Zakk had two lengthy stints as Ozzy’s guitarist: the first, from 1987 to 1995, and then from 2001 to 2009, when Osbourne brought in Firewind axeman Gus G. to handle things.
The days with Ozzy are behind him now — at least for the time being — since Osbourne announced in 2009 that he was replacing Wylde. But Zakk harbors no hard feelings. On the contrary...Osbourne simply decided his band was starting to sound like BLS.
“Yeah, no, totally, I still talk to Oz,” Zakk tells NewsOK. “No, no fallin' out or nothin'. No, we never got in any arguments ever. I mean, we were too busy dyin' of laughter. It was just like with Oz, ‘Zakk, I don't wanna be the lead singer in Black Label,' you know what I mean? I mean, if Randy Rhoads, if Saint Rhoads was still around, and if Randy was leavin' Oz, goin' to Quiet Riot and comin' back to Oz, Quiet Riot, Ozzy, Quiet Riot, after a while you go, ‘Uh, Randy, it's startin' to sound like Quiet Riot. I don't wanna be in Quiet Riot...I wanna have my own thing.' And you know, you can't blame Ozzy for that at all.”
“He knows I'm at his disposal whenever he needs me,” Wylde continues. “It's like, ‘Oh, you want me to come over and clean the dog run before you have company over? No problem.' And Gus G. (Wylde's replacement), aside from being a killer guitar player, he's a super cool dude ... Mom and the Boss (Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne), I mean, what more could Ozzy do for me? He introduced me to the world and then on top of it, Mom and the Boss always had me opening up on the Ozzfest and helping me all the time, so I mean, how could I not be eternally grateful to them?”
Check out Zakk’s full session at News OK here.
BLS, along with Thin Lizzy, are the opening acts on Judas Priest’s North American tour, which launches October 12 in San Antonio, Texas.
Ozzy Osbourne Ozzy Osbourne – No More Tears (1991)
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