ZAKK WYLDE On Next BLACK LABEL Album, Illegal Music Downloading, ROLLING STONE Controversy

Bob Zerull of Zoiks! Online recently conducted an interview with Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Zoiks! Online: It really hasn't been that long since we've gotten a new BLACK LABEL album, but in BLACK LABEL years, it's been forever. Have you been aching to get back in the studio?

Zakk: Yeah, but it's not like we haven't been working. It's not like we put the last record out and haven't been touring; we toured for over two years on the last album. Then I've been doing those acoustic shows with Nick [Catanese]. It's not like I've been chomping at the bit, because I'm so busy touring and in tour mode and I'm having fun doing that. Like I said, I love doing both; I love touring and I love making the records. The studio is great too; it's a controlled environment. It's where you can paint the canvas and do everything. Live is pretty much a free-for-all.

Zoiks! Online: The music industry is falling apart right now. RADIOHEAD recently pulled their music off of Spotify. Do you think that's the answer?

Zakk: Any of the bands that I like between iTunes and stuff, it's great. I buy records still from all my favorite artist, whether it's Robin Trower or Robert Plant. If I want to buy a new John McLaughlin record or Al Di Meola, I just order it off of iTunes and I got it on my iPod. As long as you can buy it and pay the artists. It's not so much even the artist, you're paying the artist, but it's the guy who engineered the session. My nephew he doesn't understand: "It's only $10." Yeah, but it cost money to make the records. A baby band, they still have to pay a studio fee, they have to pay an engineer and all these people. It's the trickle-down effect. That's the whole thing. As far as it ever being normal again, forget about it. It's extinct, it's exterminated, it's vaporized. If people can download it and get it for free, then why would they pay for it? It is what it is.

Zoiks! Online: Is it affecting the music at all?

Zakk: I think any band that you really love. I think LED ZEPPELIN would still make LED ZEPPELIN records, AC/DC is going to still make AC/DC records and that's all they should do anyways. Whatever new bands out there like FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH or AVENGED SEVENFOLD or the younger bands just let them keep making the records they want to make. BLACK VEIL BRIDES, the younger kids coming up. I don't think it'll ever affect…the fact that there's downloading people are still going to make the music they love making. It doesn't affect me at all. It is what it is. You just keep trying to make the best records you can, that's all.

Zoiks! Online: Recently, David Draiman [DISTURBED, DEVICE] has been really vocal about the [recent] Rolling Stone [issue which featured a cover photo of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar "Jahar" Tsarnaev]. What are your thoughts?

Zakk: I know what Rolling Stone is doing. They just want to cover what lead this kid to do this. That's the story. They've put Charles Manson on the cover. Why would this moron do this? I think it's more or less that. I don't think they're glorifying him by putting him on the cover. My buddies say they should put the victims on the cover and put the story on the inside. Either or, nobody is trying to make a fucking hero out of this asshole. You might as well put Bin Laden on the cover. The reason you're putting him on the cover is because of the story behind what caused him to be the head of Al Qaeda. You're not putting him up there because some day kids if you try hard enough and you're this big of a scumbag you can get on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but I understand why people are upset about it. It is what it is. They're just trying to write the article of why this kid did this shit.

Read the entire interview at Zoiks! Online.