August 2020, immediately following his attendance at the keynote speech delivered by President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican National Convention held at the White House, Paul was confronted by protestors on his way to a hotel with his wife. A police perimeter was formed that escorted the Pauls away from the crowd, with one of the escorting officers being pushed in the process. The protestors' main contention point with Paul was the shooting of Breonna Taylor and their demands for Paul to "say her name". However, as was pointed out by several media organizations in the aftermath of the incident, Paul had previously authored a bill named after Taylor aiming to make no-knock warrants illegal.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the "Roter Frontkämpferbund" of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the "Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold" of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The SA were colloquially called Brownshirts () because of the colour of their uniform's shirts, similar to Benito Mussolini's blackshirts. The official uniform of the SA was the brown shirt with a brown tie. The color came about because a large shipment of Lettow-shirts, originally intended for the German colonial troops in Germany's former East Africa colony, was purchased in 1921 by Gerhard Roßbach for use by his "Freikorps" paramilitary unit. They were later used for his Schill Youth organization in Salzburg, and in 1924 were adopted by the Schill Youth in Germany. The "Schill Sportversand" then became the main supplier for the SA brown shirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with ranks that were later adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the (SS), which originated as a branch of the SA before it was separated from it after the Night of the Long Knives.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: After Adolf Hitler ordered the Night of the Long Knives () in 1934, he withdrew his support for the SA. The SA continued to exist but had lost almost all its influence, and was effectively superseded by the SS, which had carried out Hitler's orders in the purge, and thereafter was formally removed from the SA. The SA remained in existence until after Nazi Germany's final capitulation to the Allies in 1945, after which it was disbanded and outlawed by the Allied Control Council.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The term predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919. Originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used infiltration tactics based on being organized into small squads of a few soldiers each. The first official German stormtrooper unit was authorized on March 2, 1915 on the Western Front. The German high command ordered the VIII Corps to form a detachment to test experimental weapons and develop tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western Front. On October 2, 1916, Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroopers. They were first used during the 8th Army's siege of Riga, and again at the Battle of Caporetto. Wider use followed on the Western Front in the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, when Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The DAP (, German Workers' Party) was formed in Munich in January 1919, and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and propaganda were quickly recognized. By early 1920 he had gained authority in the party, which changed its name to the NSDAP ( or National Socialist German Workers' Party) in February 1920. The party's executive committee added "Socialist" to the name over Hitler's objections, to help the party appeal to left-wing workers.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The precursor to the had acted informally and on an "ad hoc" basis for some time before this. Hitler, with an eye to helping the party to grow through propaganda, convinced the leadership committee to invest in an advertisement in the "" (later renamed the ) for a mass meeting in the , to be held in Munich on October 16, 1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for November 13 in the beer hall, also in Munich. About 130 people attended; there were hecklers, but Hitler's military friends promptly ejected them by force, and the agitators "flew down the stairs with gashed heads". The next year, on February 24, he announced the party's Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2,000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former army companions, armed with rubber truncheons, ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: A permanent group of party members, who would serve as the (meeting hall protection detachment) for the DAP, gathered around Emil Maurice after the February 1920 incident at the Hofbräuhaus. There was little organization or structure to this group. The group was also called the "Stewards Troop" () around this time. More than a year later, on August 3, 1921, Hitler redefined the group as the "Gymnastic and Sports Division" of the party (), perhaps to avoid trouble with the government. It was by now well recognized as an appropriate, even necessary, function or organ of the party. The future SA developed by organizing and formalizing the groups of ex-soldiers and beer-hall brawlers who were to protect gatherings of the Nazi Party from disruptions from Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists (KPD), and to disrupt meetings of the other political parties. By September 1921 the name (SA) was being used informally for the group. Hitler was the official head of the Nazi Party by this time.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The Nazi Party held a large public meeting in the Munich Hofbräuhaus on November 4, 1921, which attracted many Communists and other enemies of the Nazis. After Hitler had spoken for some time, the meeting erupted into a mêlée in which a small company of SA thrashed the opposition. The Nazis called this event the (), and it assumed legendary proportions in SA lore with the passage of time. Thereafter, the group was officially known as the .


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The leadership of the SA passed from Maurice to the young Hans Ulrich Klintzsch in this period. He had been a naval officer and a member of the Brigade which had taken part in the failed attempted coup. When he took over command of the SA, he was a member of the notorious Organisation Consul (OC). The Nazis under Hitler began to adopt the more professional management techniques of the military.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In 1922, the Nazi Party created a youth section, the , for young men between the ages of 14 and 18 years. Its successor, the Hitler Youth ( or HJ), remained under SA command until May 1932. Hermann Göring joined the Nazi Party in 1922 after hearing a speech by Hitler. He was given command of the SA as the in 1923. He was later appointed an (lieutenant general) and held this rank on the SA rolls until 1945.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: From April 1924 until late February 1925, the SA was reorganized into a front organization known as the to circumvent Bavaria's ban on the Nazi Party and its organs. (This had been instituted after the abortive Beer Hall putsch of November 1923). While Hitler was in prison, Ernst Röhm helped to create the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed SA. In April 1924, Röhm had also been given authority by Hitler to rebuild the SA in any way he saw fit. When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong Frontbann into the SA, Röhm resigned from all political movements and military brigades on May 1, 1925. He felt great contempt for the "legalistic" path the party leaders wanted to follow and sought seclusion from public life. Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, members of the SA were often involved in street fights, called (collisions), with members of the Communist Party (KPD). In 1929, the SA added a Motor Corps for better mobility and a faster mustering of units. It also acquired an independent source of funds: royalties from its own Sturm Cigarette Company. Previously, the SA had been financially dependent on the party leadership, as it charged no membership fees; the SA recruited particularly among the many unemployed in the economic crisis. The SA used violence against shops and shopkeepers stocking competing cigarette brands; it also punished any SA member caught with non-Sturm cigarettes. Sturm marketing was also used to make military service more appealing. Cigarettes were sold with collectible sets of images of historical German army uniforms.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In September 1930, as a consequence of the Stennes Revolt in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new . He sent a personal request to Röhm, asking him to return to serve as the SA's chief of staff. Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on January 5, 1931. He brought radical new ideas to the SA and appointed several close friends to its senior leadership. Previously, the SA formations were subordinate to the Nazi Party leadership of each .


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Röhm established new that had no regional Nazi Party oversight. Each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by a SA who answered only to Röhm or Hitler. Under Röhm as its popular leader and (Staff Chief), the SA grew in importance within the Nazi power structure and expanded to have thousands of members. In the early 1930s, the Nazis expanded from an extremist fringe group to the largest political party in Germany, and the SA expanded with it. By January 1932, the SA numbered approximately 400,000 men.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Many of these stormtroopers believed in the socialist promise of National Socialism. They expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy, once they obtained national power. By the time Hitler assumed power in January 1933, SA membership had increased to approximately 2,000,000—twenty times as large as the number of troops and officers in the (German Army).


title: Sturmabteilung

text: After Hitler and the Nazis obtained national power, the SA leadership also became increasingly eager for power. By the end of 1933, the SA numbered more than 3 million men, and many believed they were the replacement for the "antiquated" . Röhm's ideal was to absorb the army (then limited by law to no more than 100,000 men) into the SA, which would be a new "people's army". This deeply offended and alarmed the professional army leaders, and threatened Hitler's goal of co-opting the . The SA's increasing power and ambitions also posed a threat to other Nazi leaders. Originally an adjunct to the SA, the (SS) was placed under the control of Heinrich Himmler, in part to restrict the power of the SA and their leaders. The younger SS had evolved to be more than a bodyguard unit for Hitler and demonstrated that it was better suited to carry out Hitler's policies, including those of a criminal nature.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Although some of the conflicts between the SS and SA were based on personal rivalries of leaders, the mass of members had key socio-economic differences and related conflicts. SS members generally came from the middle class, while the SA had its base among the unemployed and working class. Politically speaking, the SA was more radical than the SS, with its leaders arguing the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power, but rather needed to implement socialism in Germany (see Strasserism). Hitler believed that the defiant and rebellious culture encouraged before the seizure of power had to give way to using these forces for community organization. But the SA members resented tasks such as canvassing and fundraising, considering them ("little work"), which had typically been performed by women before the Nazi seizure of power. , the first Gestapo chief, estimated that in 1933 Berlin, 70 percent of new SA recruits were former Communists.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In 1933, General Werner von Blomberg, the Minister of Defence, and General Walther von Reichenau, the chief of the 's Ministerial Department, became increasingly concerned about the growing power of the SA. Röhm had been given a seat on the National Defence Council and began to demand more say over military matters. On October 2, 1933, Röhm sent a letter to Reichenau that said: "I regard the now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilization as well, in the future is the task of the SA."


