ZAKK WYLDE Says Losing OZZY OSBOURNE Gig Was 'No Big Deal'

Brendan Crabb (a.k.a. Spiritech) of PyroMusic.net recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

PyroMusic.net: You received a lot of media attention earlier this year following your departure from Ozzy's ranks. Now that you've had some time removed from the situation, do you wish you had done anything differently, or that Ozzy himself had gone about things in a different way?

Zakk Wylde: No. I mean, it's no big deal. I mean, it's just like... ever since we did "No More Tears", with the boss, our relationship is different, it's bigger than music anyway. So even after we did "No More Tears", he was like, "Guys, I'm pretty much going to be going back with SABBATH, we're going to just do a reunion thing and like do another record and then a whole other tour, so guys, if anything comes up, you've gotta do something." He's always been super-cool with everything, so it doesn't... He'll be the first one to tell you, "Zakk, I don't feel like touring for a while," or "I don't want to do this," you know?! It's just like, "Well, I hope you guys got something else you can fall back on and do. Don't be calling me up asking for dough, 'cause you don't have money for rent!" (laughs) You know what I mean? I mean, that's the way I've always been anyway, so it's just like when we weren't touring after "No Rest For The Wicked", or after "No More Tears" or whatever, right after that I went out and did guitar clinics for a while, you know, that's what I did for that year to keep busy and everything like that. 'Cause we weren't touring, we weren't working on a record and then after that, that's when Geffen offered me a deal to do a record and that's when we did PRIDE & GLORY. Then we did "Book Of Shadows" and then Ozz would call me up and say, "Zakk, I want to do another record or something, do you want to do something?" And I was like, "Yeah, of course." It's always been that way, anyway, I've always been busy doing things. The way I always looked at it was if Ozz ever said, "Zakk, I really don't want to tour anymore, I just want to do select dates and maybe pump out a record once in a while," you know what I mean? 'Cause Ozz has a million things going on too, between the TV show he was doing and all. I mean, it's the same thing with BLACK LABEL — all the guys in the band, Nick's (Catanese, rhythm guitar) got his own thing going with SPEED X and JD's (bassist John DeServio) got CYCLE OF PAIN and Craig (Nunenmacher, drums) is doing stuff. All the guys have stuff going on, but we have the BLACK LABEL... BLACK LABEL is the foundation of the house but everybody can go off and do different things.

PyroMusic.net: So the door isn't completely shut on you maybe working with Ozzy again in the future?

Zakk Wylde: Well, put it this way — Gus [G.] is a great guitar player and Gus is going to be awesome with Ozz, so it's just like... he'll have a blast because Ozzy's the coolest and everybody in the camp — Blasko [bassist Rob Nicholson] and Mikey [drummer Mike Bordin] — everybody's super-cool, man. It'll be the same thing with Gus; he's got his own band and everything like that and I'm sure after he pumps out the record and tours with Ozz, Gus will be jamming with his buddies again. Everything's super-cool, man. Let me put it this way — if Gus, you know, hurt his hand in a bizarre porn accident in the back of the bus (laughs) or something, I'd fill in for 'em for like two weeks or whatever the hell it was 'till Gus is better or whatever. 'Cause we're a family, so it doesn't matter, man.

PyroMusic.net: When you were leaving the Ozzy band, were you aware that Gus was the guy that Ozzy had in mind to be his new guitarist?

Zakk Wylde: No, I think Ozz was... 'cause we wrote some stuff right when we got off the road with Ozzy, this was like a year ago, after we did that with METALLICA. We were back just jamming on a bunch of stuff over at Ozzy's studio, so we did that and then I went back out on the road. We jammed on about 15 or 16 songs and then I just started jamming, then I went back out on the road with BLACK LABEL and then Ozz was like, "Zakk, I think I'm going to jam with some other guy", 'cause I was just so busy with the band and everything like that, so I was like, "Alright, Ozz, no problem, buddy." So that's about it, man, how that all went down. I was like, "Alright cool brother, have a great gig with the rest of the guys" and I think I had a gig the next day, or that day, 'cause I was going to fly down the next day to see Ozzy for rehearsals and then come back and then go back down, do the gig, then go back out on the road with BLACK LABEL.

Read the entire interview from PyroMusic.net.