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Interviews : “It’s a brotherhood. You always have a home here.” – An Interview with Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society)

By on November 13, 2015

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Zakk Wylde – Black Label Society

Black Label Society’s frontman Zakk Wylde hardly needs an introduction. He took some time out of his very busy schedule to have a brief talk with me last week. The band will be back in Australia for the first time in three years. I was curious about what the fans can expect from this tour, and we also had a chat about presidents, Wylde Audio and being away from family on tour…

Zakk greeted me with a loud and cheerful “HELLO!” and after we had talked about his Death Wish coffee (might be available in Australia at some point!), early mornings and being happy, we started the interview with talking about the difference between a massive festival such as Soundwave, and smaller headliner gigs, and catching up with old friends.

“I love doing it all. Obviously, the festivals are always a lot of fun because of the size of the crowd and stuff. I mean, we’ve played in front of 120 000 people on a Friday, and then 800 in a packed place on Saturday, and you have the different types of energy. I can’t tell you which one’s better. When I started back in ‘87, there are so many friends that you still have that you’ve known since back then. So you really get a chance to hang out with everybody, it’s always awesome.”

Our conversation then turned to the upcoming Australian tour. Catacombs of The Black Vatican has been released since the last time Black Label Society toured Australia and we ended up talking about the setlist and the selection of the (at the time) unannounced supporting acts.

“We’ll try to do a bit of everything! We always play stuff from the new record, but we have nine records now, we can’t make the set like five ours you know what I mean? You’d need to have two intermissions, then a nap haha! But we try to cover a bit of everything. We have some friends who might come and play with us, but there are many different ways a band can be selected!”

When I spoke to Mike Portnoy the other week he said something interesting about Metal Allegiance. He said that it’s more than just a band, more than just a project. People can come and go pretty much whenever they want to. This made me think about Black Label Society, surely there are similarities?

“Yeah, without a doubt. It’s a brotherhood. You always have a home here. Chad is playing with Scott Stapp right now, he’s still a Black Label brother, he’ll always have a home here. The guys can all come and go, and it’s all good man. There are no arguments, when we get together we’re gonna have a good time, and you can pay your bills and hopefully have some left over. So that’s that!”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7mNmiW9qts&w=560&h=315]

Speaking of bills and money. As a touring musician and one of the busiest entrepreneurs I’ve ever encountered, Zakk Wylde is away a lot from home. I can only imagine what most musicians must feel like when they’re away for so long, but Zakk doesn’t see a big difference to if he would have a “normal” job.

“I mean, if me and you were working a normal job, if we got up at 4.30, had some coffee, car pooled to work for an hour, more coffee, work and then go home, stop at the bar and have a beer, by the time we get home its 6 at night, the kids are out doing what they gotta do. Then we hang out a little while, watch some tv, eat something, and then we’re getting up at 4.30 the next morning again! So it’ not like we’re HANGING OUT, because we’ve all got shit we have to do. I mean, we’re blessed that we get to do what we love doing. We get to play music for a living and support our families, what else could you ask for? I’m home with a bunch of brothers and we have a great time!”

It felt to me like I had spoken to Mr. Wylde for about two minutes, but we were rapidly running out of time. I was curious about what Zakk would do if he had unlimited funds to launch a service or a product.

He started with: “What I’m doing now. Exactly what I’m doing now!” I then asked him if he would consider challenging Donald Trump to become the next American president.

[laughs] “Do you know what I think is so funny with all the people running for president? Many of my friends are like: “this guy sucks, this guy sucks, this woman’s whatever.” For any country, whether it’s Australia, New Zealand, England, Russia, across the board, it’s just people who don’t like them. I just laugh and go, “yeah, cos whoever wants to run whatever country, they want to do the shittiest job possible, they want to go DOWN in history as the WORST EVER! Of course! Of course! That’s the game plan! Is to get in there and to completely ruin the country hahahaha!”

Wednesday, 25th November – Metropolis – Fremantle 18+
with Silent Knight
Tickets from http://bit.ly/BLSFreo

Friday, 27th November – HQ – Adelaide 18+
with Ice On Mercury
Tickets from http://bit.ly/BLSade

Saturday, 28th November – Roundhouse – Sydney 18+
with Bare Bones
Tickets from http://bit.ly/BLSsyd

Sunday, 29th November – The Tivoli – Brisbane 18+
with The Black Swamp
Tickets from http://bit.ly/BLSbris

Monday, 30th November – 170 Russell – Melbourne 18+
with MAMMOTH MAMMOTH
Tickets from http://bit.ly/BLSMEL

Tuesday, 1st December – 170 Russell – Melbourne 18+
with HEAVEN THE AXE
*SOLD OUT*
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About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.