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Blomberg and von Reichenau began to conspire with Göring and Himmler against Röhm and the SA. Himmler asked Reinhard Heydrich to assemble a dossier on Röhm. Heydrich recognized that for the SS to gain full national power, the SA had to be broken. He manufactured evidence to suggest that Röhm had been paid 12 million marks by French agents to overthrow Hitler. Hitler liked Röhm and initially refused to believe the dossier provided by Heydrich. Röhm had been one of his first supporters and, without his ability to obtain army funds in the early days of the movement, it is unlikely that the Nazis would have ever become established. The SA under Röhm's leadership had also played a vital role in destroying the opposition during the elections of 1932 and 1933.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Hitler had his own reasons for wanting Röhm removed. Some of his powerful supporters had been complaining about Röhm for some time. The generals opposed Röhm's desire to have the SA, a force of over three million men, absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership. Since the officers had developed the Reichswehr as a professional force of 100,000, they believed that it would be destroyed if merged with millions of untrained SA thugs. Furthermore, the army commanders were greatly concerned about reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA members. Industrialists, who had provided the funds for the Nazi victory, were unhappy with Röhm's socialistic views on the economy and his claims that the real revolution had still to take place. President Hindenburg informed Hitler in June 1934 that if a move to curb the SA was not forthcoming, he would dissolve the government and declare martial law.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Hitler was also concerned that Röhm and the SA had the power to remove him as leader. Göring and Himmler played on this fear by constantly feeding Hitler with new information on Röhm's proposed coup. A masterstroke was to claim that Gregor Strasser, whom Hitler hated, was part of the planned conspiracy against him. With this news, Hitler ordered all the SA leaders to attend a meeting in the Hanselbauer Hotel in .


title: Sturmabteilung

text: On June 30, 1934, Hitler, accompanied by SS units, arrived at Bad Wiessee, where he personally placed Röhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. Over the next 48 hours, 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on the way to Wiessee. Many were shot and killed as soon as they were captured, but Hitler decided to pardon Röhm because of his past services to the movement. On July 1, after much pressure from Göring and Himmler, Hitler agreed that Röhm should die. Hitler insisted that Röhm should first be allowed to commit suicide. When Röhm refused to do so, he was shot by two SS officers, Theodor Eicke and Michael Lippert. Though the names of 85 victims are known, estimates place the total number killed at between 150 and 200 men, the rest of whom remain unidentified.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Some Germans were shocked by the executions, but many others perceived Hitler to have restored "order" to the country. Goebbels's propaganda highlighted the "Röhm-Putsch" in the days that followed. The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders was made public to add "shock value", although Hitler and other Nazi leaders had known for years about the sexuality of Röhm and other named SA leaders.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: After the Night of the Long Knives, the SA continued to operate, under the leadership of "Stabschef" Viktor Lutze, but the group was significantly downsized. Within a year's time, the SA membership was reduced by more than 40%. However, the Nazis increased attacks against Jews in the early 1930s, and used the SA to carry these out.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In November 1938, after the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan (a Polish Jew), the SA was used for "demonstrations" against the act. In violent riots, members of the SA shattered the glass storefronts of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses. The events were referred to as ('Night of Broken Glass', more literally 'Crystal Night'). Jewish homes were ransacked throughout Germany. This pogrom damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 200 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death and more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Thereafter, the SA became overshadowed by the SS; by 1939 it had little remaining significance in the Nazi Party. In January 1939, the role of the SA was officially established as a training school for the armed forces, with the establishment of the SA (SA Military Units). With the start of World War II in September 1939, the SA lost most of its remaining members to military service in the (armed forces).


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In January 1941, long-standing rivalries between the "Auswärtiges Amt" (Foreign Office) and the SS exploded with the attempted coup d'etat in Bucharest that saw SS back the coup by the Iron Guard under its leader Horia Sima against the Prime Minister, General Ion Antonescu, while the "Auswärtiges Amt" together with the Wehrmacht backed Antonescu. In the aftermath of the coup, the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop made an effort to curb the power of the SS to conduct a foreign policy independent of the "Auswärtiges Amt". Taking an advantage of the long-standing rivalries between the SS and the SA, in 1941, Ribbentrop appointed an assemblage of SA men to head the German embassies in Eastern Europe, with Manfred von Killinger going to Romania, Siegfried Kasche to Croatia, Adolf-Heinz Beckerle to Bulgaria, Dietrich von Jagow to Hungary, and Hanns Ludin to Slovakia in order to ensure that there would be minimal co-operation with the SS. The role of the SA ambassadors was that of "quasi-"Reich" governors" as they aggressively supervised the internal affairs of the nations they were stationed in, making them very much unlike traditional ambassadors. The SA leaders ambassadors fulfilled Ribbentrop's hopes in that all had distant relations with the SS, but as a group they were notably inept as diplomats with Beckerle being so crude and vulgar in his manners that King Boris III almost refused to allow him to present his credentials at the Vrana Palace. As the ambassador in Bratislava, Ludin arranged the deportation of 50,000 Slovak Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. On 23–24 August 1944, Killinger notably bungled the German response to King Michael's Coup that saw King Michael of Romania dismiss Antonescu, sign an armistice with the Allies, and declare war on Germany, thereby costing the "Reich" its largest source of oil. Of the SA ambassadors, Killinger and Jagow committed suicide in 1944 and 1945 respectively while Kasche and Ludin were executed for war crimes in 1947 in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia respectively. Beckerle spent 11 years in a Soviet POW camp, was released to West Germany in 1955, was charged with war crimes in 1966 for his role in the deportation of Macedonian Jews, which were dropped on grounds of ill health in 1968, and died in 1976 at a retirement home in West Germany.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In 1943, Viktor Lutze was killed in an automobile accident, and Wilhelm Schepmann was appointed as leader. Schepmann did his best to run the SA for the remainder of the war, attempting to restore the group as a predominant force within the Nazi Party and to mend years of distrust and bad feelings between the SA and SS. On the night of 29–30 March 1945, Austrian SA members were involved in a death march of Hungarian Jews from a work camp at Engerau (modern Petržalka, Slovakia) to Bad Deutsch-Altenburg that saw 102 of the Jews being killed, being either shot or beaten to death.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The SA ceased to exist in May 1945 when Nazi Germany collapsed. It was formally disbanded and outlawed by the Allied Control Council enacting Control Council Law No. 2 on October 10, 1945. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg formally ruled that the SA was not a criminal organization.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The leader of the SA was known as the , translated as Supreme SA-Leader. The following men held this position:


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In September 1930, to quell the Stennes Revolt and to try to ensure the personal loyalty of the SA to himself, Hitler assumed command of the entire organization and remained for the remainder of the group's existence until 1945. The day-to-day running of the SA was conducted by the (SA Chief of Staff); a position Hitler designated for Ernst Röhm. After Hitler's assumption of the supreme command of the SA, it was the who was generally accepted as the Commander of the SA, acting in Hitler's name. The following personnel held the position of :


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The SA was organized into several large regional ("Groups"). Each had subordinate ("Brigades"). Subordinate to the were the smaller regiment-sized . operated in every major German city and were split into even smaller units, known as and .


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The command nexus for the entire SA was the , located in Stuttgart. The SA supreme command had many sub-offices to handle supply, finance and recruiting. Unlike the SS, however, the SA did not have a medical corps nor did it establish itself outside of Germany, in occupied territories, once World War II had begun.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The SA also had several military training units. The largest was the , which served as an auxiliary to the (German Navy) and performed search and rescue operations as well as harbor defense. The SA also had an "army" wing, similar to the Waffen-SS, known as . This formation expanded from regimental size in 1940 to a fully-fledged armored corps () in 1945.


title: Sturmabteilung

text: In his 1936 "Hitler: A Biography", German historian Konrad Heiden remarked that within the SA ranks, there were "large numbers of former Communists and Social Democrats" and that "many of the storm troops were called 'beefsteaks' – brown outside and red within." The influx of non-Nazis into the membership was so prevalent that SA men would joke that "In our storm troop there are three Nazis, but we shall soon have spewed them out."


