Guitar World recently spoke with metal icons Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde about the No Rest For The Wicked Album, which marked Wylde's debut as Ozzy's right hand man. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

"He’s a fucking absolutely amazing guitar player,” Osbourne says of Wylde today, speaking to Guitar World from his home in Los Angeles. “And from the word go, he was great. He don’t fuck around. He hits it right in the fucking gut.”

For his audition tape, which over the years has cropped up in various configurations online, Wylde compiled a few original riffs and solos, as well as some acoustic classical performances and his interpretations of Rhoads’ leads from the Blizzard of Ozz classic “Mr. Crowley” and Diary of a Madman’s “Flying High Again.”

The quality of the recording, however, did not match that of the playing. “I think I had two boomboxes going,” Wylde recalls. “I recorded myself doing the rhythms on one, then played that back and soloed along with it and recorded that on the other one. It was early multitracking.” But Feld did in fact make good on getting the tape, via Mark Weiss, to Ozzy’s camp. In time, Wylde received a call at his parents’ house from Osbourne’s wife and manager, Sharon, asking him to come out to L.A. “The running joke was that it was one of my jackoff friends putting his mom on the phone to fuck with me,” Wylde says. “But then they sent me a plane ticket.”

According to Wylde, his audition also included drummer Randy Castillo and bassist Phil Soussan, both of whom had performed, along with Jake E. Lee, on 1986’s The Ultimate Sin. Among the songs he played were “Suicide Solution,” “Bark at the Moon” and “Crazy Train.” “The mandatory tunes,” he says. In the end it came down to Wylde and one other candidate, a guitarist named Jimi Bell who had worked previously with Joan Jett (Bell would go on to play with Geezer Butler’s solo band and, more recently, design the Shredneck guitar practice tool).

And though Wylde says he didn’t have much contact with the other players vying for the spot, he also knew it was his to lose. “I remember when I was out there auditioning, they put everyone up at the Hyatt on Sunset. And some of the guys there were talking about how well the gig pays, this and that.

They weren’t really Ozzy or Sabbath fans. They could give a shit. The analogy I always use is they just wanted to play for the Yankees, you know? Because that’s where the money was. Whereas I had every picture of every Yankee up on my wall, and knew everybody’s batting average. To me, the pinstripes were a sacred fucking thing. So I thought, Fuck these clowns. I’m gonna get this fucking gig.”

Go to this location for the complete in-depth interview.

Wylde will release Book Of Shadows II on April 8th via Entertainment One Music (eOne Music), his first solo release in 20 years. This release is the highly anticipated follow up to 1996’s Book Of Shadows LP, a classic album Wylde released between his work with Ozzy Osbourne that has since become a fan favourite.

Wylde has been feverishly working on new material since he wrapped up Black Label Society’s Unblackened spring tour last year. All songs on Book of Shadows II were recorded and produced at Wylde’s legendary home studio, The Black Vatican, which produced several of Wylde’s recent releases. The new effort will be followed by a wave of tour dates in support to be announced soon.

Zakk Wylde is no stranger to showing the lighter, introspective side of his music, having previously released two Black Label Society albums of stripped down material. The Song Remains Not The Same was released in 2011 which included acoustic versions of songs originally released on Order Of The Black and 2013’s Unblackened, a live acoustic album that was recorded live at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.

Zakk will also be in full participation in this year's NAMM Convention taking place at The Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA January 21st - 24th. Zakk's newly minted line of Guitars known as Wylde Audio will be on full display in Room 210-D and will be signing from 3 - 5 PM on Friday January 22nd.

Zakk Sabbath, a side project featuring guitarist/vocalist Wylde, bassist Blasko (Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie) and drummer Joey Castillo (Danzig, Queens Of The Stone Age) performing only Black Sabbath songs, will be playing at The Grove of Anaheim on Saturday, January 23rd.