Zakk Wylde, frontman for Black Label Society talks with Mayhem Music Magazine about his acoustic/book tour, and plays our “Fill In the Blanks” Q&A

Zakk Wylde, former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and his own southern rock band Pride & Glory talks with us about hitting the road to promote his book “Bringing Metal to the Children:The Complete Berzerker’s Guide to World Tour Domination”. During the tour he will be reading passages from the book as well as doing an acoustic set.

Mayhem Music Magazine: I know you just started the acoustic performance/book tour so are you ready to answer some questions?

Zakk Wylde: Let’s knock this out brother.

Mayhem Music Magazine: You’ve done the first two shows of this tour, how have those gone so far?

Zakk Wylde: Slamming. I mean, we’re having a good time. Yeah, I mean it’s definitely, it’s hysterical. I mean, it’s a Black Label family dysfunctional gathering. And, but seriously, it’s Black Label storyteller of Doom meets George Carlin meets Black Label on steroids. So, no, it’s a good time man.

Mayhem Music Magazine: This tour was originally slated to start in Chico, Ca. but you ended up starting with a performance in San Francisco.

Zakk Wylde: The show got squeezed in and then we just strained it and we knock it out, that was the first one.

Mayhem Music Magazine: Your book was originally released in a hardcover version. This tour is to celebrate the release of the book in paperback. How did you know its time for you to just confess your antics to the people in ‘Bringing Metal to the Children: The Complete Berzerker’s Guide to World Domination’?

Zakk Wylde: With the book, well by them releasing it in paperback, originally the plan was to go out and do your normal book tour and I said, well if we’re going to go out why don’t we just jam as well? Maybe I can read a little bit from the book or whatever instead of just doing a book signing or something like that. Just turned it into something completely all together different, you know what I mean? So that’s why me and Nick (Catanese) are out touring, doing it. So, we’re just doing like acoustic versions. We’ve got the piano out, we got the acoustics and everything so it’s all good man.

Mayhem Music Magazine: My favorite thing about the book is it reads as if you’re just talking to a friend; no filters, no bullshit, just saying it like it is. Is that how you meant it to be?

Zakk Wylde: Yeah, well I mean basically it’s just like about me and Eric (Hendrikx) and about writing a book is always constantly you’re sitting there talking about how ridiculous the music business is and the comedy and just saying and then me and you always ended it with, dude, sounds like we ought to write a book and then we finally did. It was just, when we were writing it I mean me and Eric were just sitting there, literally, crying laughing and laughing our balls off. And then we’d add stuff to it and just make it even more ridiculous than it already was. So, I mean the whole this is . . . when we first started writing it and then we were laughing our balls off through the first batch of pages, I just go, the whole book has got to be like this. So you could literally just open it up anywhere and start laughing ass off.

Mayhem Music Magazine: How long did it take to write the book from start to finish?

Zakk Wylde: Well I mean on and off tour and maybe at home so me and Eric could hook up, so it was about a year. On and off and then it editing it down and then keeping all the good stuff in there and then getting rid of the filler and whatever.

Mayhem Music Magazine: You’re now doing the readings from the book as a break in the acoustic show. You are also doing Q and A’s. Is this just a way for you to relate to the people, the fans, the BLS family?

Zakk Wylde: Yeah, I mean, whenever we do meet and greets and everything like that, like I said, Black Label fans. We have fams. It’s like one gigantic bag of Black Label family. So, I mean the whole thing is because you know everybody. So the whole thing is definitely cool. It’s just basically all of us hanging out and then doing the reading and everything. It’s way cool. I mean everybody’s laughing their asses off and then we jam some tunes.

Mayhem Music Magazine: So is your lovely wife Barbaranne on the road with you this time or home with the kids?

Zakk Wylde: No, she’s home with the little bambino. I mean Sabbath Page, he’s nine months old right now. And then our next oldest one is ten so he’s in school. The two oldest are off in college.

Mayhem Music Magazine: Yeah, I was thinking you had four.

Zakk Wylde: Yep.

Mayhem Music Magazine: This tour is just you and Nick (Catanese) hitting the road. How’s it feel to go out and play piano and acoustic guitars compared to doing the full BLS show?

Zakk Wylde: Well I love both. I mean just I like love listening to Zeppelin doing Black Dog. I still love listening to Zeppelin doing Going to California. So, for me you know all the time whenever we’re doing the heavy stuff, I mean with Oz back in the day when I first started after we’d do a show and we’d have like a 14 hour drive in the Submarine, I’d just be up in the front drinking beers and solving the problems of the world would with the driver, the crew guys or whatever, and then just listening to the Eagles, Neil Young, Allman Brothers, Bad Company, you know like all the mellow stuff; Elton John, I mean everything like that. I love doing the mellow stuff just as much as I love doing the heavy stuff.

Mayhem Music Magazine: I know many people bring up the work you did with Ozzy, but I really loved the work you also did in Pride & Glory. It had such an incredible southern rock influence. Do you still carry that southern rock influence?

Zakk Wylde: It will always be in me, man. Because I love it.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What can we look forward to from Black Label Society?

Zakk Wylde: I guess after we do this one (book tour), we’re going to do . . . well obviously the next Black Label album. But we plan on doing some touring after we get done with this and we’re talking about bringing on ‘Unblackened’ on the road.

Mayhem Music Magazine: I know that ‘Unblackened’ has only been done as one show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles so far. That was also shot for a dvd correct?

Zakk Wylde: Well we did that Nokia show so we’re actually mixing that for an album and a DVD and so that’ll be done after we get done doing this short little book run on the West Coast. End up mixing that and then we’re talking about bringing it out in like October, November, because I think the albums going to have a release in September, then like October, November, beginning of December, tour throughout the States and Canada.

Mayhem Music Magazine: With all the touring and recording. Hopefully this means you are no longer having issues with the blood clots like you did couple years back.

Zakk Wylde: Well I just got to take blood thinners the rest of my life, so, you know. That’s that and no sauce for me.