Zakk Wylde talks jams with Guns N' Roses

[LA_0013]

Slash said in an interview he didn't want Zakk, as he didn't want Zakk taking away from his own personal spotlight.

Source please.

What was actually said on the matter, was it didn't work out because you had 2 lead guitarists playing against each other. Axl himself described it as like a giant snake against a T-Rex, or something to that effect

LA

[phaeryen]

When he was there for GNR you gotta remember it was the time Axl had his love affair with the legal system and complex lawyer machinations. Dude came down to play rock'n roll and Axl was all about trying to describe his complex moves and gambits he was making in the courtroom. Zakk got weirded out.

[GUNNER PT]

Zakk was a terrible fit for the band when Slash was in it. They needed a rhythm player to complement Slash not another lead guitarist...

Bullshit ... presently GN'R have 3 guitarists and all of them play lead ...

Two good guitarists (like Slash n' Zakk) never hinder one another ... the problem was his (Slash) big ego ... he likes to have the spotlight pointed to himself.

"Nah, you can't replace Slash, he's irreplaceable" - Zakk fuckin' Wylde.

zakk is abolutely right. great guy!

Zakk is a great guy ... but is not for saying this sentence ... he is a great guy for saying this after beeing rejected by Slash.

[classicrawker]

Bullshit ... presently GN'R have 3 guitarists and all of them play lead ...

Two good guitarists (like Slash n' Zakk) never hinder one another ... the problem was his (Slash) big ego ... he likes to have the spotlight pointed to himself.

You obviously don't understand the dynamics Izzy and Slash had in the AFD band. Slash wanted someone he would mesh with and Zakk did not fit that style. There is an interview with Zakk in an old Classic Rock magazine where Zakk even admitted it was not working and did not have any issues with Slash so you are making something out of nothing due to your hatred of Slash..........

[Vincent Vega]

Bullshit ... presently GN'R have 3 guitarists and all of them play lead ...

Two good guitarists (like Slash n' Zakk) never hinder one another ... the problem was his (Slash) big ego ... he likes to have the spotlight pointed to himself.

You obviously don't understand the dynamics Izzy and Slash had in the AFD band. Slash wanted someone he would mesh with and Zakk did not fit that style. There is an interview with Zakk in an old Classic Rock magazine where Zakk even admitted it was not working and did not have any issues with Slash so you are making something out of nothing due to your hatred of Slash..........

He didn't really mesh with Gilby or Dave...Both their rhythm parts are basically drowned out on the records they play with Slash on. Also didn't Slash want to be GN'R's only guitarist, didn't want Izzy in the band? There was an interview where Slash said he never enjoyed playing with Izzy or Izzy's playing style.

According to Duff's book the work with Zakk was really cool and brought an enthusiasm to the band that had been missing.

"During Appetite..., Lies and Use Your... I had to put up with Izzy the whole time. I never liked playing with him. It was wonderful to escape him on this record. It sounds tighter and so much cooler than anything we've done before. I always got irritated over Izzy's way of playing. It didn't sound right. Before "Spaghetti", we erased his guitar and Gilby put on a new one. It sounded perfect!"

--Slash, 1993.

Also:

Even though the band always sounded cool, Izzy and I never sat down together and worked out guitar parts. We weren't really a team, in that sense. We would just jam, and he'd play things his way and I'd play things my way. And even though Gilby is essentially playing Izzy's parts, he adjusts them so there is more of a sense of unity - more of a sense that we are playing together. This isn't to put Izzy down in any way, it's just that Gilby and I have a different relationship.

--Slash, 1992 Edited December 5, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[classicrawker]

Bullshit ... presently GN'R have 3 guitarists and all of them play lead ...

Two good guitarists (like Slash n' Zakk) never hinder one another ... the problem was his (Slash) big ego ... he likes to have the spotlight pointed to himself.

You obviously don't understand the dynamics Izzy and Slash had in the AFD band. Slash wanted someone he would mesh with and Zakk did not fit that style. There is an interview with Zakk in an old Classic Rock magazine where Zakk even admitted it was not working and did not have any issues with Slash so you are making something out of nothing due to your hatred of Slash..........

