Photo by Justin Reich courtesy of Entertainment One
Black Label Society
When it comes to muscle and power guitar chords, there are no better practitioners than Black Label Society. Frontman and lead guitarist Zakk Wylde has carved out a career path of self-awareness and always moving forward that is unparalleled in the metal genre. BLS brings their “Doom Trooping Over North America Tour,” with opening bands, Prong and Obituary, to The Rave-Eagles Club on Oct. 16.
For more than two decades, Wylde has successively gained wide recognition as a musician, arranger, singer, and songwriter. His well-honed metal riffs and identifying signature guitar, a 1961 Les Paul model with its “bulls-eye” design, have taken him on a long musical journey. Time spent with Ozzy Osbourne, as his band’s guitarist and co-writer, fostered an ongoing friendship and was a launching pad to other projects.
Wylde understands that a solid work ethic is required for anything in life, something that has informed his music, and kept him true to himself. Wylde recently spoke with the Shepherd Express and answered some questions.
How did the COVID pandemic affect your life and tour schedule.
We’re still breathing, that’s always a good start … 20 months ago, was the last time that we did a show. It’s literally felt like we were home for two weeks. I’m always on the road, all the time, and I love it. But this gave us all an opportunity to re-connect— time to catch up with your family, parents … the world actually stopped for a second.
I enjoy spending time at home, it was like a Memorial Day weekend, you get a Monday off—I don’t have to go to work today. I can’t even remember the last time I was home this long, forget about it. You want everybody to get better, go to the movies, go to sporting events, concerts—just like it was before the meteor hit. You don’t want anybody dying.
Milwaukee memories?
That was our last show—at The Rave. It was the last show, we gave it, and we all went home after the gig. Memories? “Happy Days,” obviously! The Fonz! What are you talking about—c’mon! We have friends in town. We played the Rave for lots of years, the small room, the big room upstairs, played almost every room in that place. The Rave is always an awesome place to play gigs, for sure. We look forward to seeing everybody in the Milwaukee chapter of the Almighty Black Label Society.
Your time with Ozzy Osbourne included arranging the music.
With Black Label Society, it’s a (football) team, but I’m the team owner and head coach. With Ozzy, I’m an offensive coordinator. Ozzy is the team owner and head coach, and he expects me to get the offense ready (for Sunday.) I just give him options, he’s the Tom Landry and he’ll make the final decisions on what we’re going to do. As far as the music goes, he’d say, what riffs have you got? Well, here’s “Miracle Man,” here’s “Devil’s Daughter”… whatever riffs there are, that’s my job.
What lessons came from your time with Ozzy.
He’s kind of like your father. He doesn’t tell you, he just lives it, shows how it’s done. I’ve always said “Lions are born lions, and hyenas are born hyenas.” You can’t instill a work ethic in anyone. Either you are a lion or a hyena. They ask, what did you learn from your father and Ozzy? The answer is … nothing I didn’t already know, they just reinforced it. No matter how banged up, or whatever, they’d always answer the bell and they’re not going to complain about it…what’s that going to do? Let’s get it the f*** done and get the f*** out of here, instead of whining and complaining all day.
When I was 19-20 years old, until now, when I’m with Ozzy, it’s just a ton of laughs and it’s a miracle any work gets done because we’re on the floor, crying from laughing.
What are the hardest time signatures for you to play.
Eddie Van Halen, Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, or Frank Marino—they couldn’t play, the way they play (starting out.) It’s repetition, really. Like bodybuilding. Take [professional bodybuilder and six-time Mr. Olympia] Dorian Yates—he wasn’t walking on stage pushing the pounds at 257 with 3% body fat, when he first started lifting weights. Everybody has to start somewhere.
It doesn’t matter how much of a gift you’ve been given by the good Lord, the thing is—if he gives you a gift, and you don’t water it, it’s not going to grow. You have to do the work. It’s like anything you do in life. You have to put the time in, for the reward.
What music is close to your heart?
With anybody—even like my Dad. He was a big Sinatra guy, and all that stuff, because he’s a World War II guy. But all the music you carry with you when you’re a teenager, you pretty much carry with you all of your life. Because you have crazy, insane memories that are attached—pretty much for me, it was Bad Company, classic rock, and that stuff.
And I like guitar, so there’s stuff I never would have listened to—Joe Pass, Pat Martino, and all these amazing guitar players. When I’m not listening to normal rock or fusion stuff, I’m on a steady diet of pretty much what I was listening to, when I was 14—Zeppelin, Sabbath, Allman Brothers, everything like that.
What tips do you have for aspiring guitar players.
Play what you love. If you love Green Day, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, love punk rock, that’s the kind of music you should be playing, not what’s popular. Whatever you love playing, whatever moves you, is what you should be playing. End of the day, that’s it!
Kurt Cobain told me, “Zakk, if you show me Van Halen’s Eruption…I don’t need to know it, because it doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m not going to use that. Can you show me some power chords, so I can write some songs?”
Put it another way, if you want to learn to add and subtract, you can get by, simply adding and subtracting. But if you want to be a chemical engineer on guitar, you’re going to have to learn trigonometry, division, the highest forms of math.
It just depends on what you want to do with guitar. If you want to be in a punk band, what good is practicing scales four hours a day? You aren’t going to use any of it?
The William Shatner “Seeking Major Tom” CD sessions were recorded partially at your studio. Johnny Winter, also played on it, and told me, “If I go away now, at least I played on a Star Trek record.”
It was amazing, mind-blowing. I went to a Star Trek convention in my teens, and I was telling William Shatner about this, and he remembered it! It was because he got hit in the face with an apple pie, or something like that, in the cab, on the way to the convention. He said, “I remember that convention.” See, my Dad took me and my best friend to this Star Trek convention because we were big fans. It was pretty surreal. Then, I’m sitting in the studio with him (years later.) Pretty amazing!
The new CD, Doom Inc., what are your favorites.
Actually, all of them, and I didn’t write any of them. We bumped them from Barry Mainlow, Cher, Lady Gaga, and some early Glenn Miller, as well. We just borrowed from all those things and came up with Doom Inc, the new Black Label Society CD (Laughs).
