ZAKK WYLDE

INTERVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde is best known about his long stint in support of former Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne and leading his own band Black Label Society which recently released its 8th studio album ORDER OF THE BLACK. Wylde has gone through many changes during the last two years. His long term run as Osbourne’s guitarist came to an end and he also faced serious health problems in 2009 when he was suddenly hospitalized due to blood cuts. Fortunately, everything seems to be fine in Wylde’s camp now.  His health problems are long gone and ORDER OF BLACK is becoming their most successful release to date. Black Label Society’s new tour reached Finland in early March and in Helsinki we had a pleasure to speak with the man himself and hear all the latest news from Wylde’s world. Read on!

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BLACK LABEL SOCIETY 'The Song Remains Not The Same'

BLS frontman/guitar god Zakk Wylde is proud to announce the upcoming release of THE SONG REMAINS NOT THE SAME (Entertainment One Music) on May 3rd. The offering features unplugged versions of material from Black Label Society’s latest album, ORDER OF THE BLACK, as well as additional material recorded during the ORDER OF THE BLACK sessions. THE SONG REMAINS NOT THE SAME was conceived, created and compiled by Zakk Wylde himself and the title is, of course, a nod to one of Wylde’s favorite bands, Led Zeppelin. To the right is the cover art and please see below for full track listing.

In other Black Label Society news, the next single from ORDER OF THE BLACK, “Darkest Days” will impact radio on March 21st. The track showcases Wylde’s softer side with soulful lyrics, a hauntingly beautiful melody and captivating piano played by the guitar icon himself. An alternate version of the song featuring country superstar John Rich will appear on THE SONG REMAINS NOT THE SAME.

The Song Remains Not The Same” track listing:

01. Overlord (Unplugged version)
02. Parade Of The Dead (Unplugged version)
03. Riders Of The Damned (Unplugged version)
04. Darkest Days (Unplugged version)
05. Juniors Eyes
06. Helpless
07. Bridge Over Troubled Water
08. Can’t Find My Way Home
09. Darkest Days (featuring John Rich)
10. The First Noel

William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers today announced plans to release on May 10, 2011 the handbook to all things heavy metal:BRINGING METAL TO THE CHILDREN by Zakk Wylde, guitar legend and Black Label Society frontman. Wylde invites all who dare onto the tour bus for tales of glory, debauchery, and general mayhem. The book is co-authored by Eric Hendrikx.

In BRINGING METAL TO THE CHILDREN, Zakk Wylde, the man who turned heavy metal touring into a journey of fantastical excess, shares what really goes on behind tour bus windows and backstage doors. The twenty-five year music veteran of the Ozzy Osbourne band and Black Label Society details his survival techniques for maintaining a life on the road, managing a band of raging vikings, and somehow making it on stage and blowing the crowd away night after night.

Beginning with Wylde’s “true rocker test” (TRT), the reader answers and self-scores ten questions to determine if he is a true rocker and should continue reading, or if he’s just a complete tool who needs to hand the book to someone more metal. Wylde continues the journey with his epic stories about life on the road, using his Black Label Society (BLS) coaching techniques to instruct the reader on proper touring hygiene, pre-concert preparations, and post-show etiquette. The road stories include wild nights with many of heavy metal’s gods including; Rob Zombie, Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell, Alice In Chain’s Mike Inez, Skid Row’s Snake Sabo, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, professional wrestlers Chris Jericho, Bubba Dudley and Stone Cold Steve Austin, UFC Former Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin and of course the Godfather of heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne.

BRINGING METAL TO THE CHILDREN also features Wylde’s roadmap for success in the music business, tour planning and exclusive tips for the aspiring “metal musician,” as well as the best methods for surviving a mosh pit and plans for how to set up a shooting range on the tour bus.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

In the two decades since Ozzy Osbourne hired him away from his job at a New Jersey gas station, Zakk Wylde has established himself as a guitar icon known and revered the world over.  Wylde has won nearly every guitar award imaginable, graced countless magazine covers and is a major influence to a new battalion of rock guitarists.  Writing and recording with Osbourne led to multi-platinum success, inspiring him to create the now iconic Black Label Society in 1998.  In the decade plus since, BLS has turned the notion of what a rock band should be upside down by inspiring legions of fans (known as Berserkers) all over the world to follow the mantra: Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever (SDMF for short).  Wylde and his Berserkers have established a heavy metal institution true to the vision of uncompromising, unfiltered and unrestrained rock ‘n’ roll.  To date, Black Label Society has sold more than 3.5 million albums worldwide and continues to be a massive presence on the worldwide touring and merchandising circuits.  Black Label Society’s latest album, ORDER OF THE BLACK, was released in August, 2010 and debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart.

Writer, photographer, and fellow Berserker Eric Hendrikx is a notable contributor to more than a dozen books including Forrest Griffin’s New York Times bestsellers Got Fight? and Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down. A lifelong musician, Hendrikx played guitar in the rock band Snake River Conspiracy and toured with bands including Queensrÿche. He currently lives in Southern California with his son Stone.

Guitarist Zakk Wylde has been released from a Nebraska hospital after receiving treatment for a blood clot in his leg.

Thursday night’s (September 30) Black Label Society concert at the Anchor Inn in Omaha, Nebraska and Friday’s show (October 1st) at in Clive, Iowa, have been canceled, but the band plans on finishing the rest of its current “Black Label Berzerkus” tour, according to the group’s publicist.

