ZAKK WYLDE Talks 'Guitar Hero', Upcoming BLACK LABEL SOCIETY 'Best-Of' Collection

Live-Metal.net recently conducted an interview with guitarist Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Live-Metal.net: I don't know if anything official has been announced yet, but I hear there's going to be some sort of greatest-hits or best-of compilation [entitled "Skullage"] coming out [on April 21].

Zakk: Yeah, 'cause the record company was just asking. They said, "Zakk, can you just put a whole compilation of stuff together before you put the new album out?" When we did "Kings of Damnation", there was a bunch of fuckin' tunes on that thing. He goes, "Well, can you make another one?" I go, "Yeah, I can put a bunch of shit together on that fuckin' thing." He said, "Cool, we'll just put that out to fuckin' hold you over until the next record." I said, "Well, no fuckin' problem." We're working on Ozzy's record right now. And I went over to Europe for about three and a half weeks, came back, now we're getting ready to do the Black Label Bash with the SEVENDUST boys and DOPE and everything — like I said, a bunch of fuckin' newer guys and everything like that. We'll knock out the Bash and then you figure March, April, May, then finish the boss's record, then probably June either start BLACK LABEL or we're talking about going back over to Europe and doing a bunch of festivals, like June, July, August, touring over there and doing BLACK LABEL one-off shows but then doing a shitload of festivals. 'Cause over in Europe in the summer — you know how over here they have the Ozzfest, Lollapalooza, the Warped Tour, all these different festivals and shit like that, everyone's touring during the summer. So it's just like, over in Europe they have festivals out the fuckin' yin yang all during the summer. The last time I did all the festivals over there was probably '98 — it was '98-'99 when BLACK LABEL first started. 'Cause they always ask, like, "Dude, when the fuck are you coming back over here?" It's almost kind of like a band from London coming over to America and they just play New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and then they go home. It's like fuckin' dude, America's a lot fuckin' bigger than that. So it's the same thing with Europe. It's just like going over there and doing fuckin' 14 shows. You could spend two months alone in Germany, for Christ's sakes. So we're probably gonna go over to Europe for the fuckin' summer, do a shitload of festivals over there and then after that, come back, finish the record. That'll be June, July, August, then figure September, mix the album in October. I think they're talking about putting Ozzy's record out in like February — I'm not sure when they're talking about putting that out. But the whole thing is to go out with Ozzy doing an arena tour. I think there were talks about that — you know, Ozz, BLACK LABEL and throw in some other bands. I was like, "Great, that'll be fuckin' fine." I hate fuckin' sitting home in the fuckin' house, 'cause I'm not a vacation guy. I don't surf. I'm not a beach guy. The one thing I wanna do when I'm in Jersey is go to the boardwalk, you go to Jenkinson's and get some fuckin' beers — that's about it. I'm not gonna sit out on the fuckin' beach sweating my fuckin' balls off. It's just like, dude, this fuckin' blows. I'd rather hang out in my air-conditioned room practicing fuckin' guitar and writing some new fuckin' songs or something. This fuckin' blows.

Live-Metal.net: Is there going to be any unreleased material on this new compilation?

Zakk: Yeah. We did a whole bunch of fuckin' acoustic shows and shit like that, me and Nick [Catanese, guitar], a while ago. They came out really fuckin' cool. It was just me and Nick doing a batch of fuckin' material and shit like that, acoustic versions of heavy songs. So yeah, we're putting that shit on there, too.

Live-Metal.net: I have to say, probably my favorite thing you've ever done is "Book of Shadows" and I really liked the "Hangover Music" album. So I was wondering if you would ever do a tour where you would focus on that lighter stuff but with a full band.

Zakk: Yeah, I agree, man. Yeah, totally, without a doubt. Right now in the set, we'll wheel a piano out and do the mellow shit in between — in the middle of the show, we'll whip that fuckin' piano out and do "Damage Is Done" or fuckin' "Spoke in the Wheel" or fuckin' — any of the mellow shit — "Last Goodbye". I could even throw in some fuckin' shit from "Book of Shadows" on there, "Between Heaven and Hell" or anything like that. Eventually down the line, the whole game plan, the older I'm getting, that's more what I'm gonna do. You gotta figure the BLACK LABEL audience, between Guitar Hero and all this other stuff, you've kids anywhere from 14 or 12 years old 'cause they know you from that shit and then you've got guys that are my age or over, in their 40s. At the end of the day, when I'm 50-fuckin'-some-odd years old, I'll do "Suicide Messiah", but I'll doing it sitting down playing an acoustic guitar, with a string section behind me and doing really dark versions of this shit. It's like when you go to see Neil Young when he's doing all his mellow shit, he doesn't even break out the electric guitar. You know, just doing the mellow shit 'cause I don't wanna be sitting up there fuckin' 57 years old fuckin' trying to act like I'm 21 years old. There's nothing wrong with that, but certain artists get trapped in a box. Neil Young can do whatever the fuck he wants. He can do an acoustic fuckin' tour, then he can whip out fuckin' heavy shit. He can do "Hey Hey, My My" super heavy, then he can do the sit-down-on-a-stool-by-himself tour. And then you've got certain artists, they're known for that shtick and it's not that they're one-dimensional, but people just want to see that out of them.

Live-Metal.net: You just mentioned Guitar Hero. What do you think about that game, in general?

Zakk: It's amazing. I think it's gonna inspire a whole generation of guitar players. Kids are eventually gonna just, "I'm gonna do it for real. I'm gonna pick up a real guitar and try it." I think it's fuckin' great. You never know, you might get the next fuckin' Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix or Dimebag popping out of there. It's like, "Yeah, I used to play Guitar Hero and that's when I decided I wanted to be a guitar player." So yeah, I think it's fuckin' brilliant. Fuck, half these fuckin' kids wouldn't know who these fuckin' bands are if they wouldn't have picked that thing up. They wouldn't know who Jimmy Page is or fuckin' Tony Iommi — all these brilliant, amazing guitar players — unless they picked that thing up.

Read the entire interview at Live-Metal.net.