Interviews : “I write the lyrics sitting out in my truck. That’s pretty much how it goes” – An interview with Zakk Wylde

After 9 studio albums, countless tours and gigs, and a kickass Rock and Roll attitude that is sorely lacking in modern music today, Zakk Wylde is still completely and utterly down to Earth. On a rare day off on the Metal All Stars tour, Metal Obsession chatted with Zakk whilst he was in Istanbul about writing their new album ‘Catacombs of the Black Vatican’, his willingness to honour Dimebag in a Pantera reunion if it ever comes up, and living everyday like you’re Richard Branson.

Metal Obsession: Hey, is this Zakk?

Zakk Wylde: Yes it is Zakk, who is this?

MO: This is Jonty from Australia for Metal Obsession

ZW: Oh cool bro, what are you doing man?

MO: Just chilling it out it’s about 10pm in Australia

ZW: It’s 2:00PM here, fuck

MO: Oh cool. Alright, just to start off with, have you managed to find a bit of time off with this All Stars tour?

ZW: No, we’ve just been travelling everyday, doing shows, so that’s the reason why we’re doing all this press today.

MO: Yeah I was supposed to interview you a couple of days ago, but your flights got changed and all of this ridiculous stuff.

ZW: Yeah it’s been a madhouse out here, totally. That’s why we hooked it all up today, because we actually had a day off in Istanbul. We just did two knock out insane club shows, it was like ‘Mad Max Thunderdome’, there was no barriers nothing. It was definitely cool. That’s what’s going on right now man.

MO: So you don’t even have any chances to check out any tourist stuff today?

ZW: No, no. You know, we’re out here working man. But then again, I prefer it that way anyway. I mean, if I want to go on a fuckin’ vacation, I’ll go on a vacation. I’d much rather work, I’ve got way too much shit going on.

MO: You’ve pretty much just come off the Hendrix experience in the USA, how’s the transition been from the US to Europe?

ZW: To me, it was real similar, in that, with the Experience thing, I’m out there with friends and stuff like that and a lot of great people to celebrate Jimi’s music and his life. Now I’m just with a bunch of friends I’ve known throughout the years, I mean, we’re playing some Black Label stuff, and like, Sabbath things and we’ll just stretch out the jams at the end of the song. I’m having a blast, knocking out all this sort of stuff before we get ready to fire up the Black Label Crusade of Doom come April 10^th. The album comes out on the 8^th, and then a couple of days with the fellas to rehearse, and then we’re out on the road. So yeah, it’s all win win to me.

MO: Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good life you’ve got going on there.

ZW: I know man, what else?

MO: With the press release I got for ‘Catacombs of the Black Vatican’, it’s one of the best I’ve ever read, and it says that “records are ancient artifacts”. Would you prefer that vinyl be brought back, or are you fine with digital releases nowadays?

ZW: I mean if you really think about it, someone was telling me a really good analogy, is that records are now like an invitation to the show. You know what I mean? Whereas back in the day, record sales were how you paid your bills. But not anymore, know what I mean? It’s pretty much just an invitation to the show. It’s all about touring, and younger bands are mostly just touring and selling t-shirts man. It’s not about having massive record sales; it’s how you put your kids through college. That’s just the way it goes, it’s evolution, everything changes and morphs man. I mean, you can either sit here and complain about it or just get out there and bust your ass. You know, it is what it is man.

MO: Yeah, you’ve gone through 9 albums so far so you have to keep up with the times at some point.

ZW: I mean, I still get just as much a hard-on recording ‘Catacombs’ as I did with Ozzy when we did ‘Miracle Man’, so I still get a buzz off it all the time. Just the whole process: writing, recording with the pros, and then listening to it when we get done with the final mixes, dealing with the artwork, rehearsals and tours. There isn’t one facet I don’t enjoy.

MO: You mentioned the recording process, what’s the songwriting process like after 9 albums? For the new album, you must’ve had some routine that you’ve got figured out by now?

ZW: It’s the same thing, I mean you know, you wake up and I’ve got 25 days, I ask the wife; “How much time do I have before the fellas get out here?” once we got done with the Gigantour, and Megadeth and Hellyeah and all the guys. Then she says “You’ve got 25 days before they all get out here” and I go “Well I’ve got 25 days to write a record”. I’ll grab some Valhalla Java, go out into the garage, plug into my Marshall and you know, put the Octa-pedal with some reverb so it sounds like I’m in Madison Square Garden and then just start writing riffs man. I mean, it all starts with the riffs, and then I need to write a song right from the beginning to the end. Like, I don’t just write bits and pieces, if I’m writing a song, I just sit down and write it from the beginning to the end. So I’ve got like 12 ideas, then I wrote about 3 of them when the fellas got out here. You know, while we’re into recording, I’ll be like “Hey, I wrote something this morning”. You know the guys’ll come over at like 1PM and you know, I get up super early, if I’m writing something, I’m digging it, we’ll record it that day. But yeah, we recorded 15 tunes in all, so that’s how our writing process goes. We’ll record, Chad’ll sit next to me playing air drums on his legs and he’ll go “alright, what part is this, is this the intro, the prequel, is this the chorus?” We’ll go back to the intro, and whatever the song’s structure is going to be, you know, I’ll just play it for them. He’ll go “okay cool”, and he’ll play it on the drums once, we’ll put a click track up and go “alright cool, let’s record it”. I mean it’s that easy man, you know, when you’re with other musicians that can play, there should be no problems. We just knock it out like that, I mean Chad was done with the drums in no time. Then JD put some bass down, then I double track the guitars, and then everything starts coming together. Once we got all the tracks done, I just take a CD of it and go sit out in the truck and start coming up with melodies. I write the lyrics sitting out in my truck. That’s pretty much how it goes.

