On April 10th, William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers will release the handbook to all things heavy metal: Bringing Metal To The Children: The Complete Berserker’s Guide To World Tour Domination, by ZAKK WYLDE, guitar legend and BLACK LABEL SOCIETY frontman, with Eric Hendrikx.

The Metal Den has issued an interview with author and photographer Eric Hendrikx. An excerpt follows:

Q: What do you think it is about Zakk that endears him to his fans so much and for so long now?

A: "Zakk has always been an outgoing guy. He’ll have a conversation with a gas station attendant, a barista, or anyone else he comes across throughout his day. He doesn’t discriminate who he’ll share his time with. Obviously. I mean, he wrote a book with me. I know his fans appreciate all of the time he spends with them telling stories, talking about sports and music. At his core, Zakk is a huge music fan. We spent a lot of time reading about LED ZEPPELIN and VAN HALEN, watching videos, and listening to music. When we weren’t writing, we would go check out Led Zeppelin and AC/DC cover bands. One of my favorite nights hanging with Zakk was going to see John McLaughlin play."

Read the full interview at this location.

Check out a Bringing Metal To The Children promo video below:

An excerpt from the book is now available at this location ("like" required).

Check out two new promo clips below, which Zakk shot on New Years to promote Bringing Metal To The Children.

In the new book, Wylde invites all who dare onto the tour bus for tales of glory, debauchery, and general mayhem. The book is co-authored by Eric Hendrikx.

In Bringing Metal To The Children, Zakk Wylde, the man who turned heavy metal touring into a journey of fantastical excess, shares what really goes on behind tour bus windows and backstage doors. The twenty-five year music veteran of the OZZY OSBOURNE band and Black Label Society details his survival techniques for maintaining a life on the road, managing a band of raging vikings, and somehow making it on stage and blowing the crowd away night after night.

Beginning with Wylde’s “true rocker test” (TRT), the reader answers and self-scores ten questions to determine if he is a true rocker and should continue reading, or if he’s just a complete tool who needs to hand the book to someone more metal. Wylde continues the journey with his epic stories about life on the road, using his Black Label Society (BLS) coaching techniques to instruct the reader on proper touring hygiene, pre-concert preparations, and post-show etiquette. The road stories include wild nights with many of heavy metal’s gods including; Rob Zombie, Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell, ALICE IN CHAINS’s Mike Inez, SKID ROW’s Snake Sabo, METALLICA’s Lars Ulrich, professional wrestlers Chris Jericho, Bubba Dudley and Stone Cold Steve Austin, UFC Former Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin and of course the Godfather of heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne.

Bringing Metal To The Children also features Wylde’s roadmap for success in the music business, tour planning and exclusive tips for the aspiring “metal musician,” as well as the best methods for surviving a mosh pit and plans for how to set up a shooting range on the tour bus.

In the two decades since Ozzy Osbourne hired him away from his job at a New Jersey gas station, Zakk Wylde has established himself as a guitar icon known and revered the world over. Wylde has won nearly every guitar award imaginable, graced countless magazine covers and is a major influence to a new battalion of rock guitarists. Writing and recording with Osbourne led to multi-platinum success, inspiring him to create the now iconic Black Label Society in 1998. In the decade plus since, BLS has turned the notion of what a rock band should be upside down by inspiring legions of fans (known as Berserkers) all over the world to follow the mantra: Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever (SDMF for short). Wylde and his Berserkers have established a heavy metal institution true to the vision of uncompromising, unfiltered and unrestrained rock ‘n’ roll. To date, Black Label Society has sold more than 3.5 million albums worldwide and continues to be a massive presence on the worldwide touring and merchandising circuits. Black Label Society’s latest album, Order Of The Black, was released in August, 2010 and debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart.

Writer, photographer, and fellow Berserker Eric Hendrikx is a notable contributor to more than a dozen books including Forrest Griffin’s New York Times bestsellers Got Fight? and Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down. A lifelong musician, Hendrikx played guitar in the rock band Snake River Conspiracy and toured with bands including Queensrÿche. He currently lives in Southern California with his son Stone.