ZAKK WYLDE: 'To Me, It's All About The Songs'
March 6, 2008Simon Milburn of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:
On songwriting:
"To me, it's all about the songs. You can always put ripping guitar solos on it or fast things, or whatever the hell you want to do. But the whole thing is with the tunes — it always comes down to the songs. LED ZEPPELIN — Jimmy Page can do ripping solos and stuff like that. But when you think of ZEP, it's not just the guitar playing. It's the whole package — the songs, the production, the performances of all the guys — it's the whole thing."
Writing process with Ozzy:
"Usually, the way it's always been, I'll just write the riffs and everything like that and when there's a riff that Ozzy likes, he'll go 'Zakk, I really dig that one. I really dig that one and that one. That one's crap, but I really dig that one. That one's really good. That one? I don't like that one. That one's really cool.' That's the way it usually works. Then Oz will just start singing something over it and maybe him or Kevin will start working on lyrics. Then the next thing you know, bam! Badda boom, badda bing — we got a song."
On whether he ever thought Ozzy there might not be another Ozzy album before "Black Rain":
"Oh, yeah. Oz was jammin' with the SABBATH guys again, and I was off doing the (Zakk Wylde's) BLACK LABEL stuff, and he knows what he wants. He goes 'Just call Zakk up and he'll come down and come jam on it. Don't worry about it.' He was like, 'I wrote a whole bunch of songs. I want you to just put your touch on it. Just do what you gotta do and we'll finish the album,' because Oz will just go, 'Zakk, I'm just tired of the whole writing process. I've been writing with all these other people.' Usually, we write all of the songs together. He'll go, 'Zakk, just come on down and play your ass off on these things and we'll call it a day, alright?' I'll say, 'Alright boss, whatever you want. We'll knock it out.' It's that easy, man. We never get into arguments or anything stupid like that."
Read the entire interview at The Metal Forge.
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