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The number of "beefsteaks" was estimated to be large in some cities, especially in northern Germany, where the influence of Gregor Strasser and Strasserism was significant. The head of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1934, Rudolf Diels, reported that "70 percent" of the new SA recruits in the city of Berlin had been communists. This is evidenced further by historians, "As for the prior youth group memberships, nearly half of the SS members and nearly one-third of the instant stormtroopers were with the Free Corps, vigilantes, or militant veterans' groups during their first 25 years of life. They also came in disproportionate numbers from left-wing youth groups such as the Socialist or Communist Youth or the Red Front (RFB)."


title: Sturmabteilung

text: Some have argued that since most SA members came from working-class families or were unemployed, they were more amenable to Marxist-leaning socialism, expecting Hitler to fulfill the 25-point National Socialist Program. However, historian reports that the repeated efforts by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to appeal to the working-class backgrounds of the SA were "doomed to failure", because most SA men were focused on the nationalistic cult of Hitler and destroying the "Marxist enemy", a term that was used to identify both the KPD and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).


title: Sturmabteilung

text: The "beefsteak" name also referred to party-switching between Nazi and Communist party members, particularly involving those within the SA ranks.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg (, , ; ; , ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department.


title: Strasbourg

text: In 2019, the city proper had 287,228 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Greater Strasbourg) and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 505,272 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 846,450 in 2018, making it the eighth-largest metro area in France and home to 14% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 958,421 inhabitants. Strasbourg is one of the "de facto" four main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory) is also located in the city.


title: Strasbourg

text: Together with Basel (Bank for International Settlements), Geneva (United Nations), The Hague (International Court of Justice) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that is not a state capital that hosts international organisations of the first order. The city is the seat of many non-European international institutions such as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights. It is the second city in France in terms of international congress and symposia, after Paris. Strasbourg's historic city centre, the "Grande Île" (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988, with the newer ""Neustadt"" being added to the site in 2017. Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second-largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque.


title: Strasbourg

text: Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second-largest on the Rhine after Duisburg in Germany, and the second-largest river port in France after Paris.


title: Strasbourg

text: Until the fifth century CE, the city was known as "Argantorati" (in the nominative, "Argantorate" in the locative), a Celtic Gaulish name Latinised first as "Argentorate" (with Gaulish locative ending, as appearing on the first Roman milestones in the first century CE) and then as "Argentoratum" (with regular Latin nominative ending, in later Latin texts). That Gaulish name is a compound of "-rati", the Gaulish word for fortified enclosures, cognate to the Old Irish "ráth" (see ringfort) and "arganto(n)-" (cognate to Latin "argentum", which gave modern French "argent"), the Gaulish word for silver, but also any precious metal, particularly gold, suggesting either a fortified enclosure located by a river gold mining site, or hoarding gold mined in the nearby rivers.


title: Strasbourg

text: After the fifth century CE the city became known by a completely different name, later Gallicized as Strasbourg (Lower Alsatian: "Strossburi"; ). That name is of Germanic origin and means 'town (at the crossing) of roads'. The modern "Stras-" is cognate with the German "Straße" and English "street", both derived from Latin "strata" ("paved road"), while "-bourg" is cognate with the German "Burg" and English "borough", both derived from Proto-Germanic "*burgz" ("hill fort, fortress").


title: Strasbourg

text: Gregory of Tours was the first to mention the name change: in the tenth book of his "History of the Franks" written shortly after 590 he said that Egidius, Bishop of Reims, accused of plotting against King Childebert II of Austrasia in favor of his uncle King Chilperic I of Neustria, was tried by a synod of Austrasian bishops in Metz in November 590, found guilty and removed from the priesthood, then taken ""ad Argentoratensem urbem, quam nunc Strateburgum vocant"" ("to the city of Argentoratum, which they now call "Strateburgus""), where he was exiled.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg is situated at the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg, however, lies on the Grande Île in the river Ill, which here flows parallel to, and roughly from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.


title: Strasbourg

text: The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between and above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some to the west and the Black Forest to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north–south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, and major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks.


title: Strasbourg

text: The city is some east of Paris. The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately to the north, or as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some to the south, or by river.


title: Strasbourg

text: In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb"), though with less maritime influence than the milder climates of Western and Southern France. The city has warm, relatively sunny summers and cool, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, totaling annually. On average, snow falls 30 days per year.


title: Strasbourg

text: The third highest temperature ever recorded was in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. This record was broken, on June 30, 2019, when it reached and then on July 25, 2019, when it reached . The lowest temperature ever recorded was in December 1938.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from strong winds by the Vosges and Black Forest mountains, results in poor natural ventilation, making Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France. Nonetheless, the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution in recent years.


title: Strasbourg

text: The Roman camp of Argentoratum was first mentioned in 12 BC; the city of Strasbourg which grew from it celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1988. The fertile area in the Upper Rhine Plain between the rivers Ill and Rhine had already been populated since the Middle Paleolithic.


title: Strasbourg

text: Between 362 and 1262, Strasbourg was governed by the bishops of Strasbourg; their rule was reinforced in 873 and then more in 982. In 1262, the citizens violently rebelled against the bishop's rule (Battle of Hausbergen) and Strasbourg became a free imperial city. It became a French city in 1681, after the conquest of Alsace by the armies of Louis XIV. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, the city became German again, until 1918 (end of World War I), when it reverted to France. After the defeat of France in 1940 (World War II), Strasbourg came under German control again through formal annexation into the Gau Baden-Elsaß under the Nazi Gauleiter Robert Wagner; since the end of 1944, it has again been a French city. In 2016, Strasbourg was promoted from capital of Alsace to capital of Grand Est.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg played an important part in the Protestant Reformation, with personalities such as John Calvin, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, Matthew and Katharina Zell, but also in other aspects of Christianity such as German mysticism, with Johannes Tauler, Pietism, with Philipp Spener, and Reverence for Life, with Albert Schweitzer. Delegates from the city took part in the Protestation at Speyer. It was also one of the first centres of the printing industry with pioneers such as Johannes Gutenberg, Johannes Mentelin, and Heinrich Eggestein. Among the darkest periods in the city's long history were the years 1349 (Strasbourg massacre), 1518 (Dancing plague), 1793 (Reign of Terror), 1870 (Siege of Strasbourg) and the years 1940–1944 with the Nazi occupation (atrocities such as the Jewish skull collection) and the British and American bombing raids. Some other notable dates were the years 357 (Battle of Argentoratum), 842 (Oaths of Strasbourg), 1538 (establishment of the university), 1605 (world's first newspaper printed by Johann Carolus), 1792 (La Marseillaise), and 1889 (pancreatic origin of diabetes discovered by Minkowski and Von Mering).


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg has been the seat of European Institutions since 1949: first of the International Commission on Civil Status and of the Council of Europe, later of the European Parliament, of the European Science Foundation, of Eurocorps, and others as well.


title: Strasbourg

text: The city is chiefly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the "Petite France" district or "Gerberviertel" ("tanners' district") alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned "Maison Kammerzell" stands out.


title: Strasbourg

text: Notable medieval streets include "Rue Mercière", "Rue des Dentelles", "Rue du Bain aux Plantes", "Rue des Juifs", "Rue des Frères", "Rue des Tonneliers", "Rue du Maroquin", "Rue des Charpentiers", "Rue des Serruriers", "Grand' Rue", "Quai des Bateliers", "Quai Saint-Nicolas" and "Quai Saint-Thomas".


title: Strasbourg

text: Notable medieval squares include "Place de la Cathédrale", "Place du Marché Gayot", "Place Saint-Étienne", "Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait" and "Place Benjamin Zix".


title: Strasbourg

text: In addition to the cathedral, Strasbourg houses several other medieval churches that have survived the many wars and destructions that have plagued the city: the Romanesque "Église Saint-Étienne", partly destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing raids; the part-Romanesque, part-Gothic, very large "Église Saint-Thomas" with its Silbermann organ on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Schweitzer played; the Gothic "Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune" with its crypt dating back to the seventh century and its cloister partly from the eleventh century; the Gothic "Église Saint-Guillaume" with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture; the Gothic "Église Saint-Jean"; the part-Gothic, part-Art Nouveau "Église Sainte-Madeleine" etc.


title: Strasbourg

text: The Neo-Gothic church "Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique" (there is also an adjacent church "Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Protestant") serves as a shrine for several 15th-century wood-worked and painted altars coming from other, now destroyed churches and installed there for public display; especially the Passion of Christ.


title: Strasbourg

text: Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental "Ancienne Douane" (old custom-house) stands out.


title: Strasbourg

text: The German Renaissance has bequeathed the city some noteworthy buildings (especially the current "Chambre de commerce et d'industrie", former town hall, on "Place Gutenberg"), as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several "hôtels particuliers" (i.e. palaces), among which the "Palais Rohan" (completed 1742, used for university purposes from 1872 to 1895, now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the "Hôtel de Hanau" (1736, now the city hall); the "Hôtel de Klinglin" (1736, now residence of the préfet); the "Hôtel des Deux-Ponts" (1755, now residence of the military governor); the "Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin" (1725, now seat of the administration of the Port autonome de Strasbourg) etc. The largest baroque building of Strasbourg though is the 1720s main building of the "Hôpital civil".


title: Strasbourg

text: As for French Neo-classicism, it is the Opera House on Place Broglie that most prestigiously represents this style.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district, the "Neustadt", being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damage during World War II. Streets, boulevards and avenues are homogeneous, surprisingly high (up to seven stories) and broad examples of German urban lay-out and of this architectural style that summons and mixes up five centuries of European architecture as well as Neo-Egyptian, Neo-Greek and Neo-Babylonian styles. The former imperial palace "Palais du Rhin", the most political and thus heavily criticized of all German Strasbourg buildings epitomizes the grand scale and stylistic sturdiness of this period. But the two most handsome and ornate buildings of these times are the "École internationale des Pontonniers" (the former "Höhere Mädchenschule", with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles and the "Haute école des arts du Rhin" with its lavishly ornate façade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica.


title: Strasbourg

text: Notable streets of the German district include: "Avenue de la Forêt Noire", "Avenue des Vosges", "Avenue d'Alsace", "Avenue de la Marseillaise", "Avenue de la Liberté", "Boulevard de la Victoire", "Rue Sellénick", "Rue du Général de Castelnau", "Rue du Maréchal Foch", and "Rue du Maréchal Joffre". Notable squares of the German district include "Place de la République", "Place de l'Université", "Place Brant", and "Place Arnold".


