If a meteor were to strike Villa Park in Birmingham, England, on Saturday, that’d be the end of hard rock and heavy metal as many know it. On July 5, in that venue, the original four-man lineup of Black Sabbath will be performing their “Back to the Beginning” farewell show with a stunning lineup of guests: Members of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Tool, Anthrax, Alice in Chains, Mastodon, and Rival Sons, along with Billy Corgan, Fred Durst, Jonathan Davis, Steven Tyler, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, and way too many others to list are all on the bill.
Back to the Beginning marks the first appearance by Black Sabbath — singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward — since the final show of their farewell tour in February 2017, and their first performance with Ward in 20 years. But since Osbourne has faced a litany of health issues in the past few years that have made it virtually impossible for him to walk, getting ready for the show has involved a serious amount of prep work.
“I do weights, bike riding,” Osbourne recently told The Guardian. “I’ve got a guy living at my house who’s working with me. It’s tough — I’ve been laid up for such a long time. I’ve been lying on my back doing nothing and the first thing to go is your strength. It’s like starting all over again.”
Longtime Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde will be on the Villa Park grounds that day, pulling double duty by playing guitar with both Pantera and in Osbourne’s solo set. Ahead of the show, we Zoomed with Wylde to talk about his long career in Ozzy’s live band, the great albums they made together, what fans can expect on July 5, and his hopes that Osbourne can find a way to tour again one day. (When Wylde’s camera turned on in the Zoom, he appeared against a blurry background — with a filter giving him digital devil horns atop his head.)
Where are you?
Right now. I’m in Parts Unknown. That’s where the Ultimate Warrior resides. And they’ve got great coffee here, bro.
Sounds great. I just saw a photo of Ozzy with Bill Ward. Things are feeling real now. This show is getting close.
Totally, man. I’m hoping it’s going to be a ton of fun. It’s like an Ozzfest on steroids.
I want to go all the way back to the beginning with you. Tell me your first memory of being aware of Black Sabbath.
I was around 11 years old. My buddy Tommy and I were in art class. He made this ceramic plaque with a jawless skull on it, like the one we have in Black Label [Society] now. It said “Black Sabbath” on it. I was like, “Oh, wow, that looks cool. What is that?” He goes, “It’s this band my older brother listens to.” I’d never heard of Sabbath or anything like that because obviously we had things like Simon & Garfunkel on the Top 40 radio back then. It’s what you’re exposed to, what you hear. There was no classic rock radio at that time.
A little while later, my mom took me to the record store. She said, “If you want to get a record, you can get a record.” So I got Black Sabbath’s We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘n’ Roll. I remember opening up the gatefold, and I was like beyond terrified with the image of the chick in the coffin. I always tell everybody that I put the needle on because I was Catholic. And then halfway through the album, I became a full-blown Satanist. Then when the album ended, I converted back to Catholicism just so I could thank God for creating Black Sabbath.
How did they inspire you as a guitarist and a songwriter?
It became part of my DNA. To this day when I’m writing riffs, I always just tell everybody it’s all about Lord Iommi. He’s the Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart of riff writing. He’s the Lennon and McCartney.
As a teenage Sabbath and Ozzy fan, did you even dare to dream that one day you could play guitar for him?
No. It’s like being a New York Yankee fan all my life, playing Little League, and then I’m playing for the New York Yankees in the same spot where Thurman Munson played, where my hero played. So that’s what it is for me. It’s like winning the ultimate fan contest where you wind up sitting in with your favorite band.
You were listening to the radio in 1987 when you heard he needed a new guitar player?
Yeah. It was actually my girlfriend at the time, Barbaranne, who is my wife… She heard on Howard Stern that Ozzy was saying, “I’m looking for a new guitarist and this and that. I’m in the process of doing that,” because Jake [E. Lee] had just left the band, who I was a huge fan of as well, still am.
I was playing in a club and a guy named Dave Feld saw me there. He was like, “Hey, did you ever think about auditioning for Ozzy?” And I’m like, “No. I was thinking about having lunch with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.” These are mythical people. They’re not in a phone book. They only show up when they’re doing a show, and then they vaporize into the universe, and then make records. You know what I mean? So, I was like, “No, I don’t know any of these people.”
Dave was buddies with Mark Weiss, the legendary rock photographer. And he said, “Zakk, just make me a demo tape of you playing, and I can give it to Mark, and Mark can give it to Sharon [Osbourne]. I can’t promise you anything but it’s better than nothing.”
