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  Zakk
Wylde was born Jeffery Philip Wielandt to a Mr. and Mrs. Jerome
Wielandt
on January 14, 1967 in Bayonne, New Jersey.
He also has a sister, Amy. Zakk began guitar at the age of eight,
only
to quit a short time after due to lack of interest. Zakk then attended
Jackson Memorial High School were he then picked up the guitar
again
at age 14. He began taking lessons from his high school football
coach’s
son, LeRoy Wright. He then studied classical guitar with a guy from
Freehold, NJ, and later with a guy in Manhattan. Zakk
formed his first band “ Stone Henge” playing songs at parties
like Ozzy’s “Bark at the Moon” and other songs
by Black Sabbath and Rush. It
was at that time when Zakk started dating a classmate named Barbaranne
Caterina, who would later become his wife.
 After
graduating from Jackson Memorial High School in 1985 at the age of
18, Zakk was
working at a local supermarket, doing roofing, and playing in various
bands. That’s when Zakk began to write originals and joined a
band called “Zyris” replacing guitarist Dave Linsk (who joined
the band Overkill). Upon joining Zyris is when he started calling himself
Zakari Wyland. He got the name from the TV show Lost In Space’s
character Dr. Zachary Smith. Zyris played original material as well
as covers by their favorite bands: Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin.
It was at that time that Zakk began to give guitar lessons in Jackson,
New Jersey. Zyris played some, but not many gigs in the southern Jersey
area, including shows at "Close Encounters" and a gig at
the famous "Stone
Pony." | ||
 Hearing
on the Howard Stern Show that Ozzy would be auditioning unknown
guitarists,
he never thought of it to be more than a fantasy. While performing
with Zyris, Zakk was discovered by rock photographers Mark
Weiss and Dave
Feld. Amazed at Zakk’s playing, Dave confronted Zakk, and
mentioned that Ozzy was looking for a new guitarist and that
they would pass
along a press kit. Zakk, along with help from friend, Jim Matlosz,
recorded a 4 track demo which was sent along with the press kit,
which ended up landing an audition. During the audition, Zakk
played
a few Ozzy songs and some acoustic and
classical
stuff.
After
the
audition
he
returned
home thinking
he didn’t get the job. Soon after, he received a phone call
from Sharon Osbourne asking if he would join the band. At
the age of 20 years old, Zakk joined Ozzy Osbourne's band. It was
then that he was
given the name “Zakk Wylde.” Ozzy introduced Zakk as his
new guitarist at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City, on Dec.15,
1987. Zakk made his recording debut in 1988 with "No
Rest For The Wicked" and
quickly became one of the most talked about young guitarists in
metal, due to his instantly recognizable guitar sound and style.  By
1989, Zakk went from an unknown teenager playing small clubs
in New Jersey, to touring the world in huge arenas with Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy and his band were booked play Moscow Peace
Festival during summer of 1989, alongside Skid Row, Motley
Crue,
Bon Jovi, the Scorpions, and more. A live E.P. "Just
Say Ozzy" was released soon after. It featured Ozzy,
Zakk, Geezer Butler, and Randy Castillo. The E.P. contained three
No Rest For Wicked tunes, "Miracle Man," "Bloodbath
In Paradise,"
and "Tattooed Dancer," plus a version "Shot In The
Dark" from The Ultimate
Sin (which is universally recognized as the best recording of the
song), and two Black Sabbath classics,
"War Pigs," and "Sweet Leaf."
 In
1990, Ozzy, Zakk, Randy, and Bob Daisley (with bass inspiration
from Mike Inez) recorded No More Tears, the second studio release
in which Zakk appears on.
No More Tears is generally regarded as one of Zakk's finest performances.
From the mega-hit title track,
and the epic and heartfelt "Mama, I'm Coming Home," to
the thunderous "Mr. Tinkertrain,"
the album was
perfectly
balanced.
Zakk's
style
changed and matured a lot from No Rest For The Wicked to No More
Tears, and there were southern rock "chicken pickin'" elements
starting to come out in his playing, which would be a huge part
in his sound for years to come.
 The
tour for No More Tears, aptly titled "No More Tours" was
billed to be Ozzy's final farewell tour. A lot of the shows on the
tour were professionally filmed and recorded for a live release.
Live & Loud, a double disc set and video release
of live recordings from the tour, was released in 1992. The live
performance of "I Don't Want To Change The World" also
landed the Ozzy Osbourne band a Grammy Award that year. | ||
 In
1992, while still with Ozzy, Zakk formed a band called Lynyrd Skynhead
with bassist James Lomenzo and drummer Greg
DeAngelo
of White Lion fame. They jammed
a bunch of classic rock and southern rock tunes from bands such
as
Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Bros, ZZ Top and Mountain at numerous
in-stores and other appearances. This lineup recorded the track "Farm
Fiddlin'" which
appeared on the
"Guitars That Rule The World Vol. 1" compilation album.