MO: That’s one of the most metal things I think I’ve heard of.

ZW: Yeah totally, I mean it’s not like this big long process. I mean, back in the old days with Ozz when we were doing ‘No Rest’ and ‘No More Tears’, we’d be sitting in a rehearsal room jamming on these songs over and over and over, and the producer guy would be like “oh, what’s the kick drum doing on this one?” and I’ll be like “what in the fuck are you talking about?!” What do you mean “what the fuck is the kick drum doing?”, the kick drum’s doing exactly what it should be doing. You know? I mean, fucking, are gonna analyse this? Get the fuck outta here man. None of this ridiculous bullshit, you know?

MO:Well maybe that’s why you’ve got such staying power, you just do exactly what you’re doing. It’s worked out so far, and you haven’t listened to people over-analysing, you just get in there and do it.

ZW: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, let’s be real, do you think Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and The Stones were over-analysing their records? “I wonder what Charlie’s playing on the kick drums in ‘Gimme Shelter’?” It’s like, are you fucking kidding me? Stop. Just let the band be the band, and that’s that.

MO: You said how easy it is to record, if there’s one thing that Black Label Society is, it’s consistent across the board over all your albums, did you think that you wanted to change any part of your sound for ‘Catacombs’?

ZW: No I mean, The Stones shouldn’t change who they are, neither should AC/DC, and neither should Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. I mean, there’s nothing that we can’t do at Black Label, you know, if I want to play the mellow stuff, we’ll play the mellow stuff. We want to play the heavy stuff, we’ll play the heavy stuff. The records from any of the artists we love, you’ve gotta enjoy the music that you’re playing. I never understand, if you’re in a band that your favourite bands are Pantera and Metallica, you know some young kids, and it’s like “why are you playing pop music?” It’s like “that’s what’s popular right now”. It’s like, you should be playing the music you love. If you love Pantera and Metallica, that’s what you should be doing. Music that’s in that genre, if that’s what you love listening to. I mean, I love listening to Zeppelin, Sabbath, Neil Young, The Eagles, Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, Elton John, it’s all across the board. It’s gotta be the music that comes out of your pores, cause that’s what’s in your DNA. I mean, when I listen to records, that’s where all my inspirations are and all my influences. Whether it’s Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Frank Marino, Randy Rhodes, Eddie Van Halen, all the guys that I love. That’s your rolodex of knowledge, that’s where you learn. So you know, I just tell kids, you gotta play what you love man. It’s just that much easier anyway, because you’re just being true to what you love playing.

MO: Well with all those influences you said, you’ve got Skynyrd in there along with Elton John, there’s a few ballads thrown in the new album like ‘Scars’ and ‘Shades of Grey’, do you have a quota of how many slow songs and then how many breakneck riffs you put into it? Or is that over-analysing it, and you just go in and you might even have a whole album of ballads?

ZW: I mean, as you said, I love the mellow stuff just as much as I love Zeppelin doing ‘Black Dog’, I love when they do ‘Going to California’. I love it all the way across the board, as much as I love listening to Sabbath doing ‘Snow Blind’, I love listening to Neil Young do “The Needle and the Damage Done”.

MO: Definitely. You mentioned Pantera before, and you’ve probably had a lot of questions about this, but there’s been some rumours flying around about some sort of Pantera reunion, can you give us any details about what that might entail?

ZW: I mean, that’s up to Vinnie and Phil and Rex. I love all the fellas, they’re all brothers, if they ever asked me to honour Dimebag of course I would do it. It would be like if Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell asked Eric Clapton to honour Jimi and go out and play his music. Of course Eric would do it. Of course I would do it for them, you know, I laid Dime to rest and I loved Dime and he’s a brother, so of course I would do it. It’s just up to them, it’s up to the fellas, if they ever got together and said “we’re gonna do this, Zakk, would you honour Dimebag?”, why wouldn’t I? It would be beautiful thing, to get out there and honour my fallen brother.

Catacombs of the Black Vatican out April 8th.