He didn't really mesh with Gilby or Dave...Both their rhythm parts are basically drowned out on the records they play with Slash on. Also didn't Slash want to be GN'R's only guitarist, didn't want Izzy in the band? There was an interview where Slash said he never enjoyed playing with Izzy or Izzy's playing style.

According to Duff's book the work with Zakk was really cool and brought an enthusiasm to the band that had been missing.

"During Appetite..., Lies and Use Your... I had to put up with Izzy the whole time. I never liked playing with him. It was wonderful to escape him on this record. It sounds tighter and so much cooler than anything we've done before. I always got irritated over Izzy's way of playing. It didn't sound right. Before "Spaghetti", we erased his guitar and Gilby put on a new one. It sounded perfect!"

--Slash, 1993.

Slash: This isn't to put Izzy down in any way, it's just that Gilby and I have a different relationship.

Your commwent regarding Gilby contradicts what you claim regarding Gilby as he says he thought Gilby's playing sounded perfect. You have a point with the UYI albums but Izzy was absent from most of the sessions.....And I don't know what your listening to as Izzy and Dave are not drowned out on AFD or the VR albums. If Slash hated Izzy's playing so much why did he ask him to play on Ghost on the first solo album? I also have all the Abbey Road Live shows from Slash's first solo tour and the second guitar is in the right channel and Slash is in the left channel

And if Slash ahd such a big ego why does he have a secong guitar player in his solo band? it is his band right so he could have made himself the only guitar player...

And Zakk said it wasn't working in the Classic Rock interview..........

Edited December 5, 2012 by classicrawker

[GUNNER PT]

You obviously don't understand the dynamics Izzy and Slash had in the AFD band.

Obviously I do not know anything about it, despite of being a GN'R fan for over 20 years. Fortunately you (who are PhD in the subject) are here to enlighten me.

Anyway, i don't hate Slash ... he's my fav guitarist. But i'm not blind ... the guy have a huge ego.

[Vincent Vega]

Your Slash quote contradicts what you claim regarding Gilby as he says he thought Gilby's playing sounded perfect. You have a point with the UYI albums but Izzy was absent from most of the sessions.....And I don't know what your listening to as Izzy and Dave are not drowned out on AFD or the VR albums. If Slash hated Izzy's playing so much why did he ask him to play on Ghost on the first solo album? I also have all the Abbey Road Live shows from Slash's first solo tour and the second guitar is in the right channel and Slash is in the left channel

And if Slash ahd such a big ego why does he have a secong guitar player in his solo band? it is his band right so he could have made himself the only guitar player...

And Zakk said it wasn't working in the Classic Rock interview..........

Never said Slash didn't say he thought it sounded perfect, but then again Slash (like Axl) says a lot of things. On TSI, where one would assume Gilby was mostly present, I don't hear him, just Slash's rhythm and leads, same with the first Snakepit. And live I don't really hear Gilby on most of the UYI tour, only Slash. With VR again, it's still sludgy Slash rhythms. Izzy and Slash are equal in the mix on AFD for two reasons one Izzy was around for the mixing sessions two both of them wanted to get big and needed each other. In 1991 Slash didn't really need Izzy so Izzy's parts (which are there) were mixed down and Slash put his own rhythm over them.

Having Izzy on Ghost is called fan service to get more sales from hardcore GN'R fans. I'm sure there's tons of guys who can stand playing with for one song.

Maybe Slash's ego isn't as big now as it was then or he's realized he isn't a very good rhythm guitarist? I'm pretty certain that in Slash's book or an old interview he states quite clearly that early on he wanted to be GN'R's only guitarist.

Also as to your claim where Zakk himself said it wasn't working, please provide that Classic Rock interview. From what I've seen, on Zakk's end it came down to the band leaving him pissing in the wind for months until they finally told him no. And then years later when he asked why, Axl told him that his (Zakk's) lawyer told Axl's lawyer that he wasn't hired cause he wanted a ton of money up front and his own tour bus.

