BLACK LABEL SOCIETY guitar ZAKK WYLDE (ex-OZZY OSBOURNE) spoke with Christopher Toh from Poparazzi recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Poparazzi: I heard you were in and out of hospital a lot.

Wylde: "But it’s always funny. I always laugh about it. It’s always something. It could be with jazz musicians or something. It’s shit you can’t make up. Whenever this stuff happens, you have to laugh. It’s par for the course. I’ve broken my back, ribs, messed my neck up, my shoulder’s tweaked, then there were the blood clots, I’ve had two hernias, a throat operation… They just glue me together and ship me out on the road. And when I come home, the kids call me Uncle Frank. They don’t know who I am, I’m just some guy that comes around the house once in a while and gives them money. They’ll go like Uncle Frank! and I’m like, 'No, it’s Daddy!' Then they’ll go like, 'Whatever man, just give me the money. I’m getting ready for college.'”

Poparazzi: And you had to give up booze. What’s your poison now?

Wylde: "I’m drinking like 6,000 cups for coffee. I’m probably going to have a stroke from drinking that much coffee! I like to chill and have a beer and watch the game with the guys, but the doctor said that if I continued drinking, I would bleed internally. So it’s like, 'Let’s weigh the options here: Do we really need to go to AA for this? Internal bleeding or chill out?' So I was like, what the hell! I just boost the heroin intake and the pain pills."

Poparazzi: The other big thing that happened to you was that Ozzy Osbourne replaced you in his band with Gus G.

Wylde: "He’s jamming with Gus G, who’s a great guitar player. Oz was like, “Zakk, you’re doing the Black Label thing”. Our relationship is bigger than music anyway, he’s the godfather of one of my kids. And whenever he needed me, like if Gus had to go home because his wife was pregnant or something, I’d come out on the road and fill in for Gus until he can get back out."

Poparazzi: Any new Black Label music coming out soon?

Wylde: "Yeah, we’re going to start on Friday at the Black Label bunker. I’m having a state-of-the-art studio built in my place in California. And once that’s done, we’re figuring January and February we record the album, mix it in March, and in April we’ll be out promoting it, and in May, that’s the next step in Black Label global domination. We’re going to be back over here with the band. And when I get back I’m going to be working on a book, a rock and roll survival guide. So get ready for some comedy on that one!"

Read the entire interview here.