Zakk Wylde first joined the Ozzy Osbourne band in 1987 and he was a member of the group until 2009, returning in 2017. He was part of albums like “No Rest for the Wicked” (1988), “No More Tears” (1991), “Ozzmosis” (1995), “Down to Earth” (2001), “Black Rain” (2007) and “Patient Number 9” (2022).
In an interview with Chris Shiflett, Zakk Wylde explained how Ozzy Osbourne comes up with melodies for the songs.
Zakk Wylde explains how Ozzy Osbourne comes up with melodies
“It’s amazing because almost every vocal Ozzy’s ever come up with has always been first take. The first thing he starts singing is the melody. He’s like the king of the mountain. I don’t know whether it’s just The Beatles‘ influence or whatever.”
“All those melodies here, and I can only imagine when he was doing ‘I Don’t Know’, it’d be like, ‘All right, what are you going to sing over that?’ And then, Ozzy the first thing off the top of his head. It’s pretty mind-blowing because Ozzy isn’t a musician.”
“I mean, he doesn’t go, ‘I’ll just go to C, and then go to E-minor for the chorus, and then go back to the riff in E…’ And he doesn’t know — he’s just, like, he might sing a thing in his head. Or, if the riff’s already there, he’ll just say, ‘Play that again. Let me sing something over that.’ — whether it’s ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ or ‘No More Tears,'” Zakk Wylde said.
Besides being a constant Ozzy Osbourne collaborator, Wylde also is the leader of other bands. The first one he created was Black Label Society, group that released already 11 studio albums. He also created recently Zakk Sabbath, group that covers Black Sabbath songs.
More recently he also became Pantera’s guitarist and has been touring alongside Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown and Charlie Benante (Anthrax).