2019.10.31 - Guitar World - Zakk Wylde reflects on Pride And Glory [...] and that time he very nearly joined Guns N' Roses

Zakk Wylde reflects on Pride And Glory, jamming with the Allman Bros and that time he very nearly joined Guns N' Roses

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By his own admission, the mid-'90s were an interesting time for the singer/guitarist – here he reflects on the making of Pride And Glory’s only album, recently reissued with seven bonus tracks, the ingredients to his unmistakable tone and his brief involvement with Guns N’ Roses…

Recording Pride And Glory must have felt completely different to making albums with Ozzy Osbourne – it certainly sounds that way…

“When we did that one it was like the 360 of doing the Ozzy records where I was doubling all my guitars. I guess Black Label Society is more in tune with that way of working.

“Even the Book Of Shadows [solo] records were more about the songs rather than the improv. That approach is more like building a house starting with the drums, getting takes that everyone is happy with against some scratch guitar and bass tracks which later get redone and doubled and layered.

“But Pride And Glory felt more like Cream, three guys in a room doing some improv, meets The Allman Brothers. Or even The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a power trio going through a ton of jamming.

“When we recorded each take, it was live. That was what we kept. There were very few overdubs on that record. It was just the three of us playing exactly the way we would on stage.”

The following year you almost ended up joining Guns N’ Roses...

“It wasn’t so much an audition for me – obviously the guys already knew the kind of guitar I play, between all the Ozzy stuff and Pride And Glory. We were friends anyways so it was just a matter of going down there.

“I’d never met Axl before, but I knew Slash, Duff and Steven Adler… I also knew [Adler’s replacement] Matt Sorum as well, from when he was playing in The Cult. I was writing a lot of riffs at the time, and at the same time I was doing [1995 Ozzy album] Ozzmosis.

“After getting back to New York from tracking that, I was home for about a week or so and then Axl said, ‘Hey man, you wanna come down and jam with us?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, no problem!’

“So we did that – Axl was there, as was Slash, Duff, Matt, Dizzy and of course myself. We were just jamming and having a lot of fun. We also recorded some stuff over at Duff’s house.

“But after a while it felt like nothing was happening and Ozzy was telling me, ‘Zakk, if you can’t find out what’s going on with the fellas, I gotta get another guitar player.’ He couldn’t sit there waiting around for me – of course I said, ‘Sure, I understand that Ozz!’”

Presumably you chased for an answer...

“So I remember calling the Guns guys, asking them if we were going to do this because I couldn’t let the boss down. That would be unfair. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t even have been talking to them.

“Eventually, Ozzy said, ‘I gotta make a move dude, I’m going to get somebody else [Joe Holmes]!’ There was nothing I could say; I was completely bummed out because I loved playing with him. I was just in limbo there. Nothing happening with Guns and I wasn’t playing with Ozzy anymore.

“I knew I had to do something. I did Book Of Shadows but I wasn’t ready to do just the mellow stuff like James Taylor. It all came out of that time of my life - that’s how Black Label Society was born…”

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Full interview:

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/zakk-wylde-reflects-on-pride-and-glory-jamming-with-the-allman-bros-and-that-time-he-very-nearly-joined-guns-n-roses