Back around 1987, ZakkWylde was a baby-faced, long-legged skinny guitar player in New Jersey when Ozzy Osbourne was sniffing around for a new axeman for his solo band. He was picked almost immediately and became an overnight sensation, starting with No Rest For The Wicked in 1988 and ending with 2009’s Black Rain. Almost twenty-five years after that fateful meeting, Wylde is now a buffed-up powerhouse of a frontman for Black Label Society, whose current musical offering is an acoustic Christmas record called Glorious Christmas Songs That Will Make Your Black Label Heart Feel Good. Known for his sense of humor, Wylde was a little late calling in for our interview but had the perfect rock star excuse.
Hey Leslie, it’s ZakkWylde. How are you doing?
I’m good but you forgot about me (laughs)
Oh no, no, no (laughs). I was too busy putting on rouge and doing my nails to get ready for the big rock show tonight. Takes me about eight hours to get ready (laughs)
Where are you at right now, Zakk?
Right now we’re getting ready to roll with the Oklahoma Chapter of the BLS.
What kind of show can they expect from Black Label Society?
It’s kind of like Romper Room on steroids (laughs) Get ready (laughs)
So tell me where you grew up.
I grew up out in Jersey; Jackson, New Jersey. I was just like any other kid. I loved sports and stuff like that. And then I didn’t start getting serious into guitar till I was about fourteen.
What got you interested in playing guitar?
You know, I went over to the coach’s house cause I was playing football and at the time I wasn’t gaining weight to play the positions I wanted to play. So when high school started I was like, I’m not going to be able to play linebacker and all the positions I played in Pop Warner so Coach was trying to talk me into to sticking with it and whatever, blah, blah, blah. But there was a Les Paul sitting in the room and my mother was like, “Oh, you play guitar?” And he said, “Well, I just play country songs and stuff but my son’s the one who plays guitar a lot”. So Leroy came out and I think he was the first dude I saw with long hair and he was drinking a beer and he just started jamming on the guitar. He just started playing new Ozzy, cause that’s when Randy Rhoads had just joined Ozzy,and I was just watching his hands. I was like, ‘God this is the most coolest thing in the world.’ It just looks so interesting. I took lessons from him and that’s when I just fell in love with the instrument.
Were you able to get your own guitar immediately?
Just like anybody else I started with a cheap piece of junk and then worked my way up. But yeah, you don’t start off with a Rolls Royce. Just like everybody else, I was mowing lawns and saving up to buy a Les Paul and then get a Marshall and stuff like that and that’s how that all went.
Did playing guitar come natural to you?
If you want to learn so bad then you invest the time in it and practice all the time, it’s just like anything. I don’t know if it’s so much natural.You might have a natural gift for it – like a bodybuilder you might have great genetics – but you still got to work out and you still got to eat right and you got to put the time in in the gym. So if you want to be a professional bodybuilder, if you’re blessed with the genetics and everything else, you still got to work out (laughs). You’re not going to sit around the house and become Mr Olympia. You still got to practice and you got to apply yourself.
What did you think you might grow up to be before you got into music?
Before that, I loved great white sharks so I remember I wanted to be a marine biologist to study great white sharks when I was a kid. Now I still like watching Shark Week and everything like that but I was into that for awhile before I got bit by the music bug.
You were working at a gas station when Ozzy so-called discovered you. Do you ever wonder what would have happened or what you may turned out to be if this hadn’t happened?
I still would have been doing music, hands down. I would have been in a band and working on originals and obviously in a cover band and maybe in a wedding band on weekends (laughs) then owned a music store or something. I definitely would have been involved in music in one form or another. I wouldn’t have just like, if I didn’t get the gig with Ozzy, just quit music. “Oh, I’ll get a crappy job I can’t stand now”. All the musicians I know, it’s just part of who you are. Whether you’re playing Madison Square Garden or you’re selling fifty million records, if you really love music that’s what you do, know what I mean (laughs). It’s not a hobby.
What was the first album you remember buying?
Rock record, probably as far as the hard stuff goes, We Sold Our Souls For Rock N Roll by Sabbath. But then also I had I think Elton John’s Greatest Hits, which was the first album I ever owned.
Tell me about the first band you were in.
Just me and my friends, just us learning cover songs, called Stonehenge or whatever. We were probably fifteen years old.
Do you remember the first time you got on stage and played guitar?
Yeah, we were just playing high school parties and stuff like that which was pretty hysterical. We actually played in a buddy’s kitchen and crazy stuff. My Bringing Metal To The Children is actually this goofy ass book about all that stuff.
Why did you move the publication date back to 2012?
When I was reading through it, I thought there was so much more stuff we could add to it and make it even more ridiculous, you know what I mean (laughs) so that’s why that came about.
What would you consider your most memorable moment on stage so far?
Probably, obviously, my first gig with Ozzy doing an arena. That was just like wow, like the coolest thing on the planet. The thing in Russia was pretty cool. I’m trying to think … obviously doing the National Anthem at stadiums and stuff like that is always a highlight. I look forward to performing every night and every night you get up on stage is awesome.
What would you say is your all-time favorite album and what makes it so special?
I don’t know. I guess it depends on what mood you’re in or what side of the bed you wake up on that day. I love listening to Robin Trower in the morning when I’m just waking up. Then I move on to listen to like Beck, the Sea Change record, stuff like that. To me, it’s just like whatever mood I’m in. What do I listen to when I’m home, when I’m driving in the truck? I listen to classic rock radio and sports talk radio.
What was it like meeting Ozzy for the first time?
Mind blowing. Like a year or so before that, two years before, about 1983, I was seeing him at the Spectrum playing with Jake E. Lee and next thing you know I’m in the band.
Do you feel lucky?
Without a doubt
Who has been your biggest influence as a musician and why them?
As a musician, I guess my biggest influence would be my guitar teacher Leroy White, who is amazing, cause he just made it, aside of all the scales and all the things that you got to learn, he just made it fun and I was still learning songs by my favorite bands and things like that. Then obviously, all the artists that I love: Jimmy Page, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, John McLaughlin and then all the other guys, Al DiMeloa; these amazing guitarists that I love.
So what do you have going on for the rest of the year and into 2012?
We’re starting this run with the great Black Label/Judas Priest/Thin Lizzy crusade and I guess that’ll be going on up to Christmastime. After we get done with that run we’re going to start working on a Black Label Unblackened DVD, all unplugged type thing with guest musicians, string section, pedal steel, and we’re looking forward to that as well. That will be next. Then we’re going to go to Australia as well and then we’re going back over to Europe doing festivals. Yeah, every day. I mean, Black Label is eight days a week, 366 days a year.
The Sheepdogs won Rolling Stone’s contest to be on the cover of an issue of the magazine earlier this year. Last month, I got to talk to lead vocalist Ewan Currie. Drop by next week and find out about his early days in Australia and who influenced him as a musician.