Some of the in-store appearances from this era featured Zakk and
local musicians backing him, so some of
the bootlegs credited as "Lynyrd Skynhead" may actually
only be Zakk solo appearances.
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In
1994, Zakk became friends with Blind Melon front-man Shannon
Hoon, and they began writing songs together while Zakk was helping
him
get cleaned up. Around this time, Ozzy decided to come out of retirement,
and he recruited Zakk, Mike Inez,
and Randy Castillo to record his next album. The album had several
scrapped recording sessions, one with Mike Inez on bass, and another
with James Lomenzo on bass. Epic Records hired famed producer Michael
Wagener to produce the album,
saying "we
want exactly the same record as No More Tears." After 7 songs
were completely recorded and mixed with Michael Wagener, Epic came
to
him and told
him "now we want it to sound like Soundgarden." Needless
to say, this infuriated him, because it was impossible to change
the direction
of the album after 7 songs were completely finished. So after
all of their hard work, the label decided to abandon tracking of
the album. At this point in their careers, both Michael Wagener and
Ozzy wanted to leave the music business altogether after working
so hard on something they were proud of, only to have their record
company reject it. Two
of Michael Wagener's original 7 recordings were released
as single
b-sides, "Aimee," and "Living
With The Enemy." One song called "Slow Burn," recorded
during these sessions remains unreleased. The other
four songs recorded were "Perry Mason," "See You On
The Other Side," "Tomorrow," and "Old L.A. Tonight." These
four songs are completely different recordings than the eventual
versions on Ozzmosis, in fact, the version of "See You On The
Other Side" (which was released on Ozzy's box set"Prince
Of Darkness" in 2005) contains saxophone and a female choir.Epic Records eventually
hired Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn to record what would
become Ozzmosis in 1995. For some reason, Randy Castillo and Mike Inez (or James
Lomenzo) were not
asked
back,
and
Deen Castronovo and Geezer Butler were brought in for the drum and
bass duties. During
the recording of Ozzmosis, Zakk would hang out at a restaurant called
Brew's
in New York after a full day in the studio and jam some acoustic
material he was
writing
but
was unable to use on Ozzmosis. According
to Kieran Brew, the club's owner, Zakk would come in around 3:30
a.m. when few people remained
in the restaurant, and would sing and play guitar. Brew's became
the proving grounds for the material that would later become "Book
of Shadows." Three days before Ozzmosis was released, on October
21st, 1995, Zakk got the news that Shannon Hoon had passed away of
an overdose. He then wrote the song "Throwin' It All Away," which
would later be recorded for "Book Of Shadows." Around
this same time, Zakk started jamming with Guns N Roses at Duff
Mckagan's house and several demos were recorded,
including many riffs which were later used for Black Label Society's
first
album, "Sonic Brew." Ozzmosis,
which featured the pounding lead-off single "Perry
Mason," was released on October 24th.
The album would mark the first time that Zakk did not write every
single song that was recorded. One of the tracks, "My Little Man," was
written by Steve Vai, and several others by different writers and
producers.After Ozzmosis came out, Zakk
was torn between joining Guns N' Roses, or
touring
with
Ozzy. He took too long to decide, and Ozzy eventually
hired a guitarist by the name of Joe Holmes for the Ozzmosis tour.
Around the same time, Zakk
received
a
message
from Guns N Roses that his services would not be needed.
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 This
marked a crossroads in Zakk's career, but luckily, he still had
something to do musically. Geffen Records was wanting a new
album from
him
to fulfill his
contract.
He decided to record
and release all of the excess material that he
had laying around, which became "Book Of Shadows." He
called up former Pride & Glory bassist James Lomenzo and asked
him to play on the album, and Joe Vitale, veteran drummer from Joe
Walsh
and
Crosby, Stills
& Nash was recruited to play drums and some keyboards on the
album as well. "Book
Of Shadows" was released in 1996 on Geffen Records. After
the album was released, Nick Catanese, a guitarist from Pittsburgh,
emailed Zakk enquiring on whether or not he needed a second guitarist
for the tour, and Zakk responded by inviting him to come and jam
with him. After jamming, Nick was hired as a 2nd guitarist for the
Book Of Shadows tour. During this
tour, the seeds for the creation of Black Label Society were planted;
a drummer by the name of Phil Ondich met Zakk in San Francisco at
The
Great
American
Music
Hall
on Sept.
