ZAKK WYLDE: 'Without OZZY, There'd Be No ZAKK WYLDE; No BLACK LABEL'

Steven Rosen of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Why would [Ozzy] want to replace you?

Zakk: Well, you know, I love Ozz and I've always got his back so whatever it is he wants to do. Without Ozzy, there'd be no Zakk Wylde; there'd be no BLACK LABEL. When Ozz would do the SABBATH stuff, he'd say, "Guys, I'm going away for a while; I'm gonna be doing SABBATH." This is back when Mike [Inez] joined ALICE IN CHAINS and I started doing the PRIDE & GLORY stuff even before BLACK LABEL. He was like, "Guys if anything comes up, you guys should do somethin' because I don't know how long I'll be with the guys [SABBATH]. It could be a year or two years."

Ozz has always been cool. Even when we did "Down to Earth", Ozz was like, "Zakk, I write these songs with all these other guys and I don't want to fuckin' rewrite a whole record. Can you just come in and wail on the fuckin' songs and shit like that? And we'll go out on the road." And I said, "Yeah, Ozz, no problem; whatever the fuck you want to do, man."

Ultimate-Guitar.com: It didn't bother you that Ozzy was auditioning other guitar players and didn't really say anything to you?

Zakk: I mean, with us, there's never any arguments; there's no fights or nothing. It's just, "What do you want to do, Steve?" It's like, "Ahh, Zakk, I want to go jam with these guys now." It's like with Slash and Scottie and all the guys and if they're gonna stop doing VELVET REVOLVER for a while. And then Scott is going to do STONE TEMPLE PILOTS; Duff is gonna do LOADED; Slash is gonna do his solo thing; Matt's gonna be jammin' with THE CULT again and then they're gonna get back together. It's just like no big deal. It's like GENESIS — there's MIKE AND THE MECHANICS and Phil is doing his solo thing and the keyboard player is doing movie soundtracks. And then it's like, "Let's get back together and do a fuckin' album."

I love Ozz and Sharon; Sharon is like my mother. Barbaranne [Zakk's wife] still hangs out with Sharon all the time. They go to "Dancing With the Stars" to see Kelly and all that shit. They hang out and have lunch and just chill and have a good time.

I always told everybody when the day would come when Ozz would say, "I don't feel like doin' this shit no more." What are you supposed to do? But you better figure somethin' out. You know what I mean?

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Have you heard Gus G. play?

Zakk: I'm sure he can fuckin' wail if he's got to play Randy's stuff and Jake's shit. Obviously he knows what the fuck he's doin'.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: He's a good guitar player.

Zakk: Cool; good for him. It was just like when Joe Holmes was playing and if Gus is gonna be jamming or anybody, I wish them all the fuckin' best. If you're gonna be playing with Ozzy, I hope you have as good a time as I did. Or just a quarter of it would be fuckin' slammin', dude.

Read the entire interview from Ultimate-Guitar.com.