title: Strasbourg

text: Impressive examples of Prussian military architecture of the 1880s can be found along the newly reopened "Rue du Rempart", displaying large-scale fortifications among which the aptly named "Kriegstor" (war gate).


title: Strasbourg

text: As for modern and contemporary architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (such as the huge "Palais des Fêtes" and houses and villas like "Villa Schutzenberger" and "Hôtel Brion"), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the "Cité Rotterdam", for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in the architectural contest) and, in the very extended "Quartier Européen", some spectacular administrative buildings of sometimes utterly large size, among which the European Court of Human Rights building by Richard Rogers is arguably the finest. Other noticeable contemporary buildings are the new Music school "Cité de la Musique et de la Danse", the "Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain" and the "Hôtel du Département" facing it, as well as, in the outskirts, the tramway-station Hoenheim-Nord designed by Zaha Hadid.


title: Strasbourg

text: The city has many bridges, including the medieval and four-towered "Ponts Couverts" that, despite their name, are no longer covered. Next to the "Ponts Couverts" is the "Barrage Vauban", a part of Vauban's 17th-century fortifications, that does include a covered bridge. Other bridges are the ornate 19th-century "Pont de la Fonderie" (1893, stone) and "Pont d'Auvergne" (1892, iron), as well as architect 's futuristic "Passerelle" over the Rhine, opened in 2004.


title: Strasbourg

text: The largest square at the centre of the city of Strasbourg is the Place Kléber. Located in the heart of the city's commercial area, it was named after general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, born in Strasbourg in 1753 and assassinated in 1800 in Cairo. In the square is a statue of Kléber, under which is a vault containing his remains. On the north side of the square is the Aubette (Orderly Room), built by Jacques François Blondel, architect of the king, in 1765–1772.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg features a number of prominent parks, of which several are of cultural and historical interest: the "Parc de l'Orangerie", laid out as a French garden by André le Nôtre and remodeled as an English garden on behalf of Joséphine de Beauharnais, now displaying noteworthy French gardens, a neo-classical castle and a small zoo; the "Parc de la Citadelle", built around impressive remains of the 17th-century fortress erected close to the Rhine by Vauban; the "Parc de Pourtalès", laid out in English style around a baroque castle (heavily restored in the 19th century) that now houses a small three-star hotel, and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture.


title: Strasbourg

text: The Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg (botanical garden) was created under the German administration next to the Observatory of Strasbourg, built in 1881, and still owns some greenhouses of those times. The "Parc des Contades", although the oldest park of the city, was completely remodeled after World War II. The futuristic "Parc des Poteries" is an example of European park-conception in the late 1990s. The "Jardin des deux Rives", spread over Strasbourg and Kehl on both sides of the Rhine opened in 2004 and is the most extended (60-hectare) park of the agglomeration. The most recent park is "Parc du Heyritz" (8,7 ha), opened in 2014 along a canal facing the "hôpital civil".


title: Strasbourg

text: As of 2020, the city of Strasbourg has eleven municipal museums (including "Aubette 1928"), eleven university museums, and at least two privately owned museums ("Musée vodou" and "Musée du barreau de Strasbourg"). Five communes in the metropolitan area also have museums (see below), three of them dedicated to military history.


title: Strasbourg

text: The collections in Strasbourg are distributed over a wide range of museums, according to a system that takes into account not only the types and geographical provenances of the items, but also the epochs. This concerns in particular the following domains:


title: Strasbourg

text: The Université de Strasbourg is in charge of a number of permanent public displays of its collections of scientific artefacts and products of all kinds of exploration and research.


title: Strasbourg

text: The commune of Strasbourg proper had a population of 287,228 on 1 January 2019, the result of a constant moderate annual growth which is also reflected in the constant growth of the number of students at its university (e. g. from 42,000 students in 2010 to 52,000 students in 2019). The metropolitan area of Strasbourg had a population of 846,450 inhabitants in 2018 (French side of the border only), while the transnational Eurodistrict had a population of 958,421 inhabitants.


title: Strasbourg

text: In the Middle Ages, Strasbourg (a Free imperial city since 1262), was an important town. According to a 1444 census, the population was circa 20,000; only one third less than Cologne, then a major European city.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg, well known as centre of humanism, has a long history of excellence in higher-education, at the crossroads of French and German intellectual traditions. Although Strasbourg had been annexed by the Kingdom of France in 1683, it still remained connected to the German-speaking intellectual world throughout the 18th century, and the university attracted numerous students from the Holy Roman Empire, with Goethe, Metternich and Montgelas, who studied law in Strasbourg, among the most prominent. With 19 Nobel prizes in total, Strasbourg is the most eminent French university outside of Paris.


title: Strasbourg

text: Up until January 2009, there were three universities in Strasbourg, with an approximate total of 48,500 students (another 4,500 students are being taught at one of the diverse post-graduate schools):


title: Strasbourg

text: As of 1 January 2009, those three universities have merged and now constitute the Université de Strasbourg.


title: Strasbourg

text: The Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire (BNU) is, with its collection of more than 3,000,000 titles, the second-largest library in France after the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It was founded by the German administration after the complete destruction of the previous municipal library in 1871 and holds the unique status of being simultaneously a students' and a national library. The Strasbourg municipal library had been marked erroneously as "City Hall" in a French commercial map, which had been captured and used by the German artillery to lay their guns. A librarian from Munich later pointed out "...that the destruction of the precious collection was not the fault of a German artillery officer, who used the French map, but of the slovenly and inaccurate scholarship of a Frenchman."


title: Strasbourg

text: The municipal library Bibliothèque municipale de Strasbourg (BMS) administrates a network of ten medium-sized librairies in different areas of the town. A six stories high "Grande bibliothèque", the "Médiathèque André Malraux", was inaugurated on 19 September 2008 and is considered the largest in Eastern France.


title: Strasbourg

text: As one of the earliest centers of book-printing in Europe (see above: History), Strasbourg for a long time held a large number of incunabula — books printed before 1500 — in its library as one of its most precious heritages: no less than 7,000. After the total destruction of this institution in 1870, however, a new collection had to be reassembled from scratch. Today, Strasbourg's different public and institutional libraries again display a sizable total number of incunabula, distributed as follows: "Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire", ca. 2,120, "Médiathèque de la ville et de la communauté urbaine de Strasbourg", 349, "Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire", 238, "Médiathèque protestante", 66, and "Bibliothèque alsatique du Crédit Mutuel", 5.


title: Strasbourg

text: Train services operate from the "Gare de Strasbourg", the city's main station in the city centre, eastward to Offenburg and Karlsruhe in Germany, westward to Metz and Paris, and southward to Basel. Strasbourg's links with the rest of France have improved due to its recent connection to the TGV network, with the first phase of the TGV "Est" (Paris–Strasbourg) in 2007, the TGV "Rhin-Rhône" (Strasbourg-Lyon) in 2012, and the second phase of the TGV Est in July 2016.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg also has its own airport, serving major domestic destinations as well as international destinations in Europe and northern Africa. The airport is linked to the "Gare de Strasbourg" by a frequent train service.


title: Strasbourg

text: City transport in Strasbourg includes the futurist-looking Strasbourg tramway, which opened in 1994 and is operated by the regional transit company Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois (CTS), consisting of 6 lines with a total length of . The CTS also operates a comprehensive bus network throughout the city that is integrated with the trams. With more than of bicycle paths, biking in the city is convenient and the CTS operates a cheap bike-sharing scheme named "Vélhop". The CTS, and its predecessors, also operated a previous generation of tram system between 1878 and 1960, complemented by trolleybus routes between 1939 and 1962.


title: Strasbourg

text: Being on the Ill and close to the Rhine, Strasbourg has always been an important centre of fluvial navigation, as is attested by archeological findings. In 1682 the "Canal de la Bruche" was added to the river navigations, initially to provide transport for sandstone from quarries in the Vosges for use in the fortification of the city. That canal has since closed, but the subsequent "Canal du Rhône au Rhin", "Canal de la Marne au Rhin" and "Grand Canal d'Alsace" are still in use, as is the important activity of the "Port autonome de Strasbourg". Water tourism inside the city proper attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists yearly.


title: Strasbourg

text: The tram system that now criss-crosses the historic city centre complements walking and biking in it. The centre has been transformed into a pedestrian priority zone that enables and invites walking and biking by making these active modes of transport comfortable, safe and enjoyable. These attributes are accomplished by applying the principle of "filtered permeability" to the existing irregular network of streets. It means that the network adaptations favour active transport and, selectively, "filter out" the car by reducing the number of streets that run through the centre. While certain streets are discontinuous for cars, they connect to a network of pedestrian and bike paths which permeate the entire centre. In addition, these paths go through public squares and open spaces increasing the enjoyment of the trip. This logic of filtering a mode of transport is fully expressed in a comprehensive model for laying out neighbourhoods and districts – the Fused Grid.


