ZAKK WYLDE On New BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Album, Vinyl Resurgence And OZZY

Pat Prince of Goldmine magazine recently conducted an interview with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY mainman Zakk Wylde. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Goldmine: There's seems to be a nice balance of heavy songs and ballads on the new BLACK LABEL SOCIETY album. Was that intentional?

Wylde: No. Every BLACK LABEL album has the mellow stuff because as much as I love listening to [BLACK] SABBATH and [LED] ZEPPELIN, I love Elton John. I love when Neil Young does all his unplugged stuff … I love the mellow stuff, too… like when THE [ROLLING] STONES are doing "Wild Horses" or THE BEATLES' "Long and Winding Road". So there's always that balance when you get a BLACK LABEL album. You're gonna have the mellow stuff, too.

Goldmine: Are you surprised by the resurgence of vinyl?

Wylde: It's a necessity because of all the downloading and things like that. Nowadays, if you only have one paddle you gotta make a means to get to shore. And if the paddle breaks we'll figure something out. I mean, but we gotta find land. So the whole thing is a necessity. It's kind of like, now you're buying it for the packaging. 'Cause the music is gone now. The days of "Thriller" and "Appetite for Destruction" are gone. Gone! I mean, Lady Gaga sold nine million records and those are all purchased downloads. Could you imagine how many albums she would have sold if you had to go buy the record? Forget about it. Think about Michael Jackson. He sold 44 million records in America. Could you imagine how many downloads that would have been? I guarantee he would have sold 12 million records (instead). I mean, when you really break it down. You want to get the vinyl. Now you can do what they actually did back in the '70s. Ass-kicking records and the vinyl is cool as shit. You're getting the artwork and you're getting the whole thing, and you can read it while you're listening to it and everything like that.

Goldmine: Ozzy is sober [now], too. He said something to the [effect] that it was hard for him to be around someone who was drinking.

Wylde: Yeah, and when Oz quit it was the same thing with him. I mean, with Ozzy, he quit, after all the rehabs, he said they didn't work. The bottom line was he said, "I stopped when I wanted to stop." And I think that's true with anybody. It's like you don't need to hire a personal trainer. You really wanna get in shape, just start working out, dude! If you want to stop drinking, you go, "I'm done."

Goldmine: You and Ozzy are on good terms now, right?

Wylde: Yeah, I mean, put it this way. I was just laughing. Someone goes to me, "Oh man, you must be mad." I go, "Let's take a look at it." I had all those years with the boss — which I cherish every moment of — and all been hysterical. And it's been an amazing ride and he is still in my life like my parents. Because I'm not playing with him doesn't mean I love him any less. I've got BLACK LABEL. I've got a signature guitar. I've got guitars named after me. I've got amps named after me. I've got pedals named after me. Strings named after me. BLACK LABEL is raising money for St. Jude's, doing all these benefit things. We've got hot sauces, beef jerky, coffee, beer. We're talking about doing pubs that are sports bars with live entertainment. I'm writing a Zakk Wylde Guitar Bible, I'm writing a script for a movie … all these amazing things going on. The shit-to-do list, when I get up in the morning, before I put my foot on the ground I got a million things going on. And all thanks to the boss. So, I don't understand. What's bad here? I have no idea.

Goldmine: You always had a lot going on. Did you ever find it overwhelming doing both Ozzy and BLACK LABEL?

Wylde: No, not at all. I just found it to be music. It would be like if, me and you, we decided to do a jazz project on the side. To me, it's just music. And with Ozzy it would be like it was BLACK LABEL and Ozzy. You take this new BLACK LABEL and have Ozzy sing on it, you got a new Ozzy record.

Goldmine: He made a comment that he thought the Ozzy material was starting to sound like BLACK LABEL.

Wylde: Well, I remember Oz said that to me years ago even when he did "Stillborn", when he sang the harmonies with me and everything. I remember the boss saying, "Zakk, I don't want to be the lead singer in BLACK LABEL." And I understand what he's saying. I always told everybody, "Let's be real. If St. Rhoads was still jamming, and Rand was going off and doing QUIET RIOT and coming back to the boss and then QUIET RIOT and then back … eventually the boss would have said, 'Rand. We're starting to sound like QUIET RIOT now.'" And if Jake [E. Lee] was doing a BADLANDS thing and Ozzy, he would have said the same thing. It's only natural, dude.

Goldmine: Even the new guitarist, Gus G., has said he wouldn't be surprised if you played with Ozzy again.

Wylde: Yeah, but Gus is the man. In the BLACK LABEL community, we are all rooting for Gus. We support him, so it's just like if I played for the Yankees. I wore the pinstripes. Now Gus is playing for the Yankees but I'm still involved doing PR for the Yankees. You know what I'm saying? I'm still in the camp. I'm just not playing. I'm doing public relations, talking about the new guitar player and telling you how great Ozzy is. That's why I say, "It's win-win all around."

Goldmine: Do you like "Scream"?

Wylde: Yeah, I mean, Gus is playing his ass off. We knew that anyways. Gus is an awesome player. Oz is singing great and everything. He's having fun making the records with [producer] Kevin [Churko], and I love Kevin, too. Kevin is super-talented.

Read the entire interview from Goldmine magazine.