ZAKK WYLDE Discusses His Status In OZZY OSBOURNE's Band

David "Gus" Griesinger of BackstageAxxess.com recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). Watch the chat in three parts below.

When asked about the recent reports that Ozzy was auditioning other guitarists for his solo band, Zakk said, "Everything's cool, man. I mean, Ozzy's always jammed with other people — since we did 'Down To Earth' and all that other stuff. So it's no big deal. If Ozzy's gonna play with someone else, what am I gonna do anyways? At the end of the day, when we did the 'Down To Earth' record, Oz had other people coming in and writing with him. [I was like], 'Boss, knock yourself out,' you know what I mean?! What we're supposed to do is there's this date in August — August 20, I guess, down in Anaheim [at the BlizzCon convention] — and then after that, we're supposed to finish the [new Ozzy] record up in September or something like that. We did 16 or 18 songs or something like that, so we'll write some more, finish the record, and then we're supposed to do like a year[-long] world tour."

Ozzy told Classic Rock magazine in a new interview that he's on the lookout for a new guitar player, apparently to replace Wylde. Ozzy appeared late last month as a guest at Slash's headlining concert in Norway, where rumors indicated that he was lining up ROB ZOMBIE guitarist John 5 to take Wylde's spot. Ozzy didn't deny the rumors, saying, "Well, I'm getting a new guitar player as we speak, and everyone has been saying to me for a long time, 'Get Johnny 5!' And I tried him at one time and I didn't really give him a chance. We'll see, I don't know."

As for why he wanted to break away from Wylde, who has played with Ozzy on and off since 1988, Ozzy said, "I haven't fallen out with Zakk, but Zakk's got his own band, and I felt like my stuff was beginning to sound like (Wylde's band) BLACK LABEL SOCIETY. I just felt like I wanted a change, y'know?"

Ozzy also indicated that he was auditioning a guitarist from Greece, but declined to give further details.

The former BLACK SABBATH singer has been working on his latest solo album at his home studio in Los Angeles, He said that Wylde had recorded material for the project, but added, "I don't know if I want to use it."

Wylde seemed unaware that he might be out of a job, posting on his Twitter account, "This is news to me."

Wylde joined Ozzy in 1988 on his "No Rest For The Wicked" album, replacing Jake E. Lee. He has played on every solo Ozzy album since, although he was replaced in the touring band from 1995 to 2001 by Joe Holmes.

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