Photo by Jen Rosenstein
Black Label Society, Obituary and Prong play at The King of Clubs on Saturday, November 13. There are a limited number of tickets still available. Doors open at 6:30pm
Even as a high schooler, I used to stand in front of my bedroom mirror, playing air guitar, and pretending to be Zakk Wylde, imitating his playing on Ozzy Osbourne’s No Rest for the Wicked album. To think that that kid would hop on a phone call with Zakk 30+ years later is something the 17-year-old me would have never believed. But, here we are. Black Label Society, the band Zakk formed in 1998, is ready to drop their 11th full length album, Doom Crew Inc., on November 26.
The first two singles, “Set You Free” and “End of Days” are exactly what you’d expect, great rockers with killer guitar work from Zakk and Dario Lorina. In addition to the swampy, doom metal songs, there are a handful of slower tracks like the piano ballads “Forever and a Day,” “Love Reign Down” and “Farewell Ballad” and that’s how I opened the conversation with the legendary – and hilarious – Zakk Wylde.
The new album is full of the hard rock songs that Black Label Society fans know and love but I appreciate the sensitive side, the ballads that you’ve included on Doom Crew Inc.
Thanks, brother. As much as I love listening to Zeppelin doing “Black Dog,” I love it when they do “Going to California.” Same thing, Sabbath can do “Into the Void” but then when they do “Changes” on the piano, it’s a great song as well. I’ve always loved the mellow stuff anyways. It’s just another side. I love listening to the Eagles, the Allmans, the Stones when they’re doing “Wild Horses.” The first Black Label Society song I wrote was “Spoke in the Wheel,” so, the mellow stuff has always been there.
You named some of the influences. In my ears, I hear everything from Ray Charles to Bob Seger to even some Skynyrd/southern rock on some of the slower songs on Doom Crew Inc. You already mentioned the Eagles, anybody else you draw from that may not be obvious?
Every band is a reflection of what you digest and what you love. If you listen to the Black Crowes, you go, “What’s in that soup? What are you tasting?” Humble Pie. The Rolling Stones. The Allman Brothers. The Faces. You can taste it in the soup. Guns N’ Roses is early Aerosmith and their punk influences. If you’re having a Guns N’ Roses soup, do you taste any Black Sabbath in there? No, not at all. When you listen to certain artists, you know where it’s coming from and what they love. That’s why we tell kids, just do what naturally you love and what you play. Otherwise, you’re always a day late and a dollar short. Bon Jovi’s doing what Jon wants to do. It’s like, “This is where I’m coming from, this is the music I love.” Slippery When Wet is the biggest album on the planet. Record companies are telling Guns N’ Roses they need to be more like Bon Jovi. And they’re like, “Yeah, but that’s not what we do.” And then when Guns N’ Roses is the biggest band on the planet, they’re telling Chris Cornell that he needs to be more like Guns N’ Roses and Chris was like, “But that’s not what we do.” And then the Green Day guys, when the grunge thing is massive, they are telling the Green Day guys they need to be more like Alice in Chains. They’re like, “Yeah, but that’s not what we do.”
I remember before I played with Ozzy, it was just “How do you get a record deal?” You have to be more like what’s popular but I was like, “You should be doing the complete opposite of that.” Almost act like you’re oblivious to it and you don’t even know what’s going on. It’s really the truth. When Led Zeppelin came out, Led Zeppelin was just being Led Zeppelin right from the beginning. Sabbath was just being Sabbath. If you told Fleetwood Mac they need to be more like Black Sabbath, they’d be like, “Yeah, but that’s not what we do.” Just play what it is you love and if people like it, then great. At least you’re up on stage playing the music you love playing.
With Black Label, there’s always Sabbath floating around in the soup and all my love for all these other bands, whether it’s the Stones and Zeppelin and Deep Purple. For me, riffwise, in this genre of music, it always starts with the riffs. Whether it’s “Smoke on the Water” or “Whole Lotta Love” or “Into the Void,” that dictates whether it’s going to be a good song or not. With the ballads, my love for Elton John and the Allman Brothers, and like you said, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. I love all that stuff as well. You’re a reflection of all the music you that you love. When you’re listening to it all the time, you’re digesting it, it’s going in your DNA. For the Black Crowes, Rich and those guys, because they love the Stones so much, no matter what they’re playing, it’s going to be in that soup.
