TheScreamQueen.com has posted an in-depth interview with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY guitarist Nick Cantanese, conducted back in November 2010 during the BLS tour with CHILDREN OF BODOM and CLUTCH. An excerpt is available below:

Q: How do you let yourself connect through the music to the crowd when you're on stage?

Cantanese: "That's actually a good question because (laughs) I was thinking to the guys today, I said with how tired we are now, the crowd helps us. If the crowd's not into it, it's hard, and the set is really long, and it's like-- Zakk's stuck on the mic, so me and JD got to be the entertainer guys.

I try to interact with as many people as I can; I'll see somebody ten rows back and try to-- if they're wearing a cool shirt or something, I'll [mimics pointing and waving]. The more people that you try to do that with, by the end of the night, they feel like your buddies, you know what I mean? So you're trying to make this whole thing. But right off the bat, if the crowd is intense, the show's off the hook, because it doesn't matter how banged up or tired you are. If the crowd's looking at you like, 'Dude, just stop. I want to go home, my ears are bleeding.' Then, it's kind of tough.

But we always try, we throw [guitar] picks and everything, try to get people in it. If there's like a little kid or something, [I'll] give the security guy to give him a pick and try to-- like, I try to do things the way that I wish when I went to a show, it'd happen. Like, when I went to see KISS, man, [I was] like, 'Did Gene [Simmons] point at me?! Or was it the girl?' It was probably the girl. But at that second, I thought Gene Simmons pointed at me, and that was like, 'Holy Hell!! He saw me!' I'll never forget that.

I'm not Gene Simmons by a stretch of the imagination, but people are like, 'Wow, he actually said what's up.' Or if they motion to me a certain way, I'll do it back to them, so they know it's to them, and not to the guy [next to them]. We try to make it a whole vortex of energy. (laughs) They've [the fans] got to keep us up, man! We're not 18 anymore, man! Obviously we're not the ROLLING STONES, but the crowd helps, it really does. Fans don't understand what that means...

Like, if I looked down and there was somebody-- I've seen it before; somebody on the railing-- not that they're bored, but they're being crushed. They're just [like], 'I'm so hot and tired from four bands of just continuing pummeling...' How could you not?! I tell people that all the time, I don't know how you do this. Like, I don't like people that much-- not that I don't like people, but like claustrophobic; if I can't stretch my elbows out, I'm miserable. (laughs) You know what I mean?

I don't go to bars when I'm home, nothing. If I can't stretch out, kick out, just relax, I'll go watch from the back. Me and Zakk argue about it all the time, like if we went to see VAN HALEN or whoever, we'd stand in the back and watch the show and watch Eddie Van Halen play. People up front, people crowd surfing, hitting your head, I'm like, 'Oh my God! How do they get up?!' (laughs) Like, I've seen this one guy, literally get launched [into the crowd], and he fell, and it was right after they got another guy out, and there was nobody there, and he just came over, and landed on the metal bar. He got up like, 'I don't want to go to school to day, mom...' He walked off seeing birdies. (laughs) But he went in [the crowd], got back up, and I'm like, 'Didn't you just learn you shouldn't do that, maybe? Go get a drink or something.'

But the crowds are crazy-- thank God! Stay that way because we need it! The weirdest thing I've ever seen was this guy, a buddy of ours named Mike, we call him Papa Wheelie, he's in a wheel chair, hasn't walked all his life, and the first time we met him, we were playing in LA [Los Angeles] and all I saw was this wheelchair (pauses) lifted. And he came across the crowd in a wheelchair! I'm like, '!!!!' And the whole band is like, 'Are you seeing this?!' And he's headbanging all the way. I'm like, 'If somebody dropped that chair....' ...That was the way we met, I'm like, 'I've got to party with this guy!' (laughs) You crowd surf in a wheelchair, your pretty damn dedicated. He ended up being one of my best friends. It's all just going back to the intensity of the crowd."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Black Label Society frontman/guitar god, ZAKK WYLDE, has announced the upcoming release of The Song Remains Not The Same (E One Music) on May 3rd. The offering features unplugged versions of material from Black Label Society’s latest album, Order Of The Black, as well as additional material recorded during the Order Of The Black sessions.

The Song Remains Not The Same was conceived, created and compiled by Zakk Wylde himself and the title is, of course, a nod to one of Wylde’s favorite bands, LED ZEPPELIN.

Tracklisting:

'Overlord' (Unplugged version)

'Parade Of The Dead' (Unplugged version)

'Riders Of The Damned' (Unplugged version)

'Darkest Days' (Unplugged version)

'Juniors Eyes'

'Helpless'

'Bridge Over Troubled Water'

'Can't Find My Way Home'

'Darkest Days' (featuring John Rich)

'The First Noel'

Further details to follow.