ZAKK WYLDE: 'I've Never Been So Hammered Not To Remember Things'

Altsounds.com recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Altsounds.com: [The new BLACK LABEL SOCIETY record] "Order Of The Black" is your first "sober" album, right? The first since you quit drinking?

Zakk: Well, yeah, but you know, when people say, "Oh, you're sober now," I mean, when we made all the other records we were drinking, we were having a good time, but we were not wasted while making records. Put it this way, I never made those albums and then not even remember making them. Ozzy used to say at first he was so loaded all the time that the BLACK SABBATH records that he doesn't even remember making them. I never got that hammered. I've never been so hammered not to remember things, or when a fight broke out, you know, when someone says to you, "Do you remember doing this last night?" and you don't know what they're talking about; I never had that happening. Yeah, there have been times after gigs all going out at bars and getting hammered, going back to the hotel bar, and the day after going like, "Dude, I don't remember getting to the room from the bar, I ended up in my room but I don't remember how," stuff like that; but not to the point where we robbed somebody's house and then going like, "What, I don't remember doing any of this!" Never blacked out like that. And I wasn't wasted when I wrote the songs anyway. Normally I'd be playing the piano in the morning with a cup of coffee, or going to the studio we'd discuss a sample or hear something on the radio. But if we were getting loaded it would be at the end of the night, not during the recordings. I've never been drinking throughout the day, 'cause you've gotta do the singing, and then, you wanna make sure to make some cash, you know what I mean? I've got recordings where I was actually hammered and you can hear some of the funniest shit that you're ever gonna hear, but you would listen back to it the next day sober, some of it we were just on the floor laughing and it's horrendous; we just couldn't believe how wasted and pathetic we were!

Altsounds.com: I found the album very diverse…

Zakk: Like all the BLACK LABEL albums, you get the heavy stuff then you get the mellow stuff. We can't be personal all the time, but then again, all I'm saying is, I'm married I have three kids and I am catholic: yeah, I am pissed off! As much as I love listening to SABBATH and the heavy stuff, I also love listening to NEIL YOUNG, ELTON JOHN and THE EAGLES, stuff like that. Once we're done with the heavy stuff in the studio and get bored with that, I just sit around the piano, play some guitar, and then once we get bored with that we get back to the heavy stuff. It just gives you a break as well, after a while when you do heavy stuff it can start sounding all the same riff-wise, and you just have to get away for a little while, start doing some mellow stuff that has got nothing to do with riffs.

Altsounds.com: Why did Ozzy decide to replace you, and how do you feel about it?

Zakk: I love Ozzy, I always said he's the coolest guy, you know, my father and Ozzy. But it's like if Randy Rhoads was still doing QUIET RIOT, the same thing would have happened, or if Jake [E. Lee] was still doing BADLANDS and at the same time playing with Ozzy it would have sounded like a Ozzy record; if Eric Clapton was still doing CREAM while playing with John Mayall, then everything would sound like CREAM. At the end of the day it's a compliment if you say everything started sounding like BLACK LABEL. Put it this way, I love Oz, so I always got his back whatever he wants to do. I support Gus [G.] and I hope he does great; he's an amazing player and I wish him all the best.

Altsounds.com: What's your advice to him?

Zakk: He's an awesome guitar player and a sweet guy, really cool dude. If he has a quarter of the amount of fun I had, that's tons! I just want him to have loads of good times as I had.

Altsounds.com: You have your own home studio now and you're creating your own label; any particular act you have your eyes on yet?

Zakk: No, what I'm planning on doing is having a battle-of-the-bands kind of thing, and then now that I have The Bunker I can record and produce, make some records, and then it will be great! I'll do it in typical fashion. I'll make sure I take all the publishing, steal all the merchandise rights, (laughs),I'll just rob them blind, so that they end up with drug and alcohol problems, divorces, and I'll just sit there and get rich while they all go broke! (laughs)

Read the entire interview from Altsounds.com.