I heard something recently that I had never really thought of. Bands in the ’70s and ’80s, their influence pool wasn’t that deep. Rock and roll was relatively new. They didn’t have the amount of influences a band starting today will have. There’s a million more bands today and 60 years of rock music that today’s bands can draw from whereas Zeppelin and Sabbath, they didn’t have a lot to pull from so they were making stuff up as they went.
Yeah, I guess it’s true. They [Zeppelin, Sabbath] got it from hearing a blues riff. It’s gasoline and then they make it nitrous. Basically taking a Model T Ford and making it a Formula One race car. That’s what they did with the riffs, they super charged them. People have even said, “Can you imagine if the Beatles had today’s technology with Pro Tools?” I go, “No. Those records wouldn’t have been as good as they are.” They didn’t have 64 crayons, they only had 4. So, you have to use your imagination and get creative and go, We have red and we have white. If we blend them together, we get pink. So now we have 3 colors.” Even though you only have 2 crayons, they mix them together and are like, “Wow, we get another color. Now we can have 3 colors.” It wouldn’t have come out, the way those records did, Hendrix and the Beatles and The Doors if they had today’s technology. It actually wouldn’t have been as good.
This is no secret. You guys look like you have a ton of fun. You’re the definition of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” Just looking at a picture, you come across as pretty intimidating but you guys just seem to have a lot of fun. Are the videos you made reflective of you guys?
I just always think, if we’re going to make a video, just give me a reason why I should be watching this thing. The idea for “End of Days,” I was just like, “Let’s make a video of me and JD [DeServio] in these ridiculous outfits.” There’s no guitars, no drums, no nothing. Actually, no band performance, just me and JD, we’ll start as a street corner and we’ll be like these people who get paid to advertise on a street corner for Home Depot or whatever. And then I’m pissed off and am like, “Dude, go on the other side of the street, this is my corner.” And then JD is like, “No, why don’t you leave?” And it starts right there. It’s just a brawl throughout the whole video, it’s just us fighting. We were laughing, just talking about how we’re going to figure out how we’re going to do this thing. We’re crying laughing at how ridiculously stupid this thing is going to be. And then it’s like, “Why don’t we have Jeff [Fabb] and Dario, we’ll have them as rappers for no reason at all? And then you guys can beat them up. They’ll sing the middle part, this is going to be friggin hilarious.” That’s pretty much the gameplanning for the video. And then we get together with Justin and we shoot them. When we watch the final thing, when Jeff gets done ending the thing, we’re all crying laughing. This thing came out great. It has nothing to do with the song. You can actually watch this thing without the music on.
Did you guys do all your own stunts? Was that you guys fighting?
Of course. I guess, if you want to call it that! [laughs]
You’ve been fan friendly since day one. You have a great relationship with your fans. It made me wonder, before you were in Ozzy’s band, were you hanging out behind venues and trying to get autographs and meet bands? Were you influenced by experiences you had or is this just part of your nature?
I think that’s just part of who you are, nobody has to force that on me. I enjoy it. It’s just the way it is. Some people, it’s just not who they are. You can’t make Chris Cornell into David Lee Roth. And vice versa. If you told Dave to be more like Chris, he’d be like, “Dude, no.” Dave’s more of an outgoing guy. To me, I enjoy it, meeting new people and meeting everybody that’s coming to the gig. Even playing with Ozzy, you go out and see fans and they’re like, “Zakk, saw a gig the other day, Ozzy’s the best” and it’s like, “Yeah, man.” Just like the goofiness in the videos and the Instagram posts. Somebody was like, “Do you have people writing this stuff?” and I go, “No. Are you kidding me? We just do it.” It’s like, “JD, I’m opening a guitar case, just punch me in the face.” It’s just us being us.
Did you ever try to meet bands when you were younger?
No. Back then, me and JD were talking about it, you go to the Garden and there’s Ozzy. They’d magically appear and then they’re gone. They just magically disappear. I never thought, “Do these people even own phones?” What does Jimmy Page do? He just disappears to a castle. There was no meet-and-greets back then. I’d see Randy Rhoads in Creem magazine, that was about it.
I still get a thrill when somebody like Tracii Guns likes one of my tweets. I’m like, “Tracii Guns?!? That’s amazing.”
Exactly. It makes the world a smaller place with social media.
I looked at some of the setlists on the tour you’re on now and you’re only playing, to date, just one song from the new album. Do you think that’s going to change when the album is officially released? Are you going to try to change the setlist a little bit?
