ZAKK WYLDE: The Craziest Thing I've Seen OZZY Do

Modern Guitars Magazine recently conducted an interview with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY/OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Zakk Wylde. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Modern Guitars Magazine: What's the craziest thing you've seen Ozzy do?

Zakk: "Not too long ago, me and Ozzy were in Prague when we were doing a show. We played in front of about 60,000 people. We were headlining this festival. [After the show] me and Ozzy were just talking about some goofy shit. We were talking about John Bonham stories, because Ozzy was good buddies with him and everything like that. We were just laughing, like, you know, ZEPPELIN back in the day at the Riot House, throwing TVs out of fuckin' windows, running motorcycles through the hallways right through the walls and shit like that. And we were just laughing about it. You know, obviously you're going to pay for the damages, so, the only person you're hurting is your wallet. So, me and Oz are like, 'Oh yeah,' and he goes, 'You know, I've done some crazy shit, but I've never thrown a TV out of a fuckin' window.' We're in Prague at the time and I go, 'Well, you know, Sharon and Barbaranne [Zakk's wife] are going to have our fuckin' balls tomorrow if we fuckin' do this.' He goes, 'Oh, fuck that. I'm paying for everything anyway. Let's fuckin' heave the fuckin' TV out the fuckin' window.' So, we're so fuckin' loaded, we're about on the sixth floor, I go, 'For the love of God, look out that fuckin' window because the last thing we need to do is to fuckin' kill some motherfucker when we launch this thing out the fuckin' window.' It's about 3:30 in the morning right after we got done doing a show. So it's like we end up heaving this fuckin' TV out the fuckin' window. When this thing hit the fuckin' ground, the explosion that this thing made … all's I remember is that me and Ozzy are on the floor fuckin' crying laughing, and Oz goes, 'Zakk, I've heard a lot of things in my life, but I'll never forget the fuckin' sound of that.' All I remember is the next day, Oz got charged $34,000 because they couldn't use the suite for 34 days because the window was broke, which was bullshit. They could have fixed that thing in about an hour. But the whole thing is, he got clipped for $1,000 a day, and I got clipped $10,000 for that fuckin' TV. This TV must've fuckin' cost them about $500. Yeah, I paid $10,000. I go, 'This TV had better give a fuckin' blowjob and a handjob and eat my ass.' I said, '$10,000 for a fuckin' TV? This thing's a fuckin' piece of shit. You've got to be fuckin' kidding me.' Put it this way, $10,000 for a TV, about $1000 in beer, $34,000 for the room, and the look on Ozzy's face? Priceless. You can't make this shit up."

Modern Guitars Magazine: BLACK LABEL SOCIETY is more than a band. It's developed into a subculture, a lifestyle. How would you describe it?

Zakk: "It's just one gigantic family, man. That's what BLACK LABEL's all about. You know, the whole lifestyle is just that you've got to work your fuckin' balls off, you thank the good Lord for everything you've got, you know, and you love the good Lord. That's what BLACK LABEL's all about."

Modern Guitars Magazine: Are there similarities with motorcycle culture?

Zakk: "No. My father's a World War II vet, D-Day, Omaha Beach. The brotherhood thing is all about the military. That's what it's all about. We raise millions of dollars for St. Jude Children's Cancer Foundation and everything like that. No, it's not a motorcycle club because otherwise, we'd have an MC on the back. It's SDMF, which means strength, determination, merciless, forever. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you know what I mean? So, that's what it's all about. The three piece patch, that just represents brotherhood and unity. And the military is the fuckin' ultimate brotherhood."

Read the entire interview at this location.