By Aaron Small

As September turned to October, Zakk Wylde was briefly sidelined by a blood clot in his leg. The required hospitalization forced the cancellation of a pair of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY shows in Nebraska and Iowa. Fortunately the SDMF motto of Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever prevailed and the Black Label Berzerkus featuring CHILDREN OF BODOM, CLUTCH and 2 CENTS is back on track.

Zakk recalls his unwanted time off. “When I first got the blood clots, I let it go for about two weeks. My leg was killing me but I figured it’d be fine, give it a week or so. It’s a guy thing. You won’t go to the dentist unless your head’s about to explode cause you need a root canal, just push it off ‘til the last second. That’s what I did the first time I had these things (in August 2009). I didn’t know what it was. But now I had the same type of pain in my legs. They took me off the blood thinners ‘cause they don’t want you on them for the rest of your life. But if your body’s not producing testosterone, you got to take the medicine. Right now I got to take the shots like I did in the beginning; I give myself two injections in the stomach a day – along with the steroids, Viagara, Cialis, morning after pill and some crack cocaine light for the slim, girlish rock figure.”

Although stylistically different, Zakk and Children Of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho are two of the most talented and highly respected guitarists out there today. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that touring together might present the opportunity for late night jam sessions or all out shred fests, however according to Zakk, that hasn’t happened. “I’ve got so much stuff going on all the time. Since we’ve been out on this run, after we do the meet and greets around two o’clock in the afternoon, we leave. Then I literally drive down, get out of the van, get on stage, do the gig, back in the van, out of there. I haven’t even seen Alexi and the guys. But everybody I’ve talked to has said the shows are ass kicking. The Clutch guys are killing it as well and they were telling me the lead singer of 2 Cents is beyond hysterical. His rants between songs are like David Lee Roth on steroids.”

Speaking of great guitarists, a campaign to get Randy Rhoads a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is currently underway. Zakk weighs in on this tribute to one of his heroes. “It’s kind of a no-brainer isn’t it? I wonder if THE ROLLING STONES are going to make it in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Gimme a break. It’s like saying, I wonder if Clint Eastwood is going to get a star? You know the guys who belong there and you know the guys who don’t. I wonder if Charles Manson is going to get out on parole? We can phone that one in – no, denied.”

The new BLS album, Order Of The Black, was released in August with four different album covers – one for each of the following territories: North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. Given the ease of online shopping, many fans will purchase all four to complete their collection, yet with the exception of a Japanese bonus track, the music contained within is the same. Zakk compares this marketing strategy to “the way LED ZEPPELIN did it with In Through The Out Door – there was six different covers. It’s just a cool thing as a fan to collect. I’m a huge Zeppelin fan. Anything they come out with, I’m getting. I really love Jimmy Page. As far as the covers went, it’s actually because we have four different (record) labels in four different territories. When I was coming up with the album cover, I had different ideas. I thought maybe I’d use them for t-shirt designs or something. My wife and I talked about it and decided to give each label their own cover.”

The Zeppelin parallels continue inside Order Of The Black as each of the four BLS band members now has their own symbol, much like Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham did. “Originally the symbols were… instead of the crucifix and bass signs, JD’s symbol was going to be meatballs and pasta ‘cause he represents the Italian chapter. Mine originally, because I’m German, Irish and Dutch, was going to be some Irish stew – stuff like that to go along with the person. Just like on Seinfeld, when Kramer made pasta replicas of all his friends - it captures the essence of the person. It was Fusilli Jerry. Why fusilli? Cause you’re silly.”

In addition to issuing the brilliant Order Of The Black, Zakk found time to make a guest appearance on the new MY DARKEST DAYS single and video, ‘Porn Star Dancing’. Zakk recalls how this cameo came to be. “I’m friends with Chad (Kroeger) from NICKELBACK (who also guests on the song). I met him at the VH1 Honor Awards; I played down there with the boss, with Oz (OZZY OSBOURNE). Chad called me and asked if I would throw down some guitar on the tune. No problem. So Chad came over to The Black Label Bunker, we put it on Pro-Tools and I soloed – it was that easy. As far as the video goes, I flew out to Vegas from California in the morning and left early in the afternoon. Some of the chics were there when I was doing the video, but they brought in the Chippendales dancers and Thunder Down Under guys just for me,” jokes Zakk amidst fits of laughter. “I saw them just recently at some radio show up in Seattle and asked the guys if any action went down with any of the chics? They’re like, ‘Zakk, we were so wasted by that time, nothing would have happened anyway.’ They were completely blitzkreiged while they were making the video. It was good times.”

Zakk has also guested on albums by DAMAGEPLAN, DOPE, DEREK SHERINIAN and STEVIE SALAS. Recently though, he was asked to participate in a program of an altogether different nature. “My publicist just received a thing for me to do Dancing With The Stars – I kid you not. I think they figure this idiot, this jackass, has no business dancing. He’s supposed to be a tough guy so we’ll get him doing the gayest dance moves possible – ratings through the roof. My buddies say I should do it just for the pure gayness of the whole thing. When they tell me to spin – fuck you, that’s some candy ass shit. I ain’t doing that, I suck, You’re never going to get me to dance. No matter what chemicals you give me, this is not going to happen. What’s next? Kerry King (from SLAYER) on Dancing With The Stars. They’ve got to get Phil Anselmo (of DOWN / PANTERA); that would be some insane fucking comedy.”

