Janet Robin Interview - Part 2


Tom: How do you spell Musonia?

Janet: M-u-s-o-n-i-a. It's still there. I'm not sure if she's there. I'm sure she's retired. But I visited her many years ago, maybe 10 or 15 years ago. She was still there working. I don't know who owns it or what's going on with it, but my parents still live in the same house, so I'll go visit them and swing by there. I still see the sign and everything so somebody is doing something there.

Tom: Her son happens to be Randy Rhoads.

Janet: Her son happens to be Randy Rhoads and we start taking lessons from this guy. And basically the lessons, in the beginning, were: "I would like to just go and sit and watch you play," because he was so incredible.

Tom: Was he with Quiet Riot at that time?

Janet: Yes. He was in Quiet Riot. And once we got knee-deep in lessons, it was great taking from him. It was a very unstructured lesson. He'd show me some scales or he'd show me some riffs to play and then he'd sit there and wail away like a madman. And I'm like this 10-year-old little girl going, "Okay. I can't believe this is happening." And my brother is 14, and he's totally in love with him.

Tom: He must've been in heaven.

Janet: Yeah. He's, like, oh my God, this is awesome. And of course, when I got older, I started taping some lessons. I have no idea where those tapes are, like an idiot.

Tom: That's too bad.

Janet: So, when I'm between the ages of 10 and 15, he was in Quiet Riot, and our family would go and watch him at a club that doesn't exist anymore called the Starwood. It was a very famous club in the '70s and early '80s. It was in Hollywood. I've got unusual parents. They're just really open-minded and very supportive. We'd go watch him and I couldn't get in unless I was with my parents, obviously, because I was underage.

Tom: Your parents would take you to see Quiet Riot?

Janet: Yes, sir. We would all go, including my brother, and we'd sit there and watch this band. The other guys in the band were cool, but it was all about Randy. You'd go see that band and you'd be like, "Who the hell is that?" He was amazing to me.

My dad's a dentist, but a bit of a health nut, and Randy sort of knew that and was kind of into vitamins and stuff. So my dad would always bring him a pack of vitamins and powdered vitamin C. I don't know if you've ever seen that before, but it's like crystalized vitamin C in a bag, and we'd hand it to him after the show. It looked like we were giving him cocaine. We were like, "No, no! It's vitamin C! Vitamin C." I clearly remember that because it was really funny. But I totally remember my time sitting there watching him, thinking he's a god of guitar and that I wanted to do that when I grew up.


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[ Source : Tom Watson of Modern Guitar Magazine ]