16th,
1996, they shook hands and their meeting was brief.
Then,
on December
3rd, at Staches in Columbus, OH, he met him again before the show,
to which Zakk proclaimed "dude, you're fucking everywhere," and
they proceeded to down several cases of Heineken and exchange phone
numbers. On
February 22nd, 1997 in Roanoke, Virginia, they crossed paths a third
time
and Phil
gave
him a demo
tape of
him playing with a band called Raging Slab. Outside of a radio
station
there
in Roanoke,
Zakk jammed a new song on his acoustic guitar called "Beneath
The Tree." Phil
kept time for Zakk by patting his hands on his legs with the music.
Over the next year, the two agreed to work together on an album.In
1997, Zakk self-produced a few demos with Brock Avery on drums (among
these demos is "The Color Green" which later appeared as a bonus
track to the 1999 Spitfire reissue of Book of Shadows). In August,
Zakk, with Nick on rhythm guitar, Ian Mayo on bass, and Brock Avery
on
drums
embarked
upon a short electric Japanese tour, playing songs from both Pride
& Glory and Book Of Shadows. A pro-shot video exists of one of these
performances called "Rock
Around The Bay '97." Zakk also performed at the Jason Becker
Benefit on November 17th, 1997.
 On
January 31, 1998, the original Pride & Glory band reunited
for a one-off reunion show at the Whiskey in Hollywood, CA. This
momentous
occasion was believed to be bootlegged, but no video has turned up
anywhere. Click
Here for some photos of this show taken by photographer
Sven Isaksson.
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Zakk
Wylde, Mike Inez, and Randy Castillo (the No More Tears band),
were
rehired by Ozzy Osbourne in early 1998 for a tour in New Zealand,
Australia, and Japan. Ads appeared in magazines stating that Ozzfest
'98 would feature this lineup, but mysteriously, the entire band
was let go without reason by the Ozzy camp after they got back from
Japan.
This marked another crossroads in Zakk's career.On
May 9th, 1998, Zakk went to Italy to perform a one-off solo show
at Rimini's Dog Pub,
a very strange show in which members of the crowd held up a microphone
for him to sing into. Upon his return, he had some
studio time booked down in Miami. After
several
discussions,
and
a recommendation
from
Nick
Catanese,
Zakk had decided to give Phil Ondich a call and invite him down to
the studio to record an album. What
became
Sonic Brew
was
recorded
in May/June
1998
in
Miami, Florida with Ron and Howard Albert at the console. Zakk
loved
the
lyrics
on the
song "Beneath
The Tree" that he had written the year before, so he wrote
some new music and kept the lyrics for it.While
writing and recording, Zakk and Phil decided that they wanted
to form a long-lasting
band,
and not just release another Zakk Wylde solo album. They decided
to call the band "Hell's
Kitchen" and the album was
to be called "Sonic Brewery." Phil designed all of
the artwork and helped lay out the booklet for the album, but
after an unsuccessful attempt at getting the moniker trademarked,
they had no idea what to name the band. After thinking about
it for awhile, it was decided that the band was to be called
Black Label Society (due to their love of Black Label whisky,
and the fact that "black label" means "best").
The front and back artwork for the album had to be changed, but
the inside
booklet was kept almost exactly the same. If you
look,
all of the art inside the booklet is set up like a kitchen menu.
Hilarious liner notes and artwork (a devil devouring a chef, etc)
fill the booklet,
and if you replace the word "society" with the word "kitchen"
in a lot of the liner notes, it makes a lot more sense; such as, "its
the height of bad manners to heave in somebody else's kitchen"
makes much more sense than "somebody else's society."
 Sonic
Brew was released in Japan on October 28th, 1998. It contained
13
tracks ("Lost My Better Half" and "No More Tears 2000"
did not exist yet at this point). The album featured an awesome album
cover that was printed on clear plastic, with a separate paper booklet.
The
back
cover was
printed
with golden ink, and the packaging was overall, a lot better than
the USA version ended up. There was a long delay for the USA album
release because the band were still shopping for a record label,
and also because everyone collectively decided that it needed remixed.
The drums & vocals
were buried on some of the tracks towards the end of the disc, so
it was decided
that
they
would
remix
it for
the US release. They decided to give the USA an extra track
for the
album, and went into the studio in Los Angeles to write and record "Lost
My Better Half" as a one-off bonus track for the album. It
was Zakk's heaviest song to date. Sonic Brew was finally released
on May
4th, 1999 on Spitfire Records.
For
touring, BLS needed
a bass player, so Zakk put out an ad in guitar magazines: "Looking
for a bassist. Preferably a guitarist who's willing to play bass.
Fender P Bass preferred.
