Off the Rails
a tribute to late

guitar great

Climbing the charts is nothing new for Rudy Sarzo.

As the bass player for bands like Quiet Riot and Whitesnake, Sarzo put out multi-platinum albums and played in front of massive crowds during the heyday of heavy metal. Sarzo is climbing the charts again, but this time, instead of earning a bullet on Billboard, his latest effort, Off the Rails, is climbing the book charts on Amazon.com.

Off the Rails is currently among the top sellers for Print-On-Demand publisher BookSurge. The book has garnered 38 reviews on Amazon from its release date of Nov. 2, 2006 through early January 2007.

Off the Rails chronicles Sarzo’s days as a part of Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The book is largely a tribute to the late guitarist Randy Rhoads. Rhoads was killed in a plane crash during the Diary of a Madman tour.

Sarzo had planned to publish the book through a traditional publisher, Cherry Lane, but when the deal fell through, he turned to the POD option and BookSurge.

“Due to a conflict of interest among the Osbournes, the publisher and my self, the book was dropped and I was left with an edited manuscript ready to be published,” Sarzo said. “So after nearly a year, I decided to go the self-publishing route. Since BookSurge is an Amazon.com company it was the only print-on-demand outlet I considered.”

Sarzo, a self-described computer geek, put the cover together himself and completed the publication process with BookSurge in three weeks. Sarzo credited Richard Ridley, his BookSurge Publishing Consultant, for guiding him through the process.

“Richard Ridley, was extremely helpful with the whole process. There's also an abundance of templates to suit your needs available at the Booksurge site,” Sarzo said.

Ridley, who has published two books through BookSurge himself (The Takers, Délon City), enjoyed working with the heavy metal bass master.

“Rudy contacted us, and I was just lucky enough to get the call. He is one of the nicest guys on the planet.” Ridley said. “The man is part of rock 'n roll history, but he's so down to earth you'd never know it by talking to him. Off the Rails has generated a lot of interest and it's one of our bestsellers on Amazon.”

As of Jan. 11, Off the Rails was listed as BookSurge’s No. 2 seller with a sales rank of 10,923.

Sarzo has been promoting the book with appearances on the Sirius and XM satellite radio shows of Scott Ferrall, Jim Breuer and Eddie Trunk. He’ll be on Rockline Wednesday, Jan. 24. He’s also done interviews for several print magazines as well as web zines.

“This is a book that has been highly anticipated by Randy Rhoads' fans for some time,” Sarzo said. “So there was a high demand for this book to see the light of day. Since I wrote the book for my friend who's no longer with us, my goal is to share memories of him with those who want to find out what Randy Rhoads was like.”

The book has already been translated into Japanese and that version is scheduled for a March 2007 release.

While the book has been front-and-center for Sarzo of late, music is always his main mistress. He has been on the road with Dio, a band he has been a part of since 2004. The band has plans to work on a new record this year.

Check out Sarzo's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/offtherails.