ZAKK WYLDE On Songwriting Process For BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's 'Engines Of Demolition' Album: 'If You Get Inspired, You Can't Stop That'

In a new interview with the Get On The Bus, Zakk Wylde spoke about the making of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's upcoming album, "Engines Of Demolition", which will be released on March 27 via MNRK Heavy. The follow-up to 2021's "Doom Crew Inc." contains 15 tracks, including the four previously released singles, "Name In Blood", "Broken And Blind", "The Gallows" and "Lord Humungus", as well as a tune titled "Ozzy's Song", which is a tribute to the BLACK LABEL SOCIETY guitarist/vocalist's longtime bandmate, the iconic BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne. Zakk said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "We started working on it, actually — what was it? 2022, '23? So we started working on it. 'Cause usually when we get together for the big BLACK LABEL powwow, when we're gonna do one of these records, Barb [Zakk's wife Barbaranne] will tell me, 'Babe, the fellas are gonna come out in about a month.' So, I got a month to come up with ideas. So, it's just, like, you sit around, every day go in the gym where I got my little practice amp and just start coming up with riffs until you get something you like. And then when the fellas get out to [Zakk's home studio] the Black Vatican, when we're gonna record, the guys will be out there for about a week or so.

"Once you start recording and it's just an implosion of ideas and you're getting inspired, you never know [what you'll end up with]… 'Cause you might come up with your best songs [in the studio]. These songs didn't even exist until we got to the studio and you're jamming on something … So if you get inspired, you can't stop that."

Wylde explained: "Back in the day, you'd record and everybody had to know the songs or whatever, but now I'll just write the song. 'Cause usually when I write, I write from the beginning, the middle, the end — I'll just write it all in one shot when I'm sitting down. So now we'll just go in the Vatican, and Adam Fuller — Adam makes the records with us, engineering and everything like that. I'll just put it up to a click track… I'll just start it with the intro and then we'll go here. Then I'll start with the main riff or whatever, and then this will be the chorus, then this will be the bridge, the breakdown. So it's all on a click track. And then I'll double the guitar. So it's basically finished. It's basically all drawn, but when the fellas come out, they could see it and go, 'All right, we'll just color it in.' So it's all done."

Zakk went on to say that the music always comes first. "Usually the riffs are always — it inspires you to sing something over it," he explained. "And then for me, lyrics are always last. Once I figure out what I wanna sing about, then I'll either sit in a truck and just crank it and sit there and think. But once I figure out what I wanna sing about, then the lyrics will just come out."

Last month, Wylde referenced the fact that he has spent the last three years touring with the reformed PANTERA, telling the JJO Discover New Music Podcast: "For ['Engines Of Demolition'], it was just, like, there was an implosion of ideas in 2022, and then we started the PANTERA celebration. And we did a year of that, rolling with the fellas. Then we came home, then we did another year of PANTERA celebration. Then I noodled on some more riffs and some piano stuff. And then after that we went out again for another year and a half. So, total, it's been, basically, four years of PANTERA in a blink of an eye. And I was just, like, there's no sense of putting a BLACK LABEL album out if you can't support it. We're all in. I'm doing the PANTERA celebrations, so it's just, like, it doesn't bother [me]. It'll just give me more time to keep writing songs. So it's all good. And now here we are four years later and now the album's [ready to come] out. So it's just, like, it's all good."

Wylde also talked about the importance of spontaneity when it comes to the songwriting and recording process and not overthinking everything.

"It's kind of a weird thing, 'cause if you're sitting on [a piece of music for a long time], then you constantly wanna be changing it and you'll never think it's good enough: 'I gotta change this.' I think if you ask anybody who's writing in a band or writing songs, you instinctually know it's cool. It came out good. Like when we did [Ozzy Osbourne's] 'No More Tears' or 'Mama I'm Coming Home' or 'Miracle Man' or whatever, when it was done, we were, like, 'All right. It came out all right.' So, we're done with this one. But I could see — I think if you ask all bands or whether you're asking Elton John or Billy Joel, them sitting behind a piano whenever they wrote any songs, 'cause if it's sitting there for 10 years, it might not even make the cut anyway, 'cause you're on to newer things. Because I think you ask anybody, the last thing you wrote is usually what you're most excited about. 'Cause it's fresh and it's new, whereas the other stuff, if it's older… I mean, I still have a blast playing 'Stillborn' or 'Suicide Messiah' or anything like that. Or like when I was playing with Ozz, every time we played 'Mama, I'm Coming Home' or something, it felt just as great as when we first recorded it. So, yeah, I think a good song's gonna be a good song."