Yeah. I mean, what’s the sense of playing new songs when nobody knows them? “Set You Free,” the video, was out for a little bit so that’s why we stuff it in. Right now, “End of Days” isn’t in the set. We’re going to put it in the set once people get to know the song. The video just came out, give it a couple more shows and then we’ll start adding it into the show.
Was this tour originally planned for 2020?
We were touring. We did the Rave in Milwaukee. We were rolling with the Milwaukee chapter and that was the last show we did before the world shut down. And then, we just got done rolling with the Milwaukee chapter again at the Rave. It was like 22 months later, since the last time we played there, so it was basically almost two years. It felt like we were just there 3 months ago.
Had that been the longest time that you hadn’t been on the road?
Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I joined Ozzy. ’89 was the end of the No Rest for the Wicked tour … ’89 or ’90 … and then No More Tears came out in ’91. And then we were out on the road again. I’m sure I wasn’t home for 22 months. It’s probably been the longest ever. I loved every second of it, waking up in the morning, having coffee in my own house with Barb and the kids and the dogs. And then bringing the dogs for a walk every day and then just enjoying my time home.
The album’s been done for about a year?
Yeah, probably about there.
Did it feel like you had turned in your last homework assignment and now could go on summer vacation or are you still writing stuff even though you turned the album in?
I think I’ve written a couple of things since then but usually after we get done with a record, I’m done. I usually wait until we’re going to do the next record and then I’m like, “Okay, what, I’ve got a month before the guys come out here? Cool, I have a month to write a record.” And then you just go into the writing mode and I start digging for riffs. We’re doing a couple of shows, 4 in a row, and then a day off, 4 in a row, day off. I look forward to the set. Once we get going, we don’t even soundcheck. I’m looking at you, you’re looking at me. It feels like we just did this 45 minutes ago. I look forward to it every night but a lot of times we don’t even soundcheck. Everybody knows what they’re doing.
Are days off typically travel days or do you get an actual day off?
Mostly they’re travel days. Sometimes, we’re in there in the morning and then we’re there overnight. Sometimes we’ll get in at 11 in the morning, on the travel days, because you can’t travel 20 hours straight. So you do 10 hours, then at the halfway point, we get there, we have a day where we can chill in whatever town we’re in, and then 11 o’clock you’re back out driving to the gig.
Do you like to do anything on your days off?
I usually do the same thing, just relax. For everybody, it’s a nice break in the action. Because every day you’re waking up at the same time, doing the same thing, especially for the Doom Crew. It’s nice to not have to get up and load in. It’s like, “What are you going to do today? You going to go for a massage? Read a book?” I’m just going to go to a coffee house and chill out.
Was this bill, with Obituary and Prong, the bill you were on when things shut down?
No, Black Dahlia Murder was out with us then. I’ve known Tommy with Prong since Ozzy, with No More Tears so it was great seeing Tommy and the guys. And the Obituary guys are great, we’re having a lot of fun out here.
I know you’ve talked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the past. If and when the day comes where you get inducted, who would you like to have do the induction?
I guess either Raquel Welch or Jaclyn Smith. That would be nice. Sophia Loren. That would be nice [laughs]. It doesn’t have to do with anything, it doesn’t matter [laughs].
Everybody has an Ohio story so what’s yours?
I love Thurman Munson. He was a Cleveland, Ohio guy.
I remember when I played football, I wanted to go to Ohio State University because that’s Lineback U.
And, also, Westside Barbell’s out there. There’s my 3 Ohio things.
I lived in Connecticut when I was a kid so was a Yankees fan and Thurman Munson was the guy I pretended to be when playing baseball with my friends at school. I’ll never forget where I was when I heard that he had died in a plane crash. I can recall that day as if it was yesterday.
When I played baseball, I was a catcher and I was number 15. That would have never happened nowadays though. Nobody is letting a multi-million dollar player fly his own plane [laughs]. George Steinbrenner would have had a private jet flying him home if he really wanted to go home. When you get done playing with the Yankees, then you can fly by yourself. You’re not going to let anybody go skydiving or motorcycle riding or horseback riding when you and me just signed this guy for $322 million. That’s like if Secretariat or War Emblem are your horse and mom is like, “The kids want to ride.” I go, “No, that’s not a show horse, that’s a race horse. No getting on the back of that horse and taking it for a joyride!” [laughs] You can’t have Thurman Munson flying a plane by himself and he’s not even that licensed of a pilot. Nowadays, it would never happen. It would be like, “You’re not flying that plane, dude. Keep taking lessons, there’s no problem with that.” You and me, we’d be like, “We’ll fly you!”
