Zakk Wylde Makes Friends With Theory Of A Deadman

There's lots of news around the Zakk Wylde camp.

The latest has his publicist (and his wife) quashing the rumour that Ozzy has fired him for excessive drinking, with there being a link to Buckethead from GN'R as a replacement.

Ozzy's European tour has indeed been cancelled, but rather, it is due to Ozzy's medical condition, a bad tremor he's now taking medication for. Now that that has happened, Zakk has reignited Black Label Society to work on their covers album.

All told, it's been a stellar year for Black Label, Zakk's been at work on writing sessions with Theory Of A Deadman, and '03 culminate in the man donating his target-patterned guitar to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Then there's The Blessed Hellride, which has, tallied over 136,000 copies in the States at last count.

"Yeah, and the album's still in the charts," says Zakk. "And the single is up there. Smitty over at the label sent me this thing. I think it's still at #7, with Nickelback, Audioslave, Three Doors Down, Godsmack, Fuel, Black Label Society... this is like eight months later. So I mean, that's fucking cool. So yeah, the album is at a hundred something thousand and we're still on the first single."

There's also the DVD, Boozed, Broozed & Broken-Boned, which is anchored by a sweltering hot live show shot in Detroit. Again, folks are now briskly buying into the BLS concept.

"Yeah, that thing went into the charts at #3. So you have the Zeppelin one, the fucking Eagles, and then ours was right after that. That's not bad company, so fuck it. I don't mind getting my ass kicked by those two guys."

And in terms of the Theory Of A Deadman get-together...

"We went into the studio and we knocked out two tunes. I had some acoustic stuff lying around and I said, 'Let's go and jam on this stuff.' We just had a blast. It's just mellow shit. It's just like going in, a bunch of guys, doing Temple Of The Dog-type shit, you know what I mean?"

Although the young guys are keeping Wylde honest, there's a lot to be said for old friends. For Wylde, his most famous collegue is probably Ozzy. What makes Ozzy so indestructible?

"I have no idea," says Zakk. "He just goes, 'Zakk, can you do the shows?' And I say 'Yeah, dude. If you want to do them, I'm there, brother.' I mean, I don't know how it is either. The bottom line is, some people just go, 'Dude, you're looking a little rough.' Then he gets onstage and he throws down. You know what I mean? I don't get it. I don't know how he's doing it. What are ya gonna do? He's not exactly going to be basket-weaving and doing crochet around the house. Like, he doesn't know anything else anyway."