In a series of messages on his Twitter profile, Wylde wrote about his latest trip to the hospital (edited for clarity), “[I] hung out with the Omaha chapter meet-and-greet [Thursday afternoon] and felt pain in my left thigh. [I] went to [the emergency room] to be on the safe side and [they] told me I had a 12-inch clot from my calf to thigh. That was around 5:00 [p.m.]. [They] did blood work on me and told me my blood was not [in the] therapeutic [range]. Obviously I NEVER CANCEL GIGS so I wanted to do the gig. The doctors said the problem was chances were even higher for the clot going into my lungs/heart/brain and to stay overnight and jack me up with blood thinners and get my blood [up to the] therapeutic [range] like I was previously on the Coumadin. So now it’s two shots a day and Coumadin. Soon the shots will be gone, but [I will have to take] the oral [medications] for the rest of my days. No big deal — just something else to take along with the crack cocaine lite, meth, Viagra, Cialis, steroids, growth hormone, MET-RX, morning-after pill, hair and nail, Joint Fuel, Flintstones chewables [and] Paxil.”

According to the Omaha World-Herald, “Black Label Berzerkus” opening bands Clutch, Chidren Of Bodom and 2 Cents performed their sets at the Anchor Inn, where around 1,500 fans turned up for the show. Those people will be able to attend a rescheduled concert for free. Ticketholders are being asked to hold onto their tickets.

Wylde was first hospitalized with blood clots in August 2009, causing Black Label Society to drop off last year’s “Pedal To The Metal Tour”.

Read Zakk’s tweets firsthand at his official Twitter profile.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY was forced to cancel an appearance last night in Omaha, NE due to Zakk Wylde’s health.

Tonight’s appearance in Clive, Iowa has also been affected.

Wylde was diagnosed with a blood clotting condition in his leg, and was admitted to a hospital in Nebraska. It is a reoccurrence of an issue first diagnosed in August 2009.

The Black Label Berzerkus is set to continue in Milwaukee, WI this Saturday, October 2.

A message from the BLS camp reads: “BLS apologizes to ticket holders of last night’s show, and for the inconvenience to the fans affected in Iowa as well. Tickets will be refunded at the place of purchase – and Meet & Greet package refunds will be processed promptly. Further updates on Zakk’s medical condition will become available as they are known.“

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY

22.11 2008

House of Culture, Helsinki

FINLAND

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Zakk Wylde made a debut visit to Finland, as a new axe man of Ozzy Osbourne on the NO REST FOR WICKED tour, almost 20 years ago. During these years since the first visit, the man has become the well known and adored name on the lips of several young guitar players around the world. His Black Label Society has been cllimbing the ladder of success during the whole decade. That can be noticed as venues have become bigger and the attendance of audience or so called “family” has grown tremendously as well.

Review by Marko Syrjälä and Arto Lehtinen

Pictures by Marko Syrjälä

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JAMES LOMENZO

Brooklyn born James Lomenzo started his musician career in the late 70′s. His first bands included such names as Empty Sky, Clockwork and Rondinelli but it wasn’t until 1984 before he found big success after joining hard rock band White Lion. PRIDE was released in 1987 and with the help of hit singles “Wait” and “When Children Cry” it sold over two million copies in U.S alone. That band did huge tours opening for names like Aerosmith, Ozzy and AC/DC and they were on the top of their game. Ironically named BIG GAME came out two years later but although it failed to reach its predecessor sales, it still went to gold. The last White Lion album MAIN ATTRACTION was released in 1991 but its sales figures stayed proportionally low. James and drummer Greg D’Angelo left the soon to be disbanded group in 1991. James’s following years included touring with former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley and forming a brand new band called Pride and Glory together with Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Brian Tichy. Unfortunately, that band didn’t last too long and they split up after just one album which was released in 1994. James and Brian Tichy continued working together and joined Slash’s Snakepit -touring in 1995. Few years later James joined David Lee Roth’s band and recorded the album DIAMOND DAVE with him. In 2004 Zakk Wylde asked James to join his Black Label Society and James agreed. HANGOVER MUSIC VOL 4 came out soon and although James briefly split again with Zakk, he soon returned and another album MAFIA came out in 2005. Later, on the same year, James decided to leave Black Label Society for the last time and try to find some new challenges.  It wasn’t too long before it was announced that James was chosen as new bassist for legendary thrash metal band Megadeth. James played his first show with the band in March 2006 in Dubai. UNITED ABOMINATIONS was released in May of 2007 and since its release band has been more or a less constantly on tour across the world. Band started their European leg of the tour on last February from Helsinki and then we were able to sit down with James and talk about various topics including the current state of Megadeth, James’s work with some of his former bands as well as about many other interesting things…

INTERVIEW BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ AND LUXI LAHTINEN

LIVE PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

TRANSCRIPTION BY NICLAS LINDSTRAD

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Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society:
Ass Beatings and Beer Drinking 

Interviewed in June 2000 by EvilG

When I think of Zakk Wylde, I think of blaring ripping solos, ultra-thick rhythms ripe with cool artificial harmonics and of course the image buried in my mind of the head-banging maniac in Ozzy Osbourne’s “Miracle Man” video. Zakk is still playing metal and still searing his fretboard on his new solo CD Stronger Than Death for his band Black Label Society. You will find a mixture of metal styles reminiscent of his work with Ozzy and his Sabbath influences coupled with a drop of Pantera and some groove / southern rock orientated music. I was given the chance to talk with Zakk about the new Black Label CD, metal, beer, Ozzy and of course guitar!

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Sunday, May 1st, 2005
The Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, BC  Canada

**Live Review & Pics By Lord of The Wasteland

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