There have been a lot of novelty covers of Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Crazy Train” over the years, most notably Pat Boone’s infamous cover which became the inspiration for the theme of Ozzy’s reality show, The Osbournes. However, most novelty covers of the song are not instrumentals. And a song like “Crazy Train,” with its famous main riff, is a great target for an instrumental cover.
Well-traveled session guitarist Steve Stevens is most well-known for his collaboration with Billy Idol. But he’s spent some of his solo career incorporating the influence of flamenco guitar into contemporary rock music. His latest effort is Crazy Train: A (Flamenco) Tribute to Randy Rhoads; Rhoads was the co-writer of “Crazy Train” and Ozzy’s lead guitarist at the time.
The title track shows off Stevens’ fleet nylon-string guitar playing, as he dances around the famous riff and the vocal melody. He is accompanied by The String Revolution, three other guitarists who create an acoustic guitar orchestra to give the song a fairly rock feel, despite the flamenco influence. (At least one of the guitars does sounded electrified , if you care about such things…)
It’s a fun spin on a famous track which really does show off Stevens’ playing, the way a novelty instrumental cover should. Check it out below:
