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Re: Zakk Wylde on New BLS and New Ozzy among other topics
Zakk Wylde:
The Hardest Working Man In Metal
February 11, 2009
There is no one else like Zakk Wylde in music today. His legend began more than 20 years ago, when Ozzy Osbourne plucked him out of New Jersey to become his new guitarist. Over the course of several albums and many tours with Ozzy and while leading his own successful band, Black Label Society, Zakk has established himself as a true modern guitar hero. While gearing up for the first-ever Black Label Bash, a spring tour also featuring Sevendust, Dope, The Infinite Staircase and, on a handful dates, Cycle of Pain (the new band founded by BLS bassist John “J.D.” DeServio), Zakk checked in with Live-Metal.net’s resident BLS Maryland/Baltimore chapter member, Greg Maki.
Live-Metal.net: Well, the reason you’re doing this is you’ve got the Black Label Bash, the big tour coming up in the spring. It’s got a good lineup of bands. What can we expect on this tour?
Zakk Wylde: It’s more Black Label brutality and gayness. It’s another Black Label family gathering, man. What I wanna do, this may wind up being a Sturgis-type thing, getting Harley Davidson involved—we’re talking maybe about it. All the chapters can get together and just cruise around, almost kind of like the Grateful Dead where you just make road trips for the tours and everyone just has a good time. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, all the chapters all over the place, tailgating, barbecuing, the whole fuckin’ nine yards before the gigs. So we’ve got our Sevendust brothers over there. They’re a bunch of great guys, ass-kickin’ band. It’s giving a bunch of younger bands, just giving them the opportunity to play in front of a bunch of people.
You’ve got Dope on there. You already played a couple shows with them.
Yeah, they’re great guys, as well, ‘cause I jammed on the record. They’re a super-cool, kick-ass band, as well.
How did that come about, you playing on their new song [“Addiction”]?
My manager actually manages them, as well, and the guys were just like, “Yo, Zakk throw down some solos,” and I was like, “Yeah, whatever you guys want me to do, no problem.” They’re a killer band and good friends.
I think their guitarist, Virus, not a lot of people know about him, but he’s really good.
No, he’s awesome, man. He’s a super-cool guy.
With Black Label, the band and the fans, it’s like a big family, and that’s really unique.
That’s what’s so cool about it. When you look at the Grateful Dead and everything like that, that’s what they based everything on. Dead Heads, they’re weren’t into the band, that was a lifestyle. They bled it. Everybody would just make rides, runs and shit like that, and just go, “Fuck it, let’s go out for two weeks and just fuckin’ hang with the band.” And, you know, you can make a book in two weeks, like what the fuck happened, two weeks of insanity rolling with the band and shit like that. Like I said, Black Label doesn’t have fans, we have family. We’re starting with the Web site [www.blacklabelsociety.com]. Everybody can hang and get special privileges and all this other shit that you get if you’re inside on the inside. It’s gonna be fuckin’ awesome, dude.
Is touring hard when you have a family of your own?
No, because the kids will come out sometimes. We’ll even put ‘em on the payroll. So they’re actually working. They can help Barb [Zakk’s wife] with the fuckin’ finances, this and that, which is great. They’re 15, 16 years old, finding out how the business runs. They actually get a job and they’ve got their own fuckin’ money, which is good them. They get a dose of fuckin’ reality.
They’re teenagers now. Does that mean you’re drinking more?
Dude, you wouldn’t even believe what happened—fuckin’ insanity, dude. I’ve just been fuckin’ chilling on the fuckin’ sauce over here. It’s just, “All right, never mind.” Holy Christ. You can’t even make this shit up, dude.
I don’t know if anything official has been announced yet, but I hear there’s going to be some sort of greatest hits or best-of compilation coming out soon.
Yeah, ‘cause the record company was just asking. They said, “Zakk, can you just put a whole compilation of stuff together before you put the new album out?” When we did Kings of Damnation there was a bunch of fuckin’ tunes on that thing. He goes, “Well, can you make another one?” I go, “Yeah, I can put a bunch of shit together on that fuckin’ thing.” He said, “Cool, we’ll just put that out to fuckin’ hold you over until the next record.” I said, “Well, no fuckin’ problem.”
We’re working on Ozzy’s record right now. And I went over to Europe for about three and a half weeks, came back, now we’re getting ready to do the Black Label Bash with the Sevendust boys and Dope and everything—like I said, a bunch of fuckin’ newer guys and everything like that. We’ll knock out the Bash and then you figure March, April, May, then finish the boss’s record, then probably June either start Black Label or we’re talking about going back over to Europe and doing a bunch of festivals, like June, July, August, touring over there and doing Black Label one-off shows but then doing a shitload of festivals. ‘Cause over in Europe in the summer—you know how over here they have the Ozzfest, Lollapalooza, the Warped Tour, all these different festivals and shit like that, everyone’s touring during the summer. So it’s just like, over in Europe they have festivals out the fuckin’ yin yang all during the summer. The last time I did all the festivals over there was probably ’98—it was ’98-’99 when Black Label first started. ‘Cause they always ask, like, “Dude, when the fuck are you coming back over here?” It’s almost kind of like a band from London coming over to America and they just play New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and then they go home. It’s like fuckin’ dude, America’s a lot fuckin’ bigger than that. So it’s the same thing with Europe. It’s just like going over there and doing fuckin’ 14 shows. You could spend two months alone in Germany, for Christ’s sakes.
So we’re probably gonna go over to Europe for the fuckin’ summer, do a shitload of festivals over there and then after that, come back, finish the record. That’ll be June, July, August, then figure September, mix the album in October. I think they’re talking about putting Ozzy’s record out in like February—I’m not sure when they’re talking about putting that out. But the whole thing is to go out with Ozzy doing an arena tour. I think there were talks about that—you know, Ozz, Black Label and throw in some other bands. I was like, “Great, that’ll be fuckin’ fine.” I hate fuckin’ sitting home in the fuckin’ house, ‘cause I’m not a vacation guy. I don’t surf. I’m not a beach guy. The one thing I wanna do when I’m in Jersey is go to the boardwalk, you go to Jenkinson’s and get some fuckin’ beers—that’s about it. I’m not gonna sit out on the fuckin’ beach sweating my fuckin’ balls off. It’s just like, dude, this fuckin’ blows. I’d rather hang out in my air-conditioned room practicing fuckin’ guitar and writing some new fuckin’ songs or something. This fuckin’ blows.
Is there going to be any unreleased material on this new compilation?
Yeah. We did a whole bunch of fuckin’ acoustic shows and shit like that, me and Nick, a while ago. They came out really fuckin’ cool. It was just me and Nick doing a batch of fuckin’ material and shit like that, acoustic versions of heavy songs. So yeah, we’re putting that shit on there, too.
I have to say, probably my favorite thing you’ve ever done is Book of Shadows and I really liked the Hangover Music album. So I was wondering if you would ever do a tour where you would focus on that lighter stuff but with a full band.
Yeah, I agree, man. Yeah, totally, without a doubt. Right now in the set, we’ll wheel a piano out and do the mellow shit in between—in the middle of the show, we’ll whip that fuckin’ piano out and do “Damage Is Done” or fuckin’ “Spoke in the Wheel” or fuckin’—any of the mellow shit—“Last Goodbye.” I could even throw in some fuckin’ shit from Book of Shadows on there, “Between Heaven and Hell” or anything like that.
Eventually down the line, the whole game plan, the older I’m getting, that’s more what I’m gonna do. You gotta figure the Black Label audience, between Guitar Hero and all this other stuff, you’ve kids anywhere from 14 or 12 years old ‘cause they know you from that shit and then you’ve got guys that are my age or over, in their 40s. At the end of the day, when I’m 50-fuckin’-some-odd years old, I’ll do “Suicide Messiah,” but I’ll doing it sitting down playing an acoustic guitar, with a string section behind me and doing really dark versions of this shit.
It’s like when you go to see Neil Young when he’s doing all his mellow shit, he doesn’t even break out the electric guitar. You know, just doing the mellow shit ‘cause I don’t wanna be sitting up there fuckin’ 57 years old fuckin’ trying to act like I’m 21 years old. There’s nothing wrong with that, but certain artists get trapped in a box. Neil Young can do whatever the fuck he wants. He can do an acoustic fuckin’ tour, then he can whip out fuckin’ heavy shit. He can do “Hey Hey, My My” super heavy, then he can do the sit-down-on-a-stool-by-himself tour. And then you’ve got certain artists, they’re known for that shtick and it’s not that they’re one-dimensional, but people just want to see that out of them.
You just mentioned Guitar Hero. What do you think about that game, in general?
It’s amazing. I think it’s gonna inspire a whole generation of guitar players. Kids are eventually gonna just, “I’m gonna do it for real. I’m gonna pick up a real guitar and try it.” I think it’s fuckin’ great. You never know, you might get the next fuckin’ Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix or Dimebag popping out of there. It’s like, “Yeah, I used to play Guitar Hero and that’s when I decided I wanted to be a guitar player.” So yeah, I think it’s fuckin’ brilliant. Fuck, half these fuckin’ kids wouldn’t know who these fuckin’ bands are if they wouldn’t have picked that thing up. They wouldn’t know who Jimmy Page is or fuckin’ Tony Iommi—all these brilliant, amazing guitar players—unless they picked that thing up.
What was it like doing the video to actually put you in the game?
Oh, it was fuckin’ hysterical, dude. Gay. You had to put the fuckin’ suit on with the fuckin’ LEDs on it. It’s like a black jumpsuit with all these fuckin’ things on it. Dude, it was fuckin’ hysterical. We were all fuckin’ crying laughing when I was doing it. You’re up on the screen, you can see yourself. We were just doing the gayest shit, too. I was like fuckin’ humping the guitar, fuckin’ having sex with myself, fuckin’ ramming shit up my ass. [laughs] We were fuckin’ all on the ground, fuckin’ crying. We were just drinking beers, doing the whole fuckin’ thing. We had a blast when we did it.
You mentioned you’re doing the Ozzy album now. How far along is that and are you fully involved in the writing this time around?
Yeah, as always, man. We’ve probably got 14, 15 fuckin’ things down. I haven’t heard him put any vocals on it yet. Like I said, I’ve been gone and everything like that. But Ozzy called the other day, I’ve gotta give him a buzz back. He said he was gonna start knocking some vocals out. He has a studio in the house. So if he’s in the mood, he can go down and knock it out, which is cool.
Speaking of Ozzy, way back when you started out, how long did it take to learn all those great Randy Rhoads solos?
Well, you know, I was a Randy Rhoads disciple, so I knew all of ‘em before I even joined the band. Randy’s one of my favorite guitar players of all time. Randy’s my guy, so I knew ‘em all before I even got in the band ‘cause I’m such a huge fuckin’ Ozzy-Randy freak, Sabbath, everything like that. It’s not like I needed to learn anything for the audition.
Which is the hardest solo?
They all have their own thing to ‘em. They all have their challenging bits. “Mr. Crowley.” I love the solo to “S.A.T.O.”—we never play that one. I love the solo to “Over the Mountain.” “Flying High” is fuckin’ awesome. I love ‘em all, actually. They’re all unique in their own way.
You talked about Guitar Hero inspiring people to pick up a guitar, but I know you’ve inspired, I’m sure, tons of people to do that. How does it feel when someone comes up to you and tells you that?
It’s fuckin’ awesome, man. Put it this way: If I can inspire some kid the way Randy Rhoads did to me, then that’s a great feeling. The way Eddie Van Halen inspired me, Randy, Hendrix—all the guys I love. When a kid says that, I say, “Fuckin’ awesome. God bless you. Keep fuckin’ wailing.” I tell them you keep fuckin’ playing you’re gonna do the same thing for some kid later on down the road.
A couple of the guys in your band, [guitarist] Nick [Catanese] and J.D., each have new bands of their own now. Have you gotten to hear what they’ve been up to? I know you played on J.D.’s.
Yeah, I just got off the phone with J.D. He’s got Cycle of Pain, and Nick has Speed X. The guys will be out on the road. J.D.’s doing a bunch of shows on the Bash. Then Nick’s gonna go back out, ‘cause he has Mike [Stone] from Queensryche, the guitar player, and they’re gonna go out and support fuckin’ Speed X. It’s fuckin’ cool as shit, man. It’s a gigantic Black Label family fuckin’ growing.
One thing that a lot of people probably don’t know about is the charity stuff you do. You donated $1 million to [St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital]. Can you talk a little bit about that?
At the venues, we have a St. Jude’s bucket and if everyone just drops a buck in the thing—At the end of the tour, I take a batch of the proceeds from the tour, our whole Black Label family, all the chapters around the world and we donate the money. So everybody from whether it’s Baltimore, New York, Boston, fuckin’ Seattle, wherever we’re doing the shows, hanging with all the chapters, by the end of the tour we’ll donate a batch of money to St. Jude’s. It’s fuckin’ killer.
Yeah, it’s a really great thing you’re doing.
We’ve gotta take care of the baby berserkers, keep the Black Label family fuckin’ rolling.
Definitely. All right, I don’t want to take up too much of your time. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Just tell the Baltimore Chapter of Black Label we’ll see you in a fuckin’ little bit, stay strong and keep bleeding black.
