ZAKK WYLDE Recalls OZZY OSBOURNE’s Reaction To Him Starting A New Band: “I Don’t Want To Be The Lead Singer In BLACK LABEL SOCIETY”

For Zakk Wylde, striking out on his own never meant severing ties with Ozzy Osbourne. Quite the opposite, despite forging his own creative path through Pride & Glory, his 1996 solo debut Book of Shadows, and eventually Black Label Society, Wylde says the Osbournes have always had his back, which goes on to prove that creative independence and loyalty can indeed go hand in hand.

Joining Ozzy Osbourne‘s band at just 19, Wylde was thrown headfirst into the high-stakes world of professional rock. That remained his musical home for years, until the early to mid-1990s, when other creative projects began to take shape.

“I think, when I started doing Black Label, Oz was just like, ‘Well, Zakk‘s his own guy now,'” Wylde said in a recent appearance on Billy Corgan‘s podcast The Magnificent Others. “It’s just like, ‘Zakk‘s out of the nest now.’ He’s just like, ‘I don’t want to be the lead singer in Black Label Society.'”

Even as Wylde began stepping in and out of Ozzy‘s band over the years, that evolving musical independence never caused tension between them. He elaborated further on how Ozzy‘s attitude reflected his trust in Wylde‘s path: “And I don’t take offense to that, because if Randy had gone on to keep doing Quiet Riot, [Ozzy] would have been like, ‘I don’t want to be the lead singer in Quiet Riot.'”

During the podcast, Corgan brought up a moment when Ozzy allegedly joked that his solo records were starting to sound like Black Label Society, a comment that may have stemmed from their 2009 split. But Wylde, who’s always been clear about the influence of Tony Iommi, didn’t disagree entirely.

“I mean, especially with me, in the Black Label soup you’re always tasting [a bit of Sabbath], being that I’m a graduate of Lord [Tony] Iommi University… So, the whole thing is, it’s gonna be in there, in the soup somewhere.”

Wylde emphasized that overlap is inevitable, given how deeply his musical DNA is tied to the roots of metal. But when it comes to authorship, the identity of a track can shift in a heartbeat, as soon as Ozzy lends his unmistakable voice.

“When I’m jamming, as soon as Ozzy would sing on it… If Ozzy sang on ‘Stillborn’ – he sang on the chorus, but if he sang the whole song, that would be a new Ozzy song. If Ozzy sang on ‘The Gallows’, that would be a new Ozzy song.”