title: Strasbourg

text: At present the A35 autoroute, which parallels the Rhine between Karlsruhe and Basel, and the A4 autoroute, which links Paris with Strasbourg, penetrate close to the centre of the city. The "Grand contournement ouest" (GCO) project, programmed since 1999, planned to construct a highway connection between the junctions of the A4 and the A35 autoroutes in the north and of the A35 and A352 autoroutes in the south. This routes well to the west of the city in order to divest a significant portion of motorized traffic from the unité urbaine. The GCO project was opposed by environmentalists, who created a ZAD (or Zone to Defend). After much delay, the GCO was finally inaugurated on 11 December 2021.


title: Strasbourg

text: The average amount of time people spend commuting on public transport in Strasbourg on weekdays is 52 min. 7% of travellers on public transport travel for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transport is 9 min and 11% of passengers wait for more than 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually travel in a single trip on public transport is , whilst none travels for more than in a single direction.


title: Strasbourg

text: Strasbourg is the seat of over twenty international institutions, most famously of the Council of Europe and of the European Parliament, of which it is the official seat. Strasbourg is considered the legislative and democratic capital of the European Union, while Brussels is considered the executive and administrative capital and Luxembourg the judiciary and financial capital.


title: Strasbourg

text: France and Germany have created a Eurodistrict straddling the Rhine, combining the Greater Strasbourg and the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg, with some common administration. It was established in 2005 and has been fully functional since 2010.


title: Strasbourg

text: Sporting teams from Strasbourg are the Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (football), SIG Strasbourg (basketball) and the Étoile Noire (ice hockey). The women's tennis Internationaux de Strasbourg is one of the most important French tournaments of its kind outside Roland-Garros. In 1922, Strasbourg was the venue for the XVI Grand Prix de l'A.C.F. which saw Fiat battle Bugatti, Ballot, Rolland Pilain, and Britain's Aston Martin and Sunbeam.


title: Strasbourg

text: The city is home to SN Strasbourg, a First division water polo team that plays its home games at the Piscine de la Kibitzenau.


title: Strasbourg

text: In chronological order, notable people born in Strasbourg include: Eric of Friuli, Johannes Tauler, Sebastian Brant, Jean Baptiste Kléber, Louis Ramond de Carbonnières, François Christophe Kellermann, Marie Tussaud, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, Louis-Frédéric Schützenberger, Gustave Doré, Émile Waldteufel, René Beeh, Jean/Hans Arp, Charles Münch, Hans Bethe, Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont, Marcel Marceau, Tomi Ungerer, Elizabeth Sombart, Arsène Wenger, Petit and Matt Pokora.


title: Strasbourg

text: In chronological order, notable residents of Strasbourg include: Johannes Gutenberg, Hans Baldung, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Joachim Meyer, Johann Carolus, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Georg Büchner, Louis Pasteur, Ferdinand Braun, Albrecht Kossel, Georg Simmel, Albert Schweitzer, Otto Klemperer, Marc Bloch, Alberto Fujimori, Marjane Satrapi, Paul Ricœur and Jean-Marie Lehn.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon) is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. The group's best-selling album, "Hi Infidelity" (1980), contained four US top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Over the course of their career, the band has sold more than 40 million records and has charted 13 top 40 hits, including the number ones "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling". REO Speedwagon's mainstream popularity waned in the late 1980s, but the band remains a popular live act.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In the autumn of 1966, Neal Doughty entered the electrical engineering program at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, as a junior. On his first night, he met fellow student Alan Gratzer. They held an impromptu jam session in the basement of their Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory and soon started a rock band. Gratzer had been a drummer since high school, and was playing in a local group on the weekends, while Doughty had learned some Beatles songs on his parents' piano.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Doughty began to follow Gratzer's band, eventually sitting in on a song or two. The keyboard player was the leader, but several other band members were unhappy with the situation. On the last day of the university's spring semester, guitarist Joe Matt called the band's leader and told him that he, drummer Gratzer, and bassist Mike Blair had decided to leave the band to start a new one with Doughty.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: They made a list of songs to learn over the summer break, and Doughty landed a summer job to buy his first keyboard. On his Farfisa organ, he learned "Light My Fire" by The Doors. The members returned to school in the fall of 1967 and had their first rehearsal before classes started. They named the band REO Speedwagon, from the REO Speed Wagon, a 1915 truck that was designed by Ransom Eli Olds. Doughty had seen the name written across the blackboard when he walked into his History of Transportation class on the first day they had decided to look for a name. Rather than pronouncing REO as a single word as the motor company did , they chose to spell the word out, pronouncing each letter individually ("R-E-O"). An advertisement in the school newspaper produced their first job, a fraternity party that turned into a food fight. They continued to perform cover songs in campus bars, fraternity parties, and university events. The first lineup consisted of Doughty on keyboards, Gratzer on drums and vocals, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals, Mike Blair on bass and vocals.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In early 1968, Terry Luttrell became lead singer, and Bob Crownover joined as the guitar player, replacing Matt. When Mike Blair left the band in mid-1968, Gregg Philbin replaced Blair, Marty Shepard played trumpet and Joe McCabe played sax until McCabe moved to Southern Illinois University. Crownover played guitar for the group until mid-1969 when Bill Fiorio replaced him. Fiorio then departed in late 1969, eventually assuming the name Duke Tumatoe, and went on to form the All Star Frogs. Steve Scorfina (who would go on to found progressive rock/album-oriented rock band Pavlov's Dog) came aboard for over a year, composing with the band and performing live, before being replaced by Gary Richrath in late 1970.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Richrath was a Peoria, Illinois-based guitarist and prolific songwriter who brought fresh original material to the band. Richrath had driven 100 miles (160 km) to see the band and become a part of it. He is quoted as saying "I'm going to be a part of that band whether they like it or not", and then went about making it happen. With Richrath on board, the regional popularity of the band grew tremendously. The Midwestern United States was the original REO Speedwagon fan stronghold and is pivotal in this period of the band's history. They gained a major supporter in the St. Louis, Missouri-based radio station KSHE, whose status as one of America's most influential rock stations boosted their platform beyond the Midwest.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The band signed to Epic Records in 1971. Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. The lineup on the first album consisted of Richrath, Gratzer, Doughty, Philbin, and Luttrell.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: With their equipment being hauled to dates in a friend's station wagon, REO played bars and clubs all over the Midwest. The band's debut album, "R.E.O. Speedwagon", was released on Epic Records in 1971. The most popular track on this record was "157 Riverside Avenue". The title refers to the Westport, Connecticut address, where the band stayed while recording in Leka's studio in Bridgeport and remains an in-concert favorite.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Although the rest of the band's lineup remained stable, REO Speedwagon switched lead vocalists three times for their first three albums. Luttrell left the band in early 1972, eventually becoming the vocalist for Starcastle. He was replaced by Kevin Cronin. Cronin recorded one album with the band, 1972's "R.E.O./T.W.O." but left the band during the recording sessions for 1973's "Ridin' the Storm Out" because of internal conflicts. "Ridin' the Storm Out" was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal, and it featured Neal Doughty's "wailing storm siren" synthesizer intro on the title track. Murphy stayed on for two more albums, "Lost in a Dream" and "This Time We Mean It", before Cronin returned to the fold in January 1976 and recorded "R.E.O.", which was released that same year.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Cronin's return came after Greg X. Volz turned down the position for lead vocalist after becoming a Christian.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In 1977, REO convinced Epic Records that their strength was in their live performances. Epic agreed to let them produce their first live album, "", which was eventually certified platinum. That same year, the band moved to Los Angeles, California.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In 1977, bassist Gregg Philbin left the band. Depending upon which band member is expressing an opinion, it was either because Philbin was disenchanted with the new corporate-structure REO where Cronin and Richrath got bigger slices of the pie instead of the equal credit they once shared as a "garage band", or he was asked to leave over his lifestyle issues affecting the music quality. Philbin was replaced with another Champaign, Illinois musician, Centennial High School alumnus, Bruce Hall, to record "You Can Tune a Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish". The album was released in 1978 and has received FM radio airplay over the years, thanks to songs like "Roll with the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly". The album was REO's first to make the top 40, peaking at No. 29. The album sold over two million copies in the US, ultimately achieving double platinum status.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: On November 21, 1980, Epic released "Hi Infidelity", which represented a change in sound, going from hard rock to more pop-oriented material. "Hi Infidelity" spawned four hit singles written by Richrath and Cronin, including the chart-topping "Keep On Loving You" (Cronin), plus "Take It on the Run" (#5) (Richrath), "In Your Letter" (#20) (Richrath), and "Don't Let Him Go" (#24) (Cronin), and remained on the charts for 65 weeks, 32 of which were spent in the top ten, including 15 weeks atop the "Billboard" 200. "Hi Infidelity" sold over 10 million copies.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The band's follow-up album, "Good Trouble", was released in June 1982. Although it was not as successful as its predecessor, the album performed moderately well commercially, featuring the hit singles "Keep the Fire Burnin'" (U.S. #7), "Sweet Time" (U.S. #26) and the Album Rock chart hit "The Key".