At the time, I was working at the gas station, teaching guitar, and stuff like that. I had nothing to lose. And I’m a huge fan of the band. So, I get a phone call at my mom and dad’s house from Sharon. I could’ve sworn it was my buddies goofing on me. I was thinking, “You have your mom on the phone just to play a prank on me.”
They flew me out to California. I met Ozzy, and crapped my pants. And Oz was like, “What is that smell?” He goes, “Change your pants and then go make me a ham sandwich and go light on the Colman’s mustard.” So, I’ve been making them ham sandwiches and going light on the Colman’s mustard since ’87.
What was it like making No Rest for the Wicked with Ozzy?
It was incredible. I was 19, 20 years old, and here we are making records. I’ve never made any recordings at that level, and it’s just seeing the whole process of how everything’s done. And just the excitement of it all. [Producer] Keith Olsen was great on that record.
I was living with [tour manager] Bobby Thompson in a flat in London. He’d been with Ozzy since the Seventies, and he was like, “Zakkie, you got to stay out of the web. He’s pulling you into the web.” And what he meant was that I would go out drinking with Ozzy. And then Sharon would go, “Who were you out drinking with last night?” And then Ozzy would go, “Zakk, Bobby…” Ozzy would name names. He was the last person you’d want to rob a bank with. He’d tell where the bodies were, where the money was, who was with him. It was hilarious. But it was just like, “Stay out of the web.” And I was like, “But I like the web.”
On tour, you had to play parts by Tony Iommi and Randy Rhoads, two of the best guitarists to ever live. How much are you replicating what they did originally, and how much are you putting your own spin in the parts?
Well, the great thing about it is that I’ve been playing these songs since I was 16. And now that I’m 58, I’m still playing these songs in my Zakk Sabbath cover band. It’s just no different than the keg parties we played at high school, except there’s a couple more people.
It’s the same thing when I do the Experience Hendrix thing or the Pantera celebration. You sit and you learn the songs. It’s no different than when I was teaching guitar. Your students come in with their favorite bands that they wanted to learn. You sit and you learn the songs, which is always a blast. I’ve always said that when you’re learning other people’s stuff, you’re processing other information. It only helps you when you’re in songwriting.
If you’re a chef, you learn how to cook other dishes…Italian, British food, Irish food, Japanese, Chinese, Thai… Whatever it is you’re learning, you integrate that into whatever you’re cooking.
No More Tears is obviously a very special album. Did it feel that way when you were making it?
I remember writing “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” It was me and Ozzy at a piano. The song was on piano, then we converted it to guitar when we got in the studio. It came from my love for all the country stuff, all the Allman Brothers, Albert Lee, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and everything like that.
It’s funny. “Suicide Solution” started because Randy was just playing the riff. And Ozzy goes, “What was that? Let’s write a song around it.” The same thing happened when they wrote “Diary of a Madman.”
I wound up getting a Grammy for Oz with “I Don’t Wanna Change the World.” I was just messing around on the guitar doing [imitates the riff]. Ozzy walks in and goes, “What’s that?” I go, “Nothing. We’re just goofing around.” He goes, “Let’s write a song around that.”
You can take Ozzy to the horse track and go, “Ozzy, which horse?” He’ll go by the name of the horse. And we end up winning. He has no idea who these horses are. It’s really funny.
The title track is seven minutes long. It’s a pretty unlikely radio hit.
Yeah. I remember making it. It was pretty much exactly the way you hear it on the record. I remember [bassist] Mike [Inez] started playing that riff, the bass thing. Mike was just jamming that in rehearsals. And then [drummer] Randy [Castillo] came in pretty much just like he does on the record. I remember [keyboardist] John Sinclair was like, “Oh, is that in D?” He started playing that keyboard intro.
I was playing a slide thing, like a “Free Bird” kind of thing. I was doing that to get a melody line. And then when we did the call and response thing, Oz started singing over it, almost like “War Pigs,” where it’s just the vocal line, then the call and response thing. Then you answer with the riff.
I got that riff at a Tony Iommi garage sale. It was behind a dish and behind a coffee maker. I was like, “I’ll take that riff right over there. How much you want for that riff over there?”
At the end of the first farewell tour in 1992, the original Black Sabbath played. What are your memories of that night in Costa Mesa, California?
It was pretty amazing, because I never got a chance to see the original Sabbath. The first concert I ever saw was Mob Rules with Ronnie James Dio. That was literally the first concert I ever saw in an arena. And so that was pretty mind-blowing to see.