Mid/Late
20's, early 30's.
CRUSHINGLY HEAVY. If you don't dig Cliff Burton don't bother replying."
Evidently, finding an unknown bassist didn't work out, because Zakk
ended up hiring his long-time friend and former P&G replacement
bassist John "J.D." DeServio as BLS' bass player. Black
Label Society's lineup was now complete. Zakk, Nick, J.D., and Philth.
BLS
performed their first ever live show in Japan on May 1st, 1999
at Club
Quattro, in Shibuya, Tokyo. On the final date of that Japanese tour,
Stephen Pearcy, the singer of the
band Ratt,
joined BLS onstage for a terrible, unrehearsed encore of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." After
the Japanese tour, BLS toured Europe, playing for what
was probably their largest crowd they've ever played to at
Dynamo Open Air '99.
 After
the European tour, the American tour dates that were scheduled
were all cancelled, and there was a long wait before the US tour
began. A reason was fabricated by Zakkwylde.com that said that
Phil had broken his arm while
jet-skiing, which was completely untrue.
The real reason for the tour postponement was because the Johnny
Walker whisky company issued a cease and desist order to the band
because the album
cover looked
just like a bottle of their whisky. Because of this, he
band
decided to reissue the album with a different album cover, and
as an added incentive, they wanted to record a bonus track for
the
fans
who bought the new version of the album. Zakk, Phil, along
with Ozzy alumni Mike Inez recorded the song "No More Tears
2000" as
a bonus track. The reissue of the album was for sale at merchandise
stands on
tour before it could be found in stores. A guitar pick was inside
the case of the reissue as an added bonus to those
who
bought this version. Black
Label Society finally kicked off their first tour of the United
States in mid September 1999, with the band
Loudmouth supporting
them on many of the dates. They played most of the songs from Sonic
Brew, a few Pride & Glory songs, and at a few shows, they
covered
"Miracle Man" by Ozzy. The tour wrapped up without
a hitch.
 "Alcohol
Fueled Brewtality Live +5", BLS' first live album was recorded
on October 28th 2000. Zakk and Craig recorded several studio tracks
for a second disc, including the single "Like A Bird," and
covers of Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold," and Black Sabbath's "Snowblind." The
album was released on January 16th, 2001.The
band was added to
Ozzfest
2001
that summer
as the
main
stage
opener.
A live version of Superterrorizer
was recorded at one of the Ozzfest shows and released on the
Ozzfest
2001 cd; the track featured an intro which later became the song "Battering
Ram." Steve Gibb left the band mid-way through the tour, and
was replaced by former Ozzy/Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez. But
in early
August, Mike
had to fly back to California due to obligations with another
band,
and bass tech Frey Theiler filled in on a few dates towards
the
end of Ozzfest.
During
the tour, Zakk recorded a few demos with a guy by the name of Christian
Werr playing drums, to showcase to Ozzy for possible inclusion
on Ozzy's next album. Zakk sang the songs in a higher key than
he normally would, to demonstrate, the best he could, how Ozzy
would sound singing them. He planned to load the tracks into Pro-Tools
and have Ozzy re-sing the songs, but that never happened. Ozzy
rejected the songs because they were "too Black Label," so
Zakk kept them
for
the
next
BLS
album. The demos that were recorded were "Bleed For Me,"
"Life/Birth/Blood/Doom," "Demise Of Sanity," an
alternate piano version of "Bridge To Cross," and a demo
presumably called "I'll Find The Way." The latter two
tracks were never released.
Robert Trujillo, who played bass for Ozzy's band, played
on "Life/Birth/Blood/Doom" and"Demise Of Sanity."
  Zakk
recorded a new album with Ozzy in the Summer/Fall of 2001, but
did
not write any of the tracks for it. "Down To Earth" was
released on October 16th, 2001, and Ozzy and Rob Zombie toured together
on the "Merry Mayhem" tour. During Ozzy's Far East tour,
they recorded a live album, "Live at Budokan" at Japan's
world famous Budokan arena on February 14th, 2002.
 Somewhere
around this time, either before or after the Merry Mayhem tour,
Zakk
and Craig went into the studio with Eddie Mapp and recorded what
became "1919
Eternal." The album was supposed to be called "Deathcore
Warmachine Eternal" but the title was changed in light of
the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. Zakk revisited the demos
that he did for Ozzy with Christian Werr on drums, and decided
to keep the same drums and rhythm tracks, but to re-record the
vocals in his own register and redo the solos. Bridge To Cross
was re-recorded as an acoustic guitar driven song instead of a
piano ballad, and a few other minor changes were made to the other
demos. The album was released on March
5th, 2002.
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