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Two years later, the band released "Wheels Are Turnin'", an album that included the #1 hit single "Can't Fight This Feeling" plus three more hits: "I Do' Wanna Know" (U.S. #29), "One Lonely Night" (U.S. #19), and "Live Every Moment" (U.S. #34).


title: REO Speedwagon

text: REO Speedwagon toured the US in 1985, including a sold-out concert in Madison, Wisconsin in May. On July 13, on the way to a show in Milwaukee, the band made a stop in Philadelphia to play at the US leg of Live Aid, which broke a record for number of viewers. They performed "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Roll with the Changes" which featured members of the Beach Boys, the band members' families, and Paul Shaffer on stage for backing vocals.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: 1987's "Life as We Know It" saw a decline in sales, but still managed to provide the band with the top-20 hits "That Ain't Love" (U.S. #16) and "In My Dreams" (U.S. #19). "The Hits" is a 1988 compilation album which contained the new tracks "I Don't Want to Lose You" and "Here with Me". These were the last songs recorded with Gary Richrath and Alan Gratzer. "Here with Me" cracked the top 20 of the "Billboard" Hot 100 and the top ten on the Adult Contemporary chart.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: By the late 1980s, the band's popularity was starting to decline. Original drummer Alan Gratzer left in September 1988 after he decided to retire from music to open a restaurant. In early 1989, Gary Richrath was fired after tensions between him and Kevin Cronin boiled over. Cronin had been playing in The Strolling Dudes, a jazz ensemble that included jazz trumpet player Rick Braun (who had co-written the abovementioned "Here with Me" with Cronin), Miles Joseph on lead guitar and Graham Lear on drums. Lear had already been invited to join REO in September 1988 as Gratzer's successor and Joseph was brought in as a temporary stand-in for Richrath. Back up singers Carla Day and Melanie Jackson were also added. This lineup did only one show, on January 7, 1989, in Viña del Mar, Chile, where it won the award for best group at the city's annual International Song Festival. After that, Miles Joseph and the back up singers were dropped in favor of former Ted Nugent guitarist Dave Amato (who was brought aboard in May 1989) and keyboardist/songwriter/producer Jesse Harms.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The 1990 release "The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken", with Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) on drums, was a commercial disappointment. The album produced only one, and - to date - the band's last "Billboard" Hot 100 single, "Love Is a Rock", which peaked at No. 65. Harms, disenchanted by the album's failure, left the group in early 1991.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Shortly after his departure, Richrath assembled former members of the Midwestern band Vancouver to form a namesake band, Richrath. After touring for several years, the Richrath band released "Only the Strong Survive" in 1992 on the GNP Crescendo label. Richrath (the band) continued to perform for several years before disbanding in the late 1990s. In September 1998, Gary Richrath briefly joined REO onstage at the County Fair in Los Angeles to play on the band's encore song, "157 Riverside Avenue". He then joined REO once again in Los Angeles in May 2000 for the same encore but no serious plans for a reunion ever materialized.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Having lost their recording contract with Epic, REO Speedwagon ended up releasing "Building the Bridge" (1996) on the Priority/Rhythm Safari label. When that label went bankrupt, the album was released on Castle Records, which also experienced financial troubles. REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart. The title track did make R&R's AC Top 30 chart.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The commercial failure of the band's newer material with its revised lineup demanded a change in marketing strategy. As a consequence, Epic began re-releasing recordings from older albums with updated artwork and design.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: Since 1995, the label has released over a dozen compilation albums featuring greatest hits, including 1999's "The Ballads" which features two new songs: "Just for You" (Cronin and Jim Peterik) and "Till The River's Run Dry" (Cronin). In 2000, REO teamed up with Styx for an appearance at Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, which was released as a live concert video "". The REO portion of the show was released again under three separate titles: "Live - Plus" (2001), "Live Plus 3" (2001) and "Extended Versions" (2001) (which was certified gold by the RIAA on April 26, 2006). REO once again teamed with Styx in 2003 for the Classic Rock's Main Event tour which also included another band from their common rock era, Journey.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The band released a self-financed album entitled "Find Your Own Way Home" in April 2007. Though it did not chart as an album, it produced two singles "I Needed to Fall" (Cronin) and "Find Your Own Way Home" (Cronin) which appeared on "Billboard"'s Adult Contemporary radio chart.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: REO Speedwagon continues to tour regularly, performing mostly their classic hits. They teamed up with Styx to record a new single entitled "Can't Stop Rockin'", released in March 2009, as well as for a full tour that included special guest .38 Special.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In November 2009, REO Speedwagon released a Christmas album, "Not So Silent Night...Christmas with REO Speedwagon." On December 2, the band released an online video game, "Find Your Own Way Home", produced by digital design agency Curious Sense. The game was the first "downloadable casual game" produced with a rock band and was cited by numerous publications including "The New York Times" as an innovative marketing product for a music act. In mid-2010, the band — then touring with Pat Benatar — announced that it would release a 30th anniversary deluxe edition reissue of "Hi Infidelity".


title: REO Speedwagon

text: REO Speedwagon headlined on the M&I Classic Rock Stage at the Milwaukee Summerfest on June 30, 2011. On March 11, 2012, Kevin Cronin appeared on the Canadian reality TV series "Star Académie". He sang a sampling of REO's hits with the show's singing finalists.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: On November 22, 2013, they announced a benefit concert with Styx titled "Rock to the Rescue" to raise money for the affected families of the tornadoes in central Illinois. The concert was held on December 4, 2013, in Bloomington, Illinois. Richard Marx joined REO on stage for a joint performance of two of his hit songs. Gary Richrath reunited with REO one final time for a performance of "Ridin' the Storm Out" to end REO's set at the sold-out concert. Richrath stayed on stage to help with the encore of "With a Little Help From My Friends" along with REO, Styx, Richard Marx, and others. Richrath was originally from the town of East Peoria which was damaged during the storm. Families impacted by the storm and first responders sat near the stage for this special REO concert.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In early 2014, it was announced that REO Speedwagon and Chicago would be teaming up for 15 dates throughout 2014. Gary Richrath died on September 13, 2015, due to complications from surgery. In 2016 the band went on tour with Def Leppard and Tesla.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The band performed with Pitbull the song "Messin' Around" live on the ABC TV show "Greatest Hits in 2016"; that version of the song was also released as a single on iTunes. The band toured the UK arena circuit with Status Quo in December 2016. The band toured the US with Styx and Don Felder on the "United We Rock" tour, debuting June 20, 2017, at the Sunlight Supply Amphitheater. In 2017, the "Hi Infidelity" album received the Diamond Award for official U.S. sales of over 10 million copies. REO and Chicago teamed up once again in the summer of 2018 for a 30-city tour.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: The band appeared in an episode in the third season of the American TV series "Ozark", which was released on Netflix on March 27, 2020. After the appearance, four of REO's songs reentered the "Billboard" rock charts.


