In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, Zakk Wylde talks about the forthcoming Ozzy and Friends tour. Wylde play guitar with Ozzy Osbourne, as original Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is unable to commit to a full tour following recent cancer treatment.
“It’ll be awesome, man. I love all the Sabbath songs, stuff like ‘Into the Void’ was always slammin’ – the song is amazing and so heavy. The Jake [E. Lee] stuff, the Randy [Rhoads] stuff like ‘Flying High Again,’ ‘I Don’t Know’ – they’re all awesome.
“Playing with Ozz is like being in your favorite covers band and getting to write your own stuff as well. Randy, he wasn’t a huge Sabbath fan, so him playing all the Sabbath was like ‘alright’ but me, I’m a Sabbath freak. I’m playing my favorite music.”
Wylde is busy. A new Black Label Society recording is also on its way: “Sometime in August, after the eight-week crusade playing with BLS and the boss, we’re gonna do the Unblackened DVD – with a fourpiece string section, pedal steel, piano and really blow it up. Like a Neil Young Unplugged on steroids. There’ll be electric stuff, like solos, but with strings and acoustic guitars – kinda like Hangover Music and Book of Shadows.”
Wylde has also written a book, called Bringing Metal to the Children. It’s a tell-all about his decades rockin’ guitar. “Me and Eric [Hendrikx, writer/photographer] would always be sitting around laughing at the ridiculous stories between promoters, agents and everyone else. All these ridiculous music stories are real and very Spinal Tap or Bad News. I could say, ‘That didn’t actually happen’ and you’d say, ‘Zakk, I wish I was making this up, dude! It really happened!’ In the music business, the cast of characters is an endless tsunami of comedy!”
Bringing Metal to the Children will be published on May 10.