ZAKK WYLDE: No One Ever Quits Or Gets Kicked Out Of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY

Shannon Joy of the LA Music Blog recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

LA Music Blog: BLACK LABEL SOCIETY went under a bit of a lineup change this year, with Will Hunt [drums] announced as the replacement for Craig Nunenmacher. How'd Will come into the mix?

Zakk: We knew Will from out on the road, and Craigo — we all love Craig. No one ever quits or gets kicked out of BLACK LABEL, but Craig was just like, "Zakky, if we're not touring year ‘round, financially, with my wife and my son, I need to figure out something else to do." So we were like, "All right, Craig." But put it this way, if any of the guys in the Doom Crew or in the band, if they could make more money with Celine Dion, you've got to go for it, and you can always come back. If it's just like, "Oh, dude, we're done with that tour, is there any room for me?" I'd say, "Yeah, we could use another body." The guys can always come back, and that's the beautiful thing about it. But when Craig said he had to split, I'm at the point where I don't have to audition people. We've been doing it long enough, so you know who the guys are and you know who ain't. The prerequisite for being a BLACK LABEL guy is that you can't be a douche bag and you got to know how to play your instrument. So you know, Will fits that description with flying colors, and he's friends with Craig and everything like that, so everything is awesome.

LA Music Blog: So it's been almost a year since your blood clot issues surfaced…

Zakk: The whole thing was crazy when I got it! I asked the doctor, "Doc, all my years of drinking, could this have affected it?" He said, "Zakk, put it this way: it's a blood thinner. If you got this hereditary, from your parents or anything like that, if anything, with these blood clots, the alcohol saved your life." So I go to the wife, "See sweetie, drinking is good for something!" [Laughs] She was like, "You're dreaming, jackass," needless to say. But the doctor was like, "Seriously, if you're out with the guys, you could be at Hooters watching 'Monday Night Football' getting hammered with the guys. But you're on blood thinners, and you're adding another blood thinner on top of that with the alcohol, and I know you want to have a good time and everything, but you'll just literally start bleeding out. Bleeding out of your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your dick, your ass. And that will be the last time you ever visit Hooters." [Laughs] So basically, at that point, you're not going to need rehab. It was just like, "Wow! All right, brother!" So I just decided, that's the end of that! Some guy was asking me, "Are you with the 12-step program?" I said, "No. BLACK LABEL one-step program. You're done!" Because seriously, I'm not going to give some guy $40,000 to go, "So, Zakky, how ya doing? How ya feeling today, big guy?" If I'm going to spend $40,000, I'm going to go buy myself a hot rod or a nice Les Paul. I'm definitely not giving it to somebody just to tell me to stop drinking. The hell with that! I've got bills to pay, and my kids are getting ready for schooling, so I could think of a million different things to do with $40,000.

LA Music Blog: Considering you've always been a big drinker, how difficult was it to just stop?

Zakk: You know, you just stop drinking. I had a bunch of other guys that were like, "Man, how'd you stop drinking?" You just stop. What's so hard about that? It's just like saying, "Zakk, how'd you get so good at guitar?" You practice! That's all! Life's simple. You want to lose weight? You cut your calories and you do cardio. That's it! For some people, if you want to keep looking for answers, you can go to college for eight years and try to figure that one out. But you don't need to! I was just watching 'Dr. Phil' the other day, and I don't even know if that guy's a doctor. But the one dude that was on there with his wife, he was banging her sisters, and beating her up, and drinking, and the whole nine. And he goes, "Now, Don, you've probably got to cut out the drinking and beating her up, and you've gotta stop sleeping with her sisters." And the crowd's going crazy! So you see, you can go to college for eight years and have that kind of wisdom. [Laughs] I'm thinking, "Is this a joke? Is this a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch, because this is ridiculous, man!" It's just like any of those numb-nutted idiots saying that going to prison for eight years was the best thing that ever happened to them. You deserve to stay in prison for the rest of your life with that kind of attitude, you know what I mean? How about don't go to prison at all? That's what you should be thinking. You should know that beating up 80-year-old grandmothers and stealing their purses, and robbing banks and liquor stores, is not really good. It's not cool. So they're like, "After eight years of prison, I realized that." You know why? Because you're an idiot. [Laughs]

Read the entire interview at LA Music Blog.