Rick Florino from ARTISTdirect spoke with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY mainman Zakk Wylde (ex-OZZY OSBOURNE) recently about a number of topics including the first ever Rock & Roll Roast taking place at The Grove in Anaheim, CA on Thursday, January 19th. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

ARTISTdirect: When did Guitar World approach you with the idea of the Rock & Roll Roast?

Wylde; "I'm good buddies with all of the guys over at Guitar World, and I remember talking to Brad Tolinski (Editor-in-Chief) about it. I mentioned that I wanted to do a Black Label Roast. I was watching the Dean Martin Roasts one day, and I thought, 'I ought to start doing these Black Label Roasts where we take the piss out of all of our friends.' Dean Martin would have everybody on that thing, and they'd be getting destroyed. With cast of characters I know, I figured it'd be hysterical. Everybody knows everyone else too in rock. Brad came back to me and said they're going to do these Guitar World Rock & Roll Roasts, considering you were talking about doing those Black Label Roasts and it was your idea, you're the first one we're going to destroy! I said, "Awesome, sounds good!" That's how that came about. The more brutal it is, the funnier it is, dude."

ARTISTdirect: What could they possibly roast you about?

Wylde; "Exactly, I'm a good catholic boy. I have no idea (Laughs). After me, I could give you a list of guys off the top of my head who would be hilarious. This is going to be the first of these things."

ARTISTdirect: What's next for Black Label Society?

Wylde; "We're working on the setlist right now and figuring out how we're going to do the Un-Blackened DVD. We'll do a string section, have pedal steel, piano, backgrounds, and fit everything together. We're still trying to figure out what songs we want to put in there. I'm looking at the records right now. Mind you, we don't have as bad of a problem as The Rolling Stones, but we're trying to figure out which songs we want to put in there. No matter how much writing I've always done in the past, as soon as we get in there and round up the rest of the boys, we start jamming and getting inspired. Then, we start writing a ton of new stuff and the old material pales in comparison."

Read the entire interview here.