Refocusing on Black Label Society, drummer Craig Nunenmacher has been replaced by Will Hunt of EVANESCENCE. Without hesitation, Zakk lays his cards on the table. “Will was in STATIC X when we hooked up with him on the Pedal To The Metal tour. It’s not a matter of us auditioning people – let me call Aaron up, see what the hell he’s doing? You want to come jam with us for a while? Make a little bit of dough, have a good time, get hammered every night, whatever you want to do dude. It’s that easy. You know who the boys are and who ain’t. Craig was just like, ‘Zakk, if we’re not going to be touring year-round, financially, I might have to start doing some other stuff.’ We all love Craig. No one’s ever been fired from Black Label. The door’s always open, that’s what’s so unique about the band. It’s like Aaron, if you can make more money writing for Rolling Stone, I hate to see you leave but if they’re going to give you a king’s ransom I’m not going to stop you. You can always come back here and be the editor of the Black Label magazine. But Will’s awesome, he’s super cool.”

Order Of The Black, which Will plays on, was recorded at the Black Label Bunker, making it the first CD to stem from Zakk’s newly completed home studio. Having your own recording facility, as opposed to renting studio time elsewhere and constantly watching the clock must be a dream come true. “I never went in with the mindset of we’ve got to get it done in three days ‘cause it’s $1000 a day and we only have a $3000 budget. I work along the lines of let’s go in there and knock this thing out. If we get it done in a week, we get it done in a week. If it takes us six weeks, it takes us six weeks. We get down there; get a couple kick ass songs – great. If we don’t, we’re not feeling it today – whatever. Every time we’ve gone in the studio it’s always a good time. As far as getting inspiration, we could be listening to ‘Heart Of Gold’ by NEIL YOUNG on the way down there and then we’d write something mellow like that. But I never look at the clock. Whenever you’re in a recording studio, it’s like being in a tit bar – none of them suck but some are better than others. It’s like a kid with a billion crayons and a blank canvas. But it’s great now that we have The Bunker.”

Professor Zakk now offers a quick accounting lesson. “When you really break it down, back in the day with the big record deals and all that stuff… the ideal thing for any young band who got signed would be to take the advance and build a studio for what it would cost you to make the record. Then you’ll always have the studio to make records. It’s the same principle as renting an apartment or owning a house. When you’re making a record, between the producers, the engineer, the studio… say you record 15 songs and it takes 50 days to record the album, that’s $50,000 right there. Then it takes a day and a half to mix each song. So we’ll allocate 25 days for mixing, that’s another $25,000 so we’re already at $75,000 just in studio time – and that’s blazing through the stuff. Next thing you know, the album’s up to $250,000. You could have taken that money and built a studio. As a signed band, now you’ve got to pay that $250,000 back. It’s just like taking out a loan. People say, ‘they’re going to give us $300,000 to make the album.’ Dude, you didn’t hit the lottery. It’s not plasma TVs for you and all your buddies. Even if you sell 500,000 records, you’re not seeing any money until you pay back the advance. That’s what everybody forgets.”

With one eye always on what’s next, Zakk reveals plans for the next Black Label Society DVD. “I don’t know if it’ll be so much on the Berzerkus, but throughout the tours on this Order thing we’re going to do some unplugged stuff, then we’ll obviously do the electric stuff, and there’s the behind the scenes goofy ass stuff that’ll make it really unique, as opposed to just getting a live performance. We’re already talking about it now; we’re definitely going to do one.”

The aforementioned Berzerkus tour runs until November 21st, after which Zakk will “take December and January off; well it’s not so much going to be off. What we’re doing is recording an unplugged version of all the tunes down at The Black Label Bunker when we get off the road. We recorded a couple of songs we were going to use for bonus tracks, but we were really psyched the way they came out so we decided to make it a whole other record, the unblackened versions. It’s almost like when ALICE IN CHAINS did Jar Of Flies – stripped down versions of ‘Overlord’, all the tunes that are on the Order record.” An unplugged Order Of The Black album is on the horizon then? “Yeah, totally. That’ll happen when we get home. We’ll knock that out and then in February we’ll start rehearsals over in England and start touring Europe. That’ll take us ‘til summertime and we’re actually going to stay over there. Usually, most summers we’ve been on the Ozzfest so we’ve missed the festivals in Europe – Dynamo, Wacken, everything over there. We’re going to start hitting those festivals. Then you’ve got China, Japan, Australia and Russia as well. It literally now is a world tour.”

Remaining Berzerkus tour dates are as follows:

October

12 - Cunard Centre - Halifax, NS
14 - Metropolis - Montreal, QC
15 - Sound Academy - Toronto, ON
16 - Trib Total Media Amphitheatre - Pittsburgh, PA
17 - Merriweather Post Pavillion - Columbia, MD
19 - House of Blues - Boston, MA
20 - Hammerstein Ballroom - New York, NY
22 - House of Blues - Myrtle Beach, SC
23 - Masquerade Music Park - Atlanta, GA
24 - The Fillmore Charlotte - Charlotte, NC
26 - Hard Rock - Orlando, FL
28 - Verizon Wireless Theater - Houston, TX
29 - Concrete St. Ampitheater - Corpus Christi , TX
30 - Verizon Theatre - Grand Prairie, TX
31 - Lonestar Pavilion - Lubbock, TX

November

2 - Stubbs Waller Creek Ampitheater - Austin, TX
3 - Brady Center - Tusla, OK
5 - DeltaPlex - Grand Rapids, MI
6 - Congress Theater - Chicago, IL
7 - The Fillmore - Detroit, MI
9 - Main Street Armory - Rochester, NY
10 - The LC Pavilion - Columbus, OH
12 - Cotilion - Wichita, KS
13 - Uptown Theater - Kansas City, KS
14 - The Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, CO
16 - The Complex - Salt Lake City, UT
18 - Dodge Theatre - Phoenix, AZ
19 - The Palladium - Los Angeles, CA
20 - Warfield - San Francisco, CA
21 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV