(PCM) It was such an amazing honor to speak with legendary guitarist Zakk Wylde about his upcoming solo acoustic tour of Canada aptly titled “An Evening With Zakk Wylde” which will kick-off on February 13th in Vancouver and wrap up twelve shows later in Montreal and Black Label Society’s upcoming appearance at the high-anticipated Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, OH this May.
Zakk spoke a bit about his upcoming appearance tomorrow night (Friday, 1/17 at 8pm) at the New York City Apple Store in SOHO, during which Zakk will partake in a discussion Q&A with fans, as well as perform a short set.
We also got some inside scoop about what we can expect from the new Black Label Society album “Catacombs of the Black Vatican” set for release on April 8th. Zakk was an absolute pleasure speak with…this man is hilarious! We compared writer’s block to baseball and I think he may have even created a new word with “sexicity”, hopefully when we run into him and BLS at Rock On The Range, he will correct me, if I heard that one wrong!
You can read the full interview below:
Q: Happy belated Birthday! Did you do anything fun to celebrate?
ZAKK WYLDE: Yes! My wife brought me out for some chow, had a couple friends together, had an amazing steak…then went home and pretty much just passed out! I couldn’t move when we went back to the hotel. (laughs) I said, let’s just tell everyone we had sex and just wait till the morning because I can’t move!
Q: Well, that’s the best way to celebrate the morning after your birthday!
ZW: We had a night of romance planned for the rest of the evening, but I was like ‘I don’t think its’ going to happen because I can’t move!” (laughs)
Q: You have your upcoming appearance at the Apple Store in SOHO tomorrow night. What can fans be expecting from that? I hear it has a VH1 Storytellers type of vibe?
ZW: I am going to jam and stuff like that and then we are going to exhibit the Black Label Society fall fashion line featuring men’s lingerie. I’m looking forward to that! I shaved my legs and I am feeling confident.
Q: That’s exciting! What types of products are in that line? I’m very curious to know (laughs)
ZW: (laughs) It’s just great! It’s all about just bringing people together!
Q: Absolutely! So, we have just received the news earlier this morning about the epic Rock On The Range 2014 line-up and of course Black Label Society will be performing. How do you feel about the summer festival season?
ZW: It’s awesome whenever we are on any of these bills and it’s always killer. You have a bunch of ass-kicking people and Black Label family and since doing these festivals with Ozzy over 25 years ago, you have so many friends in other bands that it’s like one gigantic high-school reunion. You are able to hook up with people and just see how they’ve been and stuff like that, so it’s just win/win across the board.
Q: I hear they are a lot like rock n’ roll summer camp.
ZW: Yeah, pretty much. I mean you get to everybody and it’s always a good time.
Q: Are there any details you can share with us about the upcoming studio album “Catacombs of the Black Vatican” due out on April 8th? Can you tell me what the mind-set has been like in the studio, as it has been a little while for you guys?
ZW: Well, now that they have given me a date…April 8th…now I have a date to shoot for, so I have to start writing as soon as I get back to the house. Let’s see…Sunday, I will be back so I have to start writing for this album, but aside from that we have everything else set up and we have an album title, so we should be good (laughs)
Q: (laughs) That’s good! So how much is done?
ZW: (laughs) The album’s title will be like ‘ Better Get To Work…running out of time…you only have a week left” or “The Record Company Called Again”! Pretty much like all the other Black Label Society records, I don’t sit around stock piling riffs over the last four years and go ‘okay, now we’re ready to write this record’, because if that was the case than…it’s the case with any band…what you wrote four years ago, like with “Order Of The Black” I’m already on to other things. When we got done with the Gigantour and I was home and I’m sitting there with Barb and I’m like “when are the fellows coming out here’ and she said ‘they’ll be here in about 25 days’ and I was like “alright! So that means I have 25 days to write a record’, I better get to work. Pretty much, that’s how it goes. I’ll start out just jamming on riffs everyday and then just keep digging until you get something you like.
I just keep writing and writing and writing and writing and then the guys get out here and while they are here for about two weeks we start jamming on all the stuff I’ve written up until then. I might wake in the morning sometime and hear some Barry Manilow tune on the radio that inspires me somehow and I’ll have another tune ready to go and then we will track that one.
Q: I was going to ask how you keep things fresh over the years because you have definitely shown us a lot of sides to the band. I mean, it’s still heavy but there has definitely been some mellower stuff along the way as well.
ZW: Yeah, that’s the whole thing. That morning, it depends on what side of the bed you woke up on. If you hear something on the radio that inspires you or you just pick up the guitar and start jamming a riff or whatever and say ‘this could be cool’ and other days you get nothing. The keys is to keep digging and digging, I mean the first single “My Dying Time”, we had that the whole time, music recorded, but when I was singing over it, it was nothing I was happy with melody wise …nobody was…so we just posted up a couple of different ways that I could finish it, until it was right near the end of the record.
We were going to get ready to start mastering on a Monday and I came up with the vocal line for that one and another song “Shades of Gray”, probably two days before we were going to go in for mastering.
Q: What are some ways that you battle writer’s block?
ZW: It’s not so much writer’s block as it’s you’re just not happy with what you are coming up with…it’s not a matter that you can’t come up with something, it’s that you are coming up with something and you are like ‘yeah, I’m not really digging on that’. It is just like with sports teams who are in a slump if they are losing. The only way out of it is that you just have to keep playing. If you’re looking at baseball and you get a walk that might just trigger the whole thing. Someone gets on base and that just triggers the whole mindset and the next thing you know someone is taking a base hit and then you are hitting again. I think its’ a matter of that!
Q: You have the upcoming “An Evening With Zakk Wylde” acoustic tour coming up in Canada this February. Does performing acoustically breathe new life into some of your older songs?
ZW: No, I just love doing the mellow stuff. I mean, as much as I love listening to “Black Dog” I also love it when Zeppelin does “Going To California” equally. I love both side of it so when we do these storyteller events, it’s more like storytellers on steroids gone wrong (laughs) I have just as much of a good time doing that as I do when we are knocking out heavy sets with the ‘walls of doom’ and all that.
Q: With all of your accolades and talent, how do you remain grounded?
ZW: I don’t know about that! Put it this way…if we were going to do a reality show about Black Label Society out on the road and having a good time acting out the Animal House years and drinking booze, that is when the comedy was really flying about and out on the road is where the comedy really happens. Right now, I am usually the first one down, crawl into my bunk with a book and then pass out. I am usually the first one up making for Valhalla Java the fellows and then I start running scales on the guitar and then I might write something on the acoustic and there is really no drama. Let me put it this way, the only drama we have going on now is the bingo hall in the front lounge, there’s shuffleboard in the hallway…(laughs) You know there’s who might have a heart attack from taking too much geritol! It’s pretty funny!
Q: What do you continue to love the most about being on the road?
ZW: Definitely performing and everything like that…I have buddies who are just like I got really tired of touring, I just can’t stand being the hotel room, and just couldn’t take it anymore, but I love touring..just as much as I did when I started with Ozzy over 25 years ago. I love the whole process of making records, and to me, I just love it all still. None of it has gotten old and I get just as much joy out of making the records, as I did when we first recorded “Miracle Man” with Ozzy and I wrote it. To me, it kicks as much ass now as it did back then so, like you said, I am beyond blessed I get to do what I get to do.
Q: Fantastic! It was great speaking with you! Thanks so much for your time
ZW: No problem! Hopefully we will see you out there on the road to attend a Black Label mass. It’s a lot of sexicity and joy!
Q I can’t wait!
ZW: Well, we’ll definitely try to bring the joy to the table, the sexiticy..I’m not so sure about, but we definitely hope there will be some joy. (laughs)
Q: I hope so! (laughs)
The One And Only Zakk Wylde Talks Upcoming Acoustic Tour And More With PCM’s Kristyn Clarke also appeard on Unskinny Pop.