I think it’s going to be the same thing at Back to the Beginning. Everybody’s going to want to see it. I mean, all the bands that are there, just to witness the four guys who basically created this…Not only this style of music, they created the complete industry. I always laugh and say, “Everybody here is able to make a living and take care of their families because of these four guys.”
What was it like to work with Geezer Butler on Ozzmosis?
I did the first tour with Geezer for No Rest for the Wicked… On tour, I would always pick Geezer’s mind about Sabbath things. “Geezer, what was that like?” And he goes, “Oh yeah, I remember that.” And he would just tell me these funny stories. Between the two of them, I heard so many hilarious Sabbath stories. It’s the best, man, when you hear the two of them talking.
You were on Ozzy’s last tour in 2018. That was right before his health took a big turn.
The tour was going great. He was singing great. And I remember when we did that last show at the Forum. It was on New Year’s Eve, so Oz was like, “Man, maybe we’ll do this every New Year’s Eve. We’ll make it like an annual thing.”
We had the parking lot, and It was basically an Ozzfest. I did Zakk Sabbath out in the parking lot earlier in the day, and then later that night, obviously, I played with the boss, me and [bassist] Blasko. Oz was singing great at all the shows. I figured we’d just keep cruising along. And after that is when he fell and almost broke his neck. Well, I mean, he did break his neck. He’s lucky he wasn’t in a wheelchair, right then and there, paralyzed.
What’s your role going to be in the Back to the Beginning show?
I’ll be doing dishes and laundry, and it’ll be wonderful… No, we’re going to play with the boss. I guess we’re scheduled to do a couple songs with Oz, and then sit and watch Sabbath play. And then obviously we’re going to jam with Pantera as well.
How will the sets work?
I think all the bands are going to do… let’s say, if they do three or four songs, do two of their songs and then do one Sabbath song. I think that’s what everybody’s doing. Everybody’s going to pay tribute to Sabbath, and then we’ll sit and watch Sabbath at the end of the night, watch them crush it.
How are the songs being picked? You obviously want to avoid any repeats. Is Tom Morello sorting through all that?
Yeah. I think Tom’s trying to make sure everybody’s got their own song that they’re going to do. And then you got to pick. Sabbath’s got plenty of amazing songs to choose from. It would be great if everybody just does “Iron Man.” [Laughs]. It’s just 12 hours of “Iron Man.”
Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde onstage in 1989. Wylde will play with Osbourne during a July 5 farewell concert.
Paul Natkin/Getty Images
So you’re playing with Ozzy during his solo set, correct?
That’s the plan. [Bassist] Mike Inez is going to be there. [Drummer] Michael Bordin is going to be there. [Drummer] Tommy Clufetos will be there. [Bassist] Robert Trujillo will be there, [keyboardist] Adam Wakeman…It’ll be everyone that’s played with Ozzy over the years. We’re going to figure it out when we get there.
Do you know which songs you’re doing?
It’s a couple of Ozzy songs, but we don’t want to give up the surprise. It’s a box of Cracker Jacks. You gotta get to the bottom to see the prize.
And then the end of the show will just be Ozzy, Bill, Tony, and Geezer onstage?
Basically just the four of them. I think everybody’s going to be up there onstage watching. I mean, how could you not? I think it’s going to be a truly amazing moment.
It’s a real appropriate thing to end the night with the four of them.
Without a doubt. I’m sure the promoters are going to go, “Wow, that was pretty amazing. Let’s do another world tour right now.” I think not only will all the other bands be on the side of the stage to watch the amazingness, I think all the promoters are going to be up there going, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
That would be amazing, but it seems like Ozzy and Bill don’t have enough left in the tank for a tour.
We’ll see. Let’s just pump Viagra and Cialis into both of them and let’s get this thing going. [Laughs]
What’s amazing is that all four of them are still here. There are very, very few bands from their time that can say that.
It truly is amazing… If Oz sounds great and everything like that, if he wants to continue carrying on singing on a throne, we’ll just make the throne so it goes out over the audience. It shoots fire and water and dragons come out of it. You know what I mean? And we’ll make the throne part of the show. It’d be amazing.
Phil Collins sat onstage on his recent tours. Elton John has been at a piano his entire career.
Exactly. I’ve always said, “Just make this mechanical throne like Tommy Lee’s drum solo where it goes over the crowd and shoots fire?”
Do you this is something that could actually happen or is this just a pipe dream?
Why not? I really think it would be great. If they do this Sabbath thing and it sounds amazing, and Ozzy sings great, and the band sounds amazing, and the only difference is Oz is just sitting down, like you said, like Phil Collins. Why not, right? You know every promoter’s just got their fingers crossed on this one.
