Interview with Black Label Society lead singer and guitarist Zakk Wylde

Black Label Society just released their newest offering, The Order Of The Black. When I got word that Zakk Wylde was doing interviews I was more than ecstatic to speak with him. As a fan of BLS and Zakk’s decades of work, as the man behind Ozzy, I was stoked. He is arguably one of the best guitarists on the planet today and without a doubt he has had a hand in shaping a whole new generation of metal guitarists. His reputation as an outspoken, hard partying rocker proceeds him, but in all honesty I found him to be down to earth and extremely funny. After all was said and done this might have been one of the best interviews I have ever conducted. Here is how the conversation went with the man, the myth, the legend, Zakk Wylde.

How are you?
Zakk: I am doing great. How is everything with the Toronto Chapter of The BLS?

Well, actually it is kind of funny. It is a Toronto magazine but I am based in Richmond, Va.
Zakk: Oh wow, check it out man.

Yeah guess it is a good use of technology and the internet.
Zakk: Wow. That is insane.

Where are you guys at today? Somewhere in the Mid-West I believe. Is it Nebraska?
Zakk: Yeah it is Omaha, brother. We even went out for sushi last night because they specialize in that sort of thing out here.

Yeah right… maybe raw steak or something out there.
Zakk: Yeah of course we went out and hit it last night brother… when in Rome.

How is the tour going so far?
Zakk: Everything is going ass-kicking man. All of the guys, Children Of Bodom and the Clutch guys kick ass and the 2Cent guys are all slammin. Everybody is all slamming so it is a blast out here, everything is going cool buddy.

Good crowds?
Zakk: Yeah. Everything is going great man.

Now that your new CD, The Order Of The Black, has been released how do you feel about it and are you satisfied with the outcome?
Zakk: Well you know it just goes to show you that The Black Label family is getting bigger and bigger and bigger otherwise it would not have charted at No 4 and No 1 on the Hard Rock Charts. As far as production is concerned with the record and everything, we were test driving The Black Label Bunker and I couldn’t be happier. All the records I have done with ‘The Boss,’ ever since No Rest For The Wicked, were always recorded in a studio and mixed somewhere else. With us, we actually recorded the record and then took it down to another studio that had an SSL with all of the bells and whistles and God knows whatever else on there.

I was listening to the mixes and I was leaving JD and Adam with it and letting them mix it. I came in at the end of the day and said you know maybe, bring the kick drum up a little bit or put a little bit of Eventide on the vocal here. You know, I was coming in with fresh ears when they had been mixing all day. The whole thing is like, nothing for nothing, the mixes you guys got at The Bunker smoke what you have here. Your ears are not going to lie, that is why you listen to it on little speakers because anything is going to sound good when you listen to it on a wall of harshness; you can’t tell what is good or bad, you know what I mean. So the whole thing is we just brought the it back to The Bunker and mixed it in there and the whole thing sounds slammin and I couldn’t be happier. So now we can make the doughnuts and then we can wrap them up and ship them out right from The Bunker.

I read somewhere that you are going to use The Bunker for outside projects, is that still the plan?
Zakk: Yeah without a doubt because I want to start pumping out some movies and stuff like that with my buddies. Bruce, it is just like us writing a bunch of scripts, whether it be ‘Animal House’ or any of these other goofy movies we want to come up with, the soundtrack stuff I can do right in The Bunker. Any acts that I sign anything whatever it may be, the bands that we sign we can record and mix right at The Bunker.

What was the writing process like for this disc?
Zakk: I will just start throwing down with a riff and the other guys will chime in. It is not like we are making an orchestra record or anything, you know what I mean. There are no rehearsals, this is rock music. Rehearsals are usually allocated for the tour only. We just go into the studio and I start a riff and sing a line and then we go over it like 2 or 3 times and we record it. It is just like building anything, you build a house you have to have a foundation, which is the drums. So once we get a great drum track we just start building it like a house with bass and guitars and then it starts to take shape.

Are there any tracks on the disc that are personal favorites or that have good stories behind them?
Zakk: I am trying to think. I mean it is hysterical with the writing, let’s say we start with heavy stuff, once that starts getting boring or the riffs start sounding the same I will sit down at the piano or with an acoustic guitar and I will write stuff that is more mellow. The same thing goes with that, once it starts getting boring we go back to the heavy stuff. We wrote this album just like all of the other Black Label albums, it took 94 days to write, record, mix and master. I have no idea how bands like Def Leppard take eight months to record an album. You gotta be kidding me! I mean mind you, those albums are phenomenal records and the productions are great, there was Pyromania and Hysteria and all of that stuff. But it is just mind blowing thinking it could take that long just to record a record. That is not writing and recording, this is going in with 12 songs already written and taking a year to get it done. That is insane.

I understand what you are saying. In a previous life I was a recording engineer at a studio in New York City and I used to see that stuff happen all the time.
Zakk: Bruce, you know what I am talking about. It is just like “Zach play the guitar already will ya!”

I know that you guys do a lot of in-store appearances. Do you enjoy interacting with your fans?
Zakk: Yeah of course. We do a meet and greet for every show. Like I said Black Label does not have fans we have ‘Fams.’ We are like one big gigantic family. It is like the Grateful Dead on steroids. It is great seeing everybody.

How did you go about picking the bands to play on the Berzerkus Tour?
Zakk: We talked about doing something years ago with Children Of Bodom. We had seen the Clutch guys playing with COC and they are just a slammin band and my manager is friends with the manager of 2Cents and they are a slammin super cool band. That is how we ended up bringing everyone out and it all worked out well. The Clutch guys could do it and the Children of Bodom guys were just finishing a record. When you put these things together it is like a high school reunion.

In 100 years from now what will the music history books say about Black Label Society?
Zakk: These guys suck! It will say The Black Label Society… Shit!

My son dared me to ask you about your Barbie Doll collection. He watches the video all the time where you show off your collection… I think it is Skullage?
Zakk: Yeah totally with my Kerry King doll, my Prince doll and my Dimebag doll.

He dared me and I told him if you had a sense of humor I would ask, so I did.
Zakk: The best is just from the rest of our Black Label family. Every time I pull into town people are like hey jackass I got a whole bunch of dolls for your dumb ass collection.

So you have a whole bunch of them then?
Zakk: Yeah totally… I keep getting all of these dolls. We end up taking them down to Goodwill for little kids, but it is awesome man. There is always something gay flying around here.

How long does this tour go?
Zakk: We are going until right around the beginning of December and then we are going back into the studio to do some recording. We are taking everything that is on The Order Of The Black and just doing an unplugged version of it, sort of an “unblack version.” We will record that at The Bunker, take off for Christmas and we are off in January. Then in the middle of February we start rehearsing in England and then Berzerkus will go through Europe and China.

So you are going to be pretty busy then?
Zakk: Yeah totally, it is going to be awesome.

Any closing words Zakk?
Zakk: Yes… make sure to believe in the rock and stay true to the roll.