title: REO Speedwagon

text: In 2021, REO Speedwagon was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Rt. 66 located in Joliet, Illinois. Gregg Philbin died on October 24, 2022.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums "Blizzard of Ozz" (1980) and "Diary of a Madman" (1981). Rhoads was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Originally educated in classical guitar, Rhoads combined these early influences with heavy metal, helping to form a subgenre later known as neoclassical metal. With Quiet Riot, he adopted a black-and-white polka-dot theme which became an emblem for the group. He reached his peak as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne's solo career, performing on tracks including "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" on the "Blizzard of Ozz" album. "Crazy Train" features one of the most well-known heavy metal guitar riffs.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: He died in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career, Rhoads is regarded as a pivotal figure in metal music, credited with pioneering a fast and technical style of guitar soloing that largely defined the metal scene of the 1980s. He helped to popularize various guitar techniques now common in heavy metal music, including two-handed tapping, tremolo bar dive bombs, and intricate scale patterns, drawing comparisons to his contemporary, Eddie Van Halen. The Jackson Rhoads model guitar was originally commissioned by him. He has been included in several published "Greatest Guitarist" lists, and has been cited by other prominent guitarists as a major influence.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads was born on December 6, 1956, in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of three children. His parents were both music teachers. His brother was also a musician, who performed under the name "Kelle. " In 1958, when Rhoads was 17 months old, his father left the family and remarried. All three children were subsequently raised by their mother, Delores. She had received a bachelor's degree in music from UCLA and had played piano professionally. She opened a music school in North Hollywood called Musonia to support the family.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: The Rhoads family did not own a stereo, and the children created their own music at home to entertain themselves. Rhoads listened to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as a child and would imitate their performances with his brother Kelle in the family garage. Rhoads began folk and classical guitar lessons at approximately age seven at his mother's music school. He became interested in rock guitar and began lessons at Musonia from Scott Shelly. Shelly soon approached Rhoads' mother to inform her that he could no longer teach her son, as Rhoads' knowledge of the electric guitar had exceeded his own. Rhoads also received piano lessons from his mother to help build his understanding of music theory.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads met future bandmate Kelly Garni while attending John Muir Middle School in Burbank, California, and the two became best friends. According to Garni, the pair were unpopular due to "the way we looked. Every time we showed up for school it was usually problematic, so we pretty much avoided it. We weren't nerds, we weren't jocks, we weren't dopers, we were just on our own." Rhoads taught Garni how to play bass guitar, and together they formed a band called The Whore, rehearsing during the day at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a 1970s Hollywood nightspot. It was during this period that Rhoads learned to play lead guitar. "When I met him he didn't know how to play lead guitar yet at all. He was just starting to take lessons for it and really just riffing around," said Garni. Rhoads spent several months playing at backyard parties around the Los Angeles area in the mid-1970s.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: The pair later formed a cover band, Violet Fox, with Rhoads' older brother Kelle on drums. Violet Fox, which was together for approximately five months, staged several performances in the Grand Salon at Musonia. Among their setlist was "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain and songs from the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper and David Bowie. After Violet Fox dissolved, Rhoads formed various other short-lived bands such as The Katzenjammer Kids and Mildred Pierce. The Katzenjammer Kids' lead vocalist would often wear dresses on stage, which sometimes led to violent reactions from the audience.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: According to Garni, he and Rhoads frequently listened to Long Beach, California radio station KNAC because it was "the only radio station that would play anything of interest to us," and it was through KNAC that Rhoads discovered much of the music that influenced his playing. The home of a neighborhood friend with a high-quality stereo and large record collection became a regular hangout for the pair, and there they smoked pot and listened to more obscure hard rock music such as early Scorpions records.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Live bootleg recordings were very popular at that time, and Rhoads began to take note of the differences between studio recordings and the live versions, particularly the different licks guitarists incorporated when playing live. He began to memorize these licks and taught himself to play them. Rhoads' brother states that a July 11, 1971, Alice Cooper concert at the Long Beach Auditorium that the pair attended was a defining point in the guitarist's life. After the concert was over he noted:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Garni concurs, calling Rhoads' discovery of Alice Cooper "a game changer." Guitarists Glen Buxton, Mick Ronson, and Leslie West were early influences on his playing.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: At age 16, Rhoads and Garni formed the band Little Women. At approximately the same time, Rhoads began teaching guitar in his mother's school during the day and playing live gigs at night. He graduated from Burbank High School, participating in a special program that allowed him to condense his studies and graduate early so he could teach guitar and pursue music full-time. Recruiting lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow and drummer Drew Forsyth, the band soon changed its name to Quiet Riot.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Forsyth had periodically played with Rhoads and Garni in the past, most notably in Mildred Pierce. DuBrow was an L.A. photographer who was not at all what Rhoads had in mind for his new band, and he was not well liked by his Quiet Riot bandmates, a situation that caused a great deal of tension within the band. Rhoads had envisioned a frontman in the vein of Alice Cooper or David Bowie, but DuBrow was persistent and would not take no for an answer. In the end, Rhoads and Garni decided that if nothing else, DuBrow shared their enthusiasm and he was hired.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Quiet Riot quickly became one of the most popular acts on the Los Angeles club circuit, and by late 1976 were signed to CBS/Sony Records. Rhoads' "polka-dot theme" became an emblem of the band, as many fans began showing up at Quiet Riot shows wearing polka-dot bow-ties and vests, emulating what the guitarist wore on stage.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: While the band had a strong following in Los Angeles, "Quiet Riot" and "Quiet Riot II" were released only in Japan. The relationship between DuBrow and Garni had also deteriorated completely during the recording of the band's second album, with potentially catastrophic results. After drunkenly firing a handgun through the ceiling and engaging in a fistfight with Rhoads, Garni hatched a plan to shoot and kill DuBrow at The Record Plant studio while recording the album. Rhoads was left with no choice but to fire his longtime friend and band co-founder.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: In 1979, former Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was in Los Angeles, attempting to form a new band. An acquaintance of Rhoads' from the LA club circuit, future Slaughter bassist Dana Strum, phoned Rhoads relentlessly to coax him into auditioning. Rhoads initially told Quiet Riot bandmate Rudy Sarzo that he was not really interested in auditioning, but finally agreed to go simply to get Strum off his back. Rhoads got the call for the audition just before his final show with Quiet Riot in September 1979. The day before Osbourne was scheduled to return to England, Rhoads agreed to audition for Osbourne at a Los Angeles studio.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads brought his Gibson Les Paul and a practice amp and started warming up. Osbourne, who was very drunk, said of the audition "He played this fucking solo and I'm like, am I that fucking stoned or am I hallucinating or what the fuck is this?!" Osbourne has maintained that he immediately gave him the job. Rhoads recalled later, "I just tuned up and did some riffs, and he said, 'You've got the gig'; I had the weirdest feeling, because I thought, 'You didn't even hear me yet. After the audition, Rhoads returned to Musonia and told Sarzo that he had never actually met Osbourne, who was drunk and remained in the studio's control room the entire time. According to Rhoads' own account, it was Strum who emerged from the control room to inform him that he had the job. Rhoads was, however, scheduled to meet Osbourne the following night in his hotel room. In the years following, Osbourne has maintained that his first encounter with Rhoads and the subsequent audition took place the following day at the hotel, and it seems that, in his inebriated state, he combined the two events in his mind. The fact that Osbourne immediately began rehearsals with another guitarist upon returning to England, and did not mention Rhoads until after that guitarist had been fired, seems to confirm that his account of events is inaccurate.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Over the next couple of days following the audition, Rhoads, Osbourne, Strum, and drummer Frankie Banali jammed together in Los Angeles before Osbourne returned to England. Disillusioned with Quiet Riot's inability to land an American recording deal, Rhoads discussed with his mother the possibility of joining an already established band. When she asked him if he would accept "an offer like this one", he replied, "Of course!"


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Upon returning to England, Osbourne was introduced in a pub to former Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley by a Jet Records employee named Arthur Sharpe, and the pair hit it off and decided to work together. Unhappy with the guitarist they were initially working with, Osbourne mentioned to Daisley that he had recently met a talented young guitarist in Los Angeles by the name of Randy Rhoads. The new group's management intended to keep the lineup all-British and was reluctant to hire an unknown American guitarist, but manager Don Arden eventually relented. Rhoads flew to England only to return home a couple of days later, being turned away by English customs at Heathrow Airport when he didn't have the necessary work permit. A representative from Jet Records was dispatched to clear the matter up but he never arrived, and Rhoads spent the night in a holding cell before being handcuffed and put on a plane back to the United States the next day. Osbourne subsequently called him to apologize, and arrangements were made for Rhoads to return to England with the proper paperwork. Rhoads flew to England on November 27, 1979, and met with Osbourne and Daisley at the Jet Records' offices in London. The trio traveled by train to Osbourne's home, Bullrush Cottage, which also housed a rehearsal space. It was here that Rhoads lived with Osbourne, his then-wife Thelma, and their two children, during his first weeks in England. Years later, Osbourne said in his autobiography that he could not understand why a musician as talented as Rhoads would want to get involved with a "bloated alcoholic wreck" like himself.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: After a short search, former Uriah Heep drummer Lee Kerslake completed the new band, then known as The Blizzard of Ozz. The group headed into the studio to record their debut album, titled "Blizzard of Ozz". Rhoads' guitar playing had changed due to the level of freedom allowed by Osbourne and Daisley. His work with Quiet Riot had been criticized as being "dull" and did not rely on classical scales or arrangements. Propelled by Rhoads' neo-classical guitar work, "Blizzard of Ozz" proved an instant hit with rock fans, particularly in the US.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: They released two singles from the album: "Mr. Crowley" and "Crazy Train". "Mr. Crowley" is in the key of D-minor and "Crazy Train" in F-sharp minor. Osbourne said years later, "One day Randy came to me and said that most heavy metal songs are written in an A to E chord structure. He said, 'Let's try to change that' ... so we made a rule that almost every number that we recorded on an album was never played in the same key." AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey described Crazy Train's main guitar riff as "a classic, making use of the full minor scale in a way not seen since Ritchie Blackmore's heyday with Deep Purple."