During a January 28 question-and-answer session at the HMV store on Oxford Street in London, United Kingdom, Zakk was asked when he wrote "Ozzy's Song" and how it came together. Zakk said: "Well, I actually wrote the music before, obviously, I wrote the lyrics. I had the music done, and I was just, like, 'I'm really happy with the way it came out,' but I was just, like, 'I gotta figure out what I [wanna write about].' Usually, for me, always the lyrics are last, 'So I gotta figure out what I wanna sing about.' Like 'Lord Humungus', you know what I mean? So let's figure out how write a song about Lord Humungus and Mad Max."

Zakk continued: "I didn't have any lyrics for it, but after we had laid Ozz to rest… 'Cause we had done the ['Back To The Beginning'] show [in early July 2025], and then I went back home. We were playing with PANTERA [in the U.S.], and after we did the gig, and I got the phone call from [Ozzy's son] Jack, Jackie boy, and I spoke with Jack [about the fact] that Ozz passed away. So then we flew back over [to the U.K.]. We laid Ozzy to rest, and when I got back home, right after we got back, I went right back to playing with PANTERA celebration. It was crazy, 'cause the first gig we did back, when I flew back after we laid Ozzy to rest, was at Jones Beach in New York. And I remember playing there with Ozzy when it was pouring rain and people all in the front, everybody was standing in knee-high water. So I'll never forget that show. So we were playing there. So all I was thinking about was Ozzy at that first [PANTERA] show [after Ozzy's funeral]. And then after we got done with the PANTERA celebration, once the tour ended, I got home. It's crazy. In our library room, where we have books, we have Ozzy's books up on the the library shelves. And I was looking at him while I was listening to the tunes, and then I just wrote the lyrics."

Regarding why it has taken five years for BLACK LABEL SOCIETY to release the follow-up to "Doom Crew Inc.", Zakk said: "I can't believe it's already been — 2021 was when 'Doom Crew Inc.' came out. And so we started working on ['Engines Of Demolition'] middle of 2022. And it was just, like, we went out and did the PANTERA celebration for a year. I figured after we got done writing, we'll put the new BLACK LABEL album out. And then we went back out [on tour] again, and I came back and wrote some more riffs and some song ideas. I said, 'Well, I might as well get the fellows out to the Vatican again. Then we'll record some more.' Then we went back out [on the road] for another year, and then recorded some more. So next thing you know, we're sitting here talking right now, and four years have gone by in the blink of an eye. To me, it was just, like, 'All right, I'll just keep writing until PANTERA celebration takes a rest, and then we'll put the album out.' There's no sense of putting the album out if I'm not gonna be able to give it any TLC [tender loving care], you know what I mean?"

Wylde went on to say that the songwriting process for "Engines Of Demolition" once again took place at the Black Vatican. "Yeah, it always usually takes place at the Vatican when I get home [from tour]," he explained. "I mean, once we get out on the road, whether we're doing ZAKK SABBATH or we're doing PANTERA celebration or whatever, there's not that much that I do writing. I might as well jam when I'm in my room. But I might get a song idea or a ballad thing or something on the guitar — maybe — but usually when you're writing heavy riffs, the instruments that you're playing on usually dictate and inspire you the way you're gonna play. When I'm sitting behind the piano, you're gonna start playing — you'll get more reflective, mellow, either THE [ROLLING] STONES, ALLMAN BROTHERS, Elton [John], THE EAGLES, that that kind of stuff is gonna come out of you with an acoustic guitar. When you're playing a piano, you really don't think about writing something like [the classic BLACK SABBATH songs] 'Supernaut' or 'Into The Void', you know what I mean? But when you're playing an electric guitar — I'll plug into my little practice amp at the house, at a low volume with some reverb on it so it sounds like I'm playing at Madison Square Garden with nobody in it, and it's inspiring. It inspires you to write riff-orientated stuff. So that's why I usually just wait until I get home."

Wylde formed BLACK LABEL SOCIETY in 1998 and has kept the band busy in between touring and recording with Ozzy Osbourne, whose backing group he first joined nearly four decades ago.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's "Order Of The Black" (2010) and "Catacombs Of The Black Vatican" (2014) both broke into the top five on the hard rock album charts.

Since first joining Ozzy, Zakk had played on all of the BLACK SABBATH singer's solo albums except for 2020's "Ordinary Man", including such classic efforts as "No More Tears" (1991),"Ozzmosis" (1995) and "Black Rain" (2007).