Drummer Randy Castillo passed away Tuesday night at the age of 51. The first official news of Randy’s death came from his former bandmate, Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue who posted the following message on the official Motley Crue website:

“IM SORRY TO INFORM YOU THIS WAY, BUT RANDY CASTILLO PASSED AWAY TONIGHT. HE ALWAYS HAD A SMILE AND POSITIVE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY..HE WAS A GREAT DRUMMER..

”HE WILL BE MISSED

”Nikki”

Castillo who was best known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne had been battling cancer since mid 2000. He had joined Motley Crue in 1999 to replace Tommy Lee and played drums on the group’s 2000 release “New Tattoo” but was unable to tour in support of the album. He devoted all of his energy to fighting cancer and late last year it appeared he was winning when he announced that he was in good health and participating in a new project with his former Ozzy bandmate Mike Inez (Alice in Chains, Ozzy Osbourne). 

Randy was born Dec. 18th, 1950 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and began playing music in his high school marching band. His first band experience was playing trumpet in a band that his father was also a member of. He later joined an R&B band as a drummer before forming his first rock band Wumblies in the late 70’s. He moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and joined a struggling band on the rise called The Motels, just in time to tour with group supporting The Cars. In 1984 Randy was hired to play drums for Lita Ford and was featured on her "Dancin' on the Edge" album. Lita introduced Randy to her Boyfriend Nikki Sixx and Nikki’s bandmate Tommy Lee. Shortly after the “Dancin’ on the Edge” tour, Tommy called Randy from a party he was at with Ozzy Osbourne and told him Ozzy was looking for a new drummer. Randy was hired by Ozzy a couple months later and ended up staying with the Ozzy Osbourne band for ten years, recording five albums with Ozzy during that time (3 Studio / 2 Live). 

In 1999, after Tommy Lee had left Motley Crue, Sharon Osbourne called Randy and told him about the job opening. Motley Crue gave him the job without an audition.  Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before the band was set to go out and tour for “New Tattoo” Randy became ill while performing with his side project “Azul” at the Cat Club in Hollywood. Right after the show Randy took a cab to nearby Cedars Sinai Hospital where he collapsed as he was being admitted. The doctors discovered a duodenal ulcer that had ruptured his stomach and performed emergency surgery that saved Randy’s life.  While taking time off from Motley Crue to recover from his surgery, Randy discovered a small lump on his jaw and a month later, after it had grown larger, he sought treatment and was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer that is not usually fatal if it is discovered early but can spread rapidly if left untreated according to Skincancerfacts.org.uk. 
Late last year Randy told fans that he had recovered from the Cancer and had began working with Mike Inez on a new band. It was not known at press time whether Randy died as a result of his cancer or complications arising from it. 

Randy was a highly respected musician as well as a renowned artist who will be greatly missed by his fans and fellow musicians. 

You can view Randy’s artwork by clicking here. 

Correction: We previously reported that Randy was born in 1960, information we gathered from a bio that had the wrong year. Randy was actually born in 1950.
 
 

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