MO: There would be a lot of people around the world who would be absolutely stoked if you managed to organise something like that.

ZW: Yeah totally man.

MO: Still on your albums, it’s obvious that you’ve taken inspiration from Ozzy in your singing, and since you guys have such a great relationship, has he ever called you out on it for copying him, or he’s proud that you’ve taken his influence?

ZW: Oh without a doubt, Ozz is definitely one of my favourite singers. As long as one of my favourite human beings [laughs], I love Ozz. He just thinks its funny too.

MO: Do you have any recent stories you can share with us today that you haven’t shared with anyone else at the moment?

ZW: Nah man, the last time we saw Ozz with Black Sabbath, it was just me, Barbara-Anne and our kids, the two oldest kids, were with us. You know, Ozzy’s the godfather of all the sons so we were out there with Mom (Sharon) and Ozz and everybody after they played, and we just had a good time. It’s usually just us sitting around the table talking about the drinking days with everyone, and Mom and Barb shaking their heads going “what a bunch of fuckin’ idiots”. We’re just laughing our asses off, like we’re never apart, it’s always great seeing Ozz and Mom, it’s just a bunch of great times, that’s my relationship with them.

MO: Cool, have you heard any more news about your stolen guitar at all, or is it about time to get the Doom Crew to bring in their own brand of justice and try and find the guy who took it?

ZW: Yeah, right? Hopefully the Grail will find her in a pawn shop somewhere, or someone in our Black Label family or the Doom Crew will end up finding the fiddle somewhere.

MO: Hopefully they find it, you’d have to be a bit of an idiot to take it to a pawn shop or anything like that.

ZW: Well, there’s only two of them that exist. Well, we’ll see what happens man.

MO: Just back to the tour, can you tell us what’s your favourite place to play on tour? You’ve gone to countless countries, is there a place that you get absolutely excited to go to?

ZW: Anywhere anyone shows up *laughs*. It could be a phonebooth, that wouldn’t bother me man. I mean, like you said, we’re out here in Istanbul and we just played some bigger theatres and arenas, you know, 5000 people and then we just played the other day in front of maybe, 300 people in this club. I mean, packed. The stage was super small, but the energy was awesome too. I think if you asked any musician or any band, as long as you’re playing and there’s people there man, you’re having a good time, the small clubs and the massive places, both are super cool. Both are awesome.

MO: So pretty much, you don’t care if you’re on a massive stage or in a small club, you just love playing?

ZW: Yeah, because I still do both of them. We might be playing in front of 5000 people, and then we’re playing in front of 382 people, next thing you know, we’re playing in front of 85,000 people at a festival. I love it all man, without a doubt, it’s definitely cool.

MO: Awesome, do you have any plans to return to Australia in the near future since ‘Catacombs’ is about to come out?

ZW: Yeah, without a doubt. We fire up the Black Label armada on April 10^th, it’s Black Label boot camp with rehearsals, and then on the 18^th we just start rolling with a bunch of our good friends in Down, Butcher Babies and Devil You Know.

MO: Excellent. Hopefully you guys manage to get here soon because you absolutely killed it last time you were here.

ZW: Oh thanks bro.

MO: Alright, after this many albums, are you eventually going to throw in the towel and just live off your Berserker hot sauce brand, or your Valhalla Coffee?

ZW: Nah, you’ve gotta be like Richard Branson, you’ve gotta have that mentality. Richard Branson, everyday he gets up, there’s a reason he’s getting up. You know what I mean? Before his feet hit the floor, he’s going something going on. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, how much work you do, you have to have a reason to put your feet on the floor and whoop some ass that day.

MO: Now I’m just imagining you windsurfing like Richard Branson with three models on your shoulders?

ZW: Yeah, there would be nothing wrong with that you know? [laughs] It’s all in the grand scheme of putting the Black Label pubs together, and then wherever war breaks out, you put this pub there because it has the best jukebox and the best bar and the whole thing has got Stones, Beatles, Sabbath, Zeppelin, it’s got everything in there. Then everyone stops fighting because they’re having too much of a good time drinking and hanging out, and then we have pub bands playing and everyone’s having a good time. So this way I can stack up my fifth Nobel peace prize and bring world peace into fruition.

MO: [laughs] Well as far as I can tell, you’re pretty close to doing that so maybe this album will be the last little push it needs.

ZW: Well there we go, just that last little extra push [laughs].

MO: Alright finally, what songs can fans expect to hear on your tour with ‘Catacombs’? Obviously the new album, but what old cuts can we expect?

ZW: We usually play something from every record; we try and stick in like a tune or two from everything. Our problem coming up with something isn’t as bad as like The Stones, but obviously we have nine albums worth of stuff now, to pick and choose from.

MO: Thank you very much for talking with Metal Obsession today.

ZW: You got it man, no problem. Take care of yourself buddy.

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