March 19 marks a sad day for fans of rock and heavy metal. Two astonishingly talented guitarists, both leading, pioneering figures in their genre and era, died on this date. Paul Kossoff, lead guitarist of rock band Free and Ozzy Osbourne‘s Randy Rhoads died only 6 years apart. Both at the young age of 25.

Ask a cross-section of heavy metal fans who the greatest ever guitarist of the genre is and you can bet your last guitar string the name of Randy Rhoads will not be far from most lips. After Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath he was looking for a guitarist for his solo project. So the story goes, Ozzy heard Rhoads warming up and hired him on the spot, so impressed was the Prince of Darkness with the teenaged guitarist.

Born December 6, 1956, in Santa Monica, California, Randy Rhoads began his reputation as a talented young musician in the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, playing on the band’s first two (very limited release) albums. But it was with Ozzy Osbourne that he became known, and still is known, as one of the greatest guitaristsof all time. Amazingly, Blizzard of Ozz, which contains the well-know song “Crazy Train” and Diary of a Madman are the only two albums Rhoads released with Ozzy before his life was tragically cut short.

The hard rock documentary Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch, which takes a look at the badass Motörhead frontman, makes its cable television debut tonight at 11:30PM (10:30PM Central) on VH1.

TiVo that shit!!!

Do you think I like Motörhead? Hmm…

Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 15, 2011 and contains tons of bonus features.

William Shatner is working on another music project, and this time it’s all about metal. Following a “space” theme, and titled Seeking Major Tom, Shatner is joining forces with some major hard rock icons for the new project, which is set to be released later this year. Essentially, the release is a covers album, but with covers brought together to tell the story of a concept album.

So far, Shatner has collaborated with Brian May (Queen), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society), Peter Frampton, Ian Paice (Deep Purple), and Steve Howe (Yes). Seeking Major Tom is said to be a collection of 18 “rock anthems” reinterpreted to tell the story that Shatner is putting forward on the album.

The Prince Of Darkness appears as a clay puppet in a funny new commercial by Lipton Brisk Iced Tea titled “How To Be Normal.”

Ozzy Osbourne‘s animated likeness shares and acts out indispensable advice such as “watch more television,” “refer to your privates as ‘naughty bits,'” and “grow a front butt.” “But,” says animated Ozzy, “why would you want to be normal?”

Lipton Brisk Iced Tea has previous commercials along the same lines. Last month they released an equally brilliant video starring a claymation Danny Trejo.

Trejo begins to tell us the plot of his movie, Machete, then takes a gulp of iced tea and acts out a summarized plot of the movie. In it, Machete Cortez hacks people open, makes love to beautiful women, and washes his hands. Watch the Machete video here.

You can see the Ozzy Osbourne video by heading below.

Lemmy
Directed by Greg Olliver, Wes Orshoski
Starring Lemmy, Dave Grohl, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo, Henry Rollins, Scott Ian, Billy Bob Thornton, Ozzy Osbourne
Damage Case Films
Released: December 7, 2010 (Limited UK)

He is ex of psychedelic space-rockers Hawkwind, master of many a collaboration, a skilled lyricist, and the bass-playing gravel-voiced leader of the neverending metal machine that is Motörhead. He is Lemmy, the “˜baddest motherfucker in the world’.

Lemmy describes the music that influences you the most as the stuff you listened to when you were 20 that knocked you out. For many, like me, that was Motörhead. Although I was nearer the age of 10 and my dad let me watch an episode of the chaotic comedy The Young Ones in which each week they would have a musical “˜guest’ where a band would play a song in the young ones’ house while all hell was breaking loose in cutaways. While Rick, Vyvyan, Mike, and Neil made their way to the train station to make an appearance on University Challenge, a man in shades with long hair played the greatest song my pre-teen ears had ever heard: “Ace Of Spades.”

The man who can’t sing, but no one can sing like him, became a fascination. Onstage Lemmy hardly moves but is a frighteningly captivating and charismatic performer. Lemmy’s book, White Line Fever is a great read of some of the most unbelievable drug stories and one incredible rock and roll life. He never tells his drug stories in any kind of salacious way. It is honest; it is what it is.