Who is Zakk Wylde? Biography and photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Fans of "metal" know many names of virtuoso musicians. After all, it is in this style of rock music that the most complex guitar parts are found. Zakk Wylde is known as a talented guitarist and composer. Already at the age of 20 he was taking guitar lessons, and at 21 he had already recorded an album in a team with the legendary Ozzy Osbourne.

The beginning of a musical career

Zakk's first experience with the guitar failed. He was sent to a music school at the age of 8, but he left it very soon. As a teenager, he returned to music. Of all the instruments, the future idol of millions gave preference to the guitar. He learned to play on it on his own, according to the compositions of the legendary bands AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead.

At the age of 17, Zakk Wylde gathers his first band of his own, which glorifies him throughout the state of Jersey. The band was called Stone Henge and was not known outside of the state. The young musicians played for three years, after which the company disbanded.

Collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne

Among the preferences of the young guitarist, the work of Black Sabbath stood out especially. In 1987, he decided to audition for Ozzy Osbourne. At that time, Zakk Wylde did not consider himself an outstanding musician, so he did not hope to be invited to the band. He believed that he would only receive the autograph of his idol, but in reality it turned out differently. He collaborated with the Ozzy Osbourne Band for nearly twenty years.

During this time, as lead guitarist, Zakk Wylde went on several tours with his idol and recorded eight albums as part of his group. Often work with Ozzy had to be combined with his own solo projects. Interestingly, Zakk calls his wife "my Sharon", and the name of his own group contains the word Black, like Ozzy's main project.

Pride & Glory

In the early nineties, Zakk believed in his own strength and decided to pursue a solo career. By that time, he had already learned how to compose guitar parts and did them for all of Osbourne's releases. He also mastered the keyboard parts and tried himself as a vocalist. However, the first personal experience was unsuccessful - the Pride & Glory trio could not conquer the American charts. Zakk released only one album under this name. The group went on tour with more famous bands several times and played before their concerts, but Wild's first musical experiment did not win universal love.

The failure slightly upset the musician, but he decided not to stop there. For some time he prepared songs for a solo album and at the same time worked withOzzy, who decided to return to the stage. At the same time, Zakk began to search for himself. He auditioned for Guns'N'Roses and performed in one of the bars with his own compositions.

Main solo album

In 1996, Ozzy found a replacement for Wilde. The time has come for the realization of Zakk as an independent performer. In this he was helped by the Geffen company, which became the sponsor of his first album, Book of Shadows. It includes all previously written compositions. One of them was the song Thowin't It All Away, dedicated to the death of Shannon Hoon. It was with him that Zakk believed in himself as a composer.

Book of Shadows II (Zakk Wylde) is an album released in 1996. It has become a real discovery for metal lovers. Critics noted the unusual sound and the musician's own style. After this album, the record company offered to record another one, and beginners and already well-known performers began to ask for Zakk's group.

Black Label Society

By 1998, Zakk had assembled his own band. He wanted to name the project Hell's Kitchen, but later changed it to Black Label Society. This group lasted the longest, although it had serious problems with the selection of musicians - the lineup rotated several times.

Despite all the problems with his own project, Zakk Wylde released albums every year. At the same time, the musician went on tour with Ozzy for the first two years. The schedule was very busy, but the results of Zach were amazing. Fans warmly received each new album. They noted that every year the group is getting better. Wilde preferred to do the mixing and production of records on his own. He still tries to make the most of his own.

Stronger Than Death long play

This album was the first to be released with the name Black Label Society on the cover. Heavy guitar parts, riffs and gashes - this is how Wilde's work can be characterized. Most critics were happy to find stylistic matches with other metal bands in the band's first album.

Despite this, hard rock fans warmly received the new album, and it was sold in large numbers. Separately, it was noted that for an unprepared public, the work of BLS was too heavy. In the period from 1999 to 2001, the maximum possible number of concerts took place in support of the new album. On them, Wild often improvised and demonstrated new solo guitar parts. The result of this work was the album Alcohol Fueled Brewtality Live, recorded from concert materials.

Throughout the existence of the band, a large number of live albums and videos have been released, which are called real guitar tutorials for beginner metalheads. Especially notes Zakk Wylde DVDSkullage. This live video is a compilation of the band's best tracks, including four acoustic songs performed by Wilde. It came out in 2009.

Rock Star Movie

In 2001, Zakk was invited to star inMovie Rock Star. The reason for this was that Zakk Wylde's height is quite impressive - 188 centimeters. It was important for the creators of the picture to find a person who would be clearly visible in the general plans during the recording of the concert scenes. Wilde played the guitarist of the Steel Dragon band around which the film was narrated.

This picture was recognized as partially documentary. It is based on the story of Judas Priest and its lead singer Tim Owens. The film was produced by George Clooney, and Wilde's stage partners were Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. Interestingly, the second guitarist Kirk Cuddy was played by professional British actor Dominic West.

There are rumors in the press that Zakk Wylde gave guitar lessons to the entire cast of the film. He also helped to edit the script and make the concert scenes more accurate and true. Critics couldn't find any bloopers in this movie.

1919 Eternal

In 2002, another studio work by Wilde was released - the album 1919 Eternal. He attracted attention with his design, borrowed from a Nazi poster from the Second World War. This poster was used to recruit the Dutch. Wylde dedicated the album to his grandfather, who was born exactly in 1919. Attention to this album was attracted not only by the provocative design, Zakk included the song America the Beautiful, which can be called the unofficial anthem of the United States. He played an instrumental version of it. In the same album, we can note a couple more compositions that are interesting for their unusual formation - GenocideJunkies and Life/Birth/Blood/Doom. The band's bassist Robert Trujillo worked hard on them.

Return to the old sound

Later the band released a lot of great songs. One of them, Stillborn, received acclaim from the audience and climbed to number 12 on the rock charts. However, by 2006 it was noted by critics that Wild had lost his sound. He released acoustic, live and studio albums, but all of them kept afloat thanks to riff lovers. In 2006, he disappointed fans with Shot to Hell, where the guitars sounded too flat. In addition, this album included several ballads that sounded too light.

In 2009, Wild will be hospitalized with necrotizing pancreatitis. The time spent in the hospital gives him the opportunity to rethink his work, and echoes of the style of Osbourne and other classical metal bands began to appear in the band's albums. As proof of this fact, we can cite the album Order of the Black. In 2016, Zakk returned to solo work and released a sequel to Book of Shadows. The second part included a lot of good compositions. For example, the single Sleeping Dogs. Zakk Wylde presented this composition a little earlier than the whole album. After the release of this song, several authoritative publications immediately called the solo album the most anticipated of the year. Interestingly, all compositions were recorded at Wilde's home studio, which he called Black Vatican. Work on the solo project was carried out in a short time, as the guitarist tours a lot with his team and participates in group tours.

For the second solo album, about forty tracks were recorded, of which the musician chose only 14 of the best. Zakk decided to release a solo album again because of the unceasing attention to the first part of it - Book of Shadows was re-released several times. In his interviews, the musician notes that the name of the studio where the albums are recorded does not interest him at all, his task is to create good music. He emphasizes that, despite strict contracts, he does not feel limited in creativity and no one tells him what to do.