title: Randy Rhoads

text: "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" placed 9th and 28th, respectively, on "Guitar World"s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos readers poll. "Crazy Train" placed 51 in "Rolling Stone"s 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time list.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Following a UK tour the band recorded another album, "Diary of a Madman". In December 1981, Rhoads was voted "Best New Talent" by the readers of "Guitar Player" magazine and voted "Best Heavy Metal Guitarist" by the readers of UK-based "Sounds" magazine.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: During a break before leaving for their first US tour, both Kerslake and Daisley were suddenly fired by Sharon Arden, the band's manager and Osbourne's future wife. For the US tour, ex-Black Oak Arkansas drummer Tommy Aldridge and bassist Rudy Sarzo – who had been Rhoads' bandmate in Quiet Riot – were hired. "Diary of a Madman" was released soon after in October 1981, and since Kerslake and Daisley were already out of the band, Aldridge and Sarzo's names and photos appeared on the album sleeve. Disputes over royalties performance and other intellectual property rights became a source of future court battles. Kerslake has maintained that Rhoads almost left Osbourne's band in late 1981 due to his displeasure with the firing of himself and Daisley. "He didn't want to go [on tour with Osbourne]. We told him we were thrown out. He said he was going to leave the band as he did not want to leave us behind. I told him not to be stupid but thanks for the sentiment", the drummer later recalled.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Around this time, Rhoads remarked to Osbourne, bandmates Aldridge and Sarzo, and friend Kelly Garni that he was considering leaving rock for a few years to earn a degree in classical guitar at UCLA. In the 1991 documentary film "Don't Blame Me", Osbourne confirmed Rhoads' desire to earn the degree and stated that had he lived, he did not believe Rhoads would have stayed in his band. Friend and ex-Quiet Riot bassist Garni has speculated in interviews that if Rhoads had continued to play rock, he might have gone the route of more keyboard-driven rock, which had become popular through the 1980s. While on tour with Osbourne, Rhoads would seek out classical guitar tutors for lessons whenever possible.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: At the time of his death, Rhoads had already made the decision to part ways with Osbourne once his contractual obligations had been fulfilled. Though he had a good relationship with Osbourne, the vocalist's constant drug and alcohol abuse made day-to-day life on tour difficult for the members of his band. As the "Diary of a Madman" US tour progressed, Osbourne would often refuse to perform due to the lingering after-effects of the previous night's excesses, and only Sharon could talk him into taking the stage. Many shows were simply canceled, and Rhoads grew tired of the unpredictability.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: The final straw came when a plan was announced in February 1982 by Osbourne's management and record label to record a live album of Black Sabbath songs at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens later that year. Rhoads and bandmate Tommy Aldridge felt that they had established themselves as recording artists, and they regarded an album of cover songs to be a step backwards artistically and professionally. Thus, they refused to participate in the planned live recording. Osbourne viewed this decision as a betrayal, and the relationship between him and Rhoads became quite strained. Already drinking heavily, Osbourne escalated his drinking and began to tear the band apart. At one point he drunkenly fired the entire band, including Rhoads, though he later had no memory of doing so. He began taunting Rhoads with claims that the likes of Frank Zappa and Gary Moore were willing to replace him on the proposed live album. Osbourne's unstable and confrontational behavior soon convinced Rhoads to leave the band. He grudgingly agreed to perform on the live album with the stipulation that he would depart after fulfilling his contractual obligations to Jet Records, which consisted of one more studio album and subsequent tour. The proposed live album was scrapped upon the guitarist's sudden death weeks later, though the plan was quickly resurrected with the release of "Speak of the Devil" in November of that year.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads played his last show on Thursday, March 18, 1982, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. The next day, the band was heading to a festival in Orlando, Florida, called Rock Super Bowl XIV. Osbourne recalls his final conversation with Rhoads that night on the bus involved the guitarist admonishing him over his heavy drinking. The last thing Rhoads said to him that night was, "You'll kill yourself, you know, one of these days."


title: Randy Rhoads

text: After driving much of the night, they stopped at Flying Baron Estates in Leesburg, Florida, to fix a malfunctioning air conditioning unit on the bus while Osbourne remained asleep. On the property, owned by the Calhoun Brothers tour bus company, there was an airstrip with helicopters and small planes. Without permission, tour bus driver and private pilot Andrew Aycock took a single-engine Beechcraft F35 plane registered to a Mike Partin. On the first flight, Aycock took keyboardist Don Airey and tour manager Jake Duncan with him as passengers. During this first flight, Duncan later revealed that Aycock "buzzed" the bus in an attempt to wake drummer Tommy Aldridge. The group then landed and a second flight soon took to the air with Rhoads and makeup artist Rachel Youngblood aboard. Though afraid of flying, Rhoads wanted to take some aerial photos of the countryside for his mother. He had tried unsuccessfully to coax bassist Rudy Sarzo to join him on the flight; Sarzo chose to get some extra sleep instead.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: During the second flight, more attempts were made to "buzz" the tour bus. Aycock succeeded in making two close passes, but botched the third attempt. At about 10a.m., after being in the air for approximately five minutes, one of the plane's wings clipped the top of the tour bus, breaking the wing into two parts and sending the plane spiraling out of control. The initial impact with the bus caused Rhoads' and Youngblood's heads to crash through the plane's windshield. The plane then severed the top of a pine tree and crashed into the garage of a nearby mansion, bursting into flames. Rhoads (25) was killed instantly, as were Aycock (36) and Youngblood (58). All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and Rhoads was identified by dental records and personal jewelry. According to Sharon Osbourne, who was asleep in the bus and awoken by the crash, "They were all in bits, it was just body parts everywhere."


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Keyboardist Don Airey was the only member of the band to witness the crash, as the rest were still asleep in the bus. In his account, he explained that he was standing beside the bus taking photos that he planned to give to Rhoads later. He told of seeing a struggle between Rhoads and Aycock in the cockpit as the plane approached the bus, seconds before the crash. He gave the following eyewitness account:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: As the band members on board the bus were all shaken from their bunks by the impact and tried to figure out what had happened, bassist Sarzo recalls side-stepping broken glass in his bare feet and looking through the gaping hole in the bus to see tour manager Jake Duncan outside rocking back and forth on the ground screaming "They're gone! They're gone!" Drummer Tommy Aldridge took a fire extinguisher from the bus and ran towards the crash site in a vain attempt to put out the fire. Tour manager Duncan, who had been on board the first flight, explained that although he had been concerned about the pilot's behavior, there was no sense of foreboding:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads was afraid of flying and Youngblood had a bad heart. Rhoads originally had no intention of getting in the plane; Duncan explained how the guitarist ended up on the doomed flight:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: The entire group was quite distraught, and the remaining band and crew members were required to remain in Leesburg for an additional two days, until preliminary investigations were completed. Rhoads' brother-in-law flew from California to Leesburg to identify the guitarist's remains. Ozzy Osbourne's official statement to crash investigators was:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake, who had recorded "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman" with Rhoads and had been recently fired from Osbourne's band, were together in Houston, Texas, with Uriah Heep later that day when they got word of the accident. Kerslake recalled the moment he heard the news:


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads' longtime girlfriend Jodi Raskin was in her car when she recalls hearing a block of songs from "Blizzard of Ozz" on the radio before the DJ announced the accident and the news that Rhoads had been killed. She was too distraught to continue driving. When close friend and future Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali heard the news, he frantically got in touch with Rudy Sarzo to make sure he was all right. He immediately sensed that Sarzo was having a hard time continuing without Rhoads.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Black Sabbath was also touring the US at the time and heard the news on the radio that members of Osbourne's band had been killed in a plane crash. According to bassist Geezer Butler, they panicked as they didn't know if Osbourne had been one of the casualties or not. They quickly contacted Osbourne's management to find out what had happened.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: In the hours following the crash, band members and crew called loved ones to assure them that they were safe, as news reports hadn't yet named the victims. Sarzo found a church near the hotel they had been taken to and went inside to pray. The church was empty aside from one man at the front, crying uncontrollably near the altar. Sarzo was moved by the overwhelming grief this man was dealing with. Eventually the man cried out "Why? Why?" and Sarzo realized it was Osbourne.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: When fellow guitarist Eddie Van Halen learned about the crash he sensed immediately that the pilot "had to have been fucked up when it happened," saying in an early 1982 radio interview, "You don't fly that low and smash into a crew bus and then hit the house. (The pilot) was jerking off. That's just plain stupidity. I feel so sorry for (Rhoads)."


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Aycock's estranged wife Wanda had spent that last night on the bus and band members knew the driver was attempting to reconcile with her. Witnesses described the driver's state of mind as agitated in the hours before the fatal crash. According to witnesses, Wanda emerged from inside the bus shortly after the second flight took off and was standing in the doorway watching the plane as Aycock made his final approach. Airey and Sarzo both surmise that Aycock, having suddenly seen his estranged ex-wife appear, may have snapped and made the impulsive decision to kill her by crashing the plane into the bus. Speculation regarding motives aside, Sarzo believes that the driver/pilot's troubled emotional state that day, worsened by the effects of the cocaine and the fact that he hadn't slept, was the reason for the crash. Given the struggle in the cockpit described by eyewitness Don Airey, Sarzo came to the conclusion that Rhoads' actions in the last seconds of his life prevented a direct hit with the bus, which potentially could have killed the pilot's ex-wife and everyone else on board.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Ozzy Osbourne later admitted that Aycock had been seen doing cocaine all night prior to the crash. It was confirmed after autopsy that Aycock had tested positive for cocaine. Rhoads' toxicology test revealed only nicotine. The NTSB investigation determined that Aycock's aviation medical certificate had expired and it was reported that Aycock had been the pilot in another fatal crash in the United Arab Emirates six years earlier. Sharon had been aware of the prior crash but hadn't informed tour manager Jake Duncan or anyone else of Aycock's history. In the moments after the crash, she reportedly admonished tour manager Duncan for allowing their people into a plane with a pilot who had been awake and using drugs all night, telling him "Don't you know that man had already killed one of the Calhoun's kids in a helicopter crash?"