2019.07.01 - Musicians Institute/Blabbermouth - How Zakk Wylde's Failed Guns N' Roses Collaboration Led To Formation Of Black Label Society

How Zakk Wylde's Failed Guns N' Roses Collaboration Led To Formation Of Black Label Society

During a recent appearance at Musicians Institute's "Conversation Series", Zakk Wylde spoke about what it was like when he auditioned to join Slash in Guns N' Roses in the mid-'90s.

"I'd known the guys, on and off, for years when I first came out here [to California] and I started playing with the Boss [Ozzy Osbourne]," he recalled (see video below). "So I met Slash and I met Duff and we became friends and everything like that, and that's when Guns was just starting to blow up. So I've known the guys, and, obviously, when I ran into 'em every now and then, when we were all drinking, it's always good to catch up with the guys and everything like that. And I knew Steven. So then, after that, I met Matt; he was playing with The Cult. It's a small group of people that you end up running into and you just become friends and stuff like that.

"The guys were just talking one day, and Axl was telling me — I'd never met Axl before — and Axl was just saying, him and Slash were talking, like, 'Who else would you wanna get on guitar?'" he continued. "And I guess my name came up. 'Why don't we ask Zakk what's going on?' And Axl was, like, 'All right. I'll call him up.' So Axl ended up getting my phone number and called me up: 'Hey, Zakk, man. It's Axl. I just wondered if you wanted to get together and jam with the guys.' And I said, 'Yeah. No problem.' So we ended up jamming. We were recording [Osbourne's 1995 album] 'Ozzmosis' at the time. And so we were jamming on and off. We were recording the record, we were doing 'Ozzmosis', having a blast doing that, and then in between, when I'd come back out to L.A., I'd end up hooking up with the guys and we'd jam down at the rehearsal hall. So it was just ideas floating around. But nothing was happening there with the Guns guys. And then Ozz was going, 'Zakk, listen, we're gonna get ready to tour. Are you gonna jam…?' Ozz was, like, 'You can do both, but, Zakk, I've gotta have an answer, if you're gonna be jamming with them and me. This ship leaves twelve o'clock Monday. Are you gonna be ready to go or not?' I couldn't get an answer from the fellows, and everything was up in the air, and Ozz was, like, 'I've gotta get somebody else in here, man.' So that was it. So I was just sitting around, going, 'What am I gonna do? I've got all these riffs laying around. I'm not playing with Ozz right now. I'm not doing the GN'R thing. Fuck it.' And then I came up with Black Label Society. So that's basically how Black Label was born right there. I was, like, 'What am I gonna do?' 'Cause I did the 'Book Of Shadows' thing, and I was, like, 'I'm not ready to be a singer-songwriter, James Taylor kind of [artist]. I'm not ready for that yet, as much as I love doing it.' I was just, like, 'I still wanna do riffs and I still wanna do heavy stuff, mixed in with the mellow stuff as well, obviously.'"

According to Zakk, he is s"still friends" with all the members of Guns N' Roses. "We've opened up for them — Black Label has opened up — and then with the 'Book Of Shadows' stuff, we opened up for Guns N' Roses at an Arizona stadium. So I'm still buddies with all the guys, and everything is good, man."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/how-zakk-wyldes-failed-guns-n-roses-collaboration-led-to-formation-of-black-label-society

Earlier interview with Zakk Wylde; Revolver Magazine, May 14, 2019:
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SO YOU'RE PLAYING WITH OZZY, YOU BUILD YOURSELF UP AS THIS GUITAR SUPERSTAR. YOU GO SOLO FOR A BIT AND THEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO UNVEIL YOUR BRAND NEW PROJECT: BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD IN 1998, WHEN YOU WERE FIRST PUTTING THE RECORD TOGETHER AND GETTING READY TO RELEASE IT?

We had done Ozzmosis with the Boss [Ozzy Osbourne] and then in between I was writing. At night, I go across over to this bar called Bruise that was there in New York City. They had the Stones on the jukebox, Van Morrison, the Band, Eagles, Bad Company, Neil Young. So I'd be jamming to that all night and then I crawl back to my hotel room which was right next to the pub. Then I'd end up writing tunes. That's how that Book of Shadows [1996 solo album] thing came about, because it was just writing mellow acoustic stuff. After we did Book of Shadows and I toured I was like, 'Well, what am I going to do now?' Because I didn't think I was ready to be James Taylor yet, you know what I mean? Sitting on an acoustic for the rest of my days. I still wanted to do the heavy stuff.

In between there as well I was jamming with the GN'R guys and I had these riffs laying around. Nothing was happening with the GN'R thing so I was like, 'What am I going to do? Well, I'll just sing on these myself.' I got in touch with Phil [Ondich, drummer, first two BLS records] and then we went down to Florida and recorded the album. Here we are 20 years later.

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/zakk-wylde-talks-black-label-societys-new-sonic-brew-reissue-ozzys-health-more