ZAKK WYLDE On His Recording Process: 'I Never Demo Anything'

In a new interview with Andertons Music Co., legendary guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, PANTERA) spoke about how his songwriting and recording process has evolved over the course of the last four decades. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  ”Back in the day with Ozz, looking back on when we first started, when we were doing ‘No Rest For The Wicked’, ‘Miracle Man’ and all that stuff, like how you get ready for a tour now, we’d go over the songs. You do rehearsals and play the songs. We were ready to do the songs before we went in the studio, whereas now you go in the studio with nothing. Even when we did [the latest BLACK LABEL SOCIETY single] ‘Lord Humungus’ just now, I just ended up, just like how I wrote it right now. So, you just write the song, and then go, I go, ‘What’s that? And he goes, ‘Oh, Zakk, I just wrote that earlier today when I was having coffee.’ I go, ‘Let’s record that.’ And then we’ll record it, and the guys will play along to it, and then you can put your vocals on it. And next thing you know, that’s another song done. So, as opposed to going into a rehearsal room, and we’ll sit there and practice this song. Just record. I never demo anything. Just do it for real.”

Asked if he thinks that is only really possible now because he has his own home studio, Zakk said: “Actually, when we did [BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s 2003 single] ‘Stillborn’ and everything like that, that was just going into the studio with no song ideas at all. But I was just thinking, like even with ‘Lord Humungus’, we had that thing out now, with ‘The Gallows’, the last two songs, for me, I just try to… [I have the approach of] I’ll give you two strings on the guitar and see if you can write a song. All right, maybe I’ll give you four strings so you can play some power chords. That’s it. See if you can write me some songs. Like [DEEP PURPLE‘s] ‘Smoke On The Water’ — you’re talking about three chords. So see if you can write a song around three chords. I remember when we did ‘Stillborn’, it was, like, ‘Let me see if we can write a song with one note.’ … It’s basically that one riff. But it’s just four chords. ‘I’m gonna give you four chords. See if you can write a whole song around that.’ So if I only gave you X amount of food , let’s see if you can make a meal out of that… Even the mellow stuff, you just try and keep it as simple as possible. Even when you listen to Elton John, you listen to ‘Rocket Man’ or any of the other things, it’s very little going on. And then this way, it’s the melody [driving the song].”

“Lord Humungus” was released in February, along with a hilarious music video directed by Justin H. Reich.

Last September, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY released another new single titled “The Gallows” via MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne Music).

In a September 2024 interview with Lipps Service With Scott Lipps, Zakk spoke about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s next album. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s twelfth studio LP will be the follow-up to “Doom Crew Inc.”, which came out in November 2021 via MNRK Heavy.

“We’ve been recording a batch of stuff while we’re home,” Zakk, who has also been touring with PANTERA and ZAKK SABBATH, said. “I mean, obviously it’s gonna be a lot of — we’re gonna be doing a PANTERA celebration [tour] throughout 2025, and then there’s going to be ZAKK SABBATH shows peppered in there as well. So I’d imagine somewhere — I don’t know — maybe late 2025, [early] ’26 or whatever, putting out another BLACK LABEL album. But I mean, all it does to me, it just gives you more time to just keep writing and listening to stuff and going back and going, ‘No, you know what? Let me put more orange on that as opposed to red,’ where you can actually sit back and look at it and everything like that. ‘Cause usually, most of the time when I do the records, I’ll go in, whether it was ‘Stillborn’, ‘Suicide Messiah’, anything like that, with nothing. I think if you ask any musician, they’ll tell you, when you’re in a recording studio, it’s just a breeding ground for inspiration. Because everything sounds good… Whether you’re sitting with an acoustic guitar, or you’re sitting behind a piano, or you got the big distorted guitars going, the drums sound like cannons. So everything just sounds amazing. And it just is very inspiring.”

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY headlined Zakk‘s inaugural music festival, Berzerkus, last September at Poconos Park in Bushkill, Pennsylvania. Berzerkus was co-headlined by outlaw country music’s Cody Jinks.

Four years ago, Wylde told the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA about the BLACK LABEL SOCIETY songwriting process: “The way it always goes, it’s always the music first and then a melody. And then I’ve gotta find out something I wanna sing about. So then I’ll write the lyrics. That’s usually always the way it goes. And then, when it’s all done, then the solos go on it. The painting’s all done, and the solo is the frame that goes on the thing. So you can sit back and look at the whole thing. That’s the way we pretty much always do it… I would just have a cup of coffee and just start writing riffs. You always get inspired by — for me, it’s always Mount Riffmore, which is CREAM, MOUNTAIN, [LED] ZEPPELIN, [BLACK] SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE… If you’re not getting inspired by the riffs those guys have created, it’s just like… So I’ll just go fishing and just start writing till you get to something you like.”

Wylde formed BLACK LABEL SOCIETY in 1998 and has kept the band busy in between touring and recording with Ozzy Osbourne, whose backing group he first joined more than three and a half decades ago.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY‘s “Order Of The Black” (2010) and “Catacombs Of The Black Vatican” (2014) both broke into the top five on the hard rock album charts.

Since first joining Ozzy, Zakk has played on all of the BLACK SABBATH singer’s solo albums except for 2020’s “Ordinary Man”, including such classic efforts as “No More Tears” (1991),“Ozzmosis” (1995) and “Black Rain” (2007).