Here's Duff's take on those sessions:

"Even when Zakk Wylde and Slash played together, there were a couple of songs in which there was a natural progression and they were very rocking. You can imagine, they were really hard songs. As hard as I like them, yeah! But I can't tell you what they sounded like, there was not a definite sound." (Duff, Popular 1, 07/00)

Also

"So we jammed together for just over a week, we jammed over a whole bunch of shit and came out with three pretty cool ideas." (Zakk Wylde, Kerrang!, 01/28/95)

"One of the riffs ended up on the first Black Label Society record [sonic Brew], [on the track] 'Rose-Petalled Garden'. The stuff that I wanted to do, eventually, would have been like GNR on steroids, man." (Zakk Wylde)

"Axl called me up when we were doing the Ozzmosis album. They were down in rehearsals - it was me, Slash, Axl, Duff, Matt and Dizzy. (Zakk Wylde)

"When Zakk Wylde arrived at the Complex, where Axl was rehearsing, he was slightly surprised. 'There were never any melodies,' Wylde recalls. 'There were never any lyrics.'" (Rolling Stone, 05/11/00)

"I'd say 'Dude, did you come up with any lyrics yet?' And he's just like, 'Dude, I got people suing me right now.' He's on the phone with his lawyers 24-7. He was, like, 'I can't come up with any lyrics right now - they'd be about every other lawsuit I got going.'" (Spin, 07/99)

"Wylde felt sorry for Axl. 'The poor fuckin' guy's got every fuckin' cunt trying to sue his ass,' Wylde says. 'I'd be on the phone with him. He'd be telling me about all these strategic moves his lawyers were making. I was listening to him playing Axis and Allies on the fuckin' phone.'" (Rolling Stone, 05/11/00)

"I asked Zakk to come and play on the record [Ozzmosis], and he did. And he played great. But then this whole Guns N' Roses thing happened. So I said to him one day, 'Zakk, before you hear it from somebody else, I want you to know that I will be auditioning guitarists to do the tour with me, because I guess you're not coming back. So don't be alarmed if you hear about it.' That night, he called Sharon and said, 'What's the matter, doesn't Ozzy like my playing anymore?' So I said to him, 'Zakk, are you gonna play with me?' And he couldn't give me a straight answer." (Ozzy, 95)

]

"Then Ozzy was like, 'Zakk, you gonna do the tour?' and I said, 'Oz, I don't know the fuck's going on with the Guns guys.' And I told Axl, 'Dude, can't be dickin' Ozzy around. You guys gotta let me know what the fuck's goin' on?'" (Zakk, 99)

"I told Axl, 'I'm gonna be touring 'til August with Snakepit. We'll talk about [Zakk] when I get back." (Slash, Metal Express, 1995)

"Finally, Doug Goldstein, Zakk's manager, called Sharon and said, 'Okay, Zakk's in for the tour - send us the contract.' And I go, 'Yes!' Soon after that, Doug called my wife and said that Zakk was still negotiating with Axl Rose. And I thought, 'What the fuck is going on?!' What I gathered was that Zakk was using me as a bargaining chip with Guns N' Roses, and that really got me upset. It wasn't fair because I had always been on the level with Zakk. So I called him and said, 'I want to know what you're going to do.' And he said, 'Just give me the rest of the day.' But he never called." (Ozzy, 95)

"So I finally told Ozzy, 'Oz, I don't know what the fuck is going on with these guys' and he said, 'Zakk, I gotta get somebody else' and I was 'All right, dude, I understand' but after that, you know, the Guns thing kinda ... nothing, nothing really ... it didn't end ... nothing." (Zakk, 99)

"The next day, I said to Sharon, 'That's it - he's gone. It's over.' And it wasn't because I was jealous - hey, if he joins Guns N' Roses and makes a million dollars, fine. All I wanted was a straight answer from him-but he didn't show me that respect. (Ozzy, 95)

"But you know, once you get all the f**king lawyers involved and that bullsh*t, you know. I saw Axl not so long ago, and I said 'What the f**k happened?' And Axl goes, 'Well Zakk, I heard you wanted two million up front and your own tour bus.'" (Zakk)

I had a blast with those guys, but nothing ever materialised. That’s hen Book Of Shadows and Black Label Society happened, y’know. It was like: “Okay, well if nobody’s gonna sing on all these riffs I’ve got lying around, then I’ll just do it my goddamn self.”

It could have worked out. At the time, you had Slash, Duff [McKagan] and Axl [Rose], so it was almost the original line-up. We had a good time, but once you get lawyers and managers and all that stuff involved, that changes everything. Or it can if you let it. I still think Axl is a great guy and one of the best frontmen ever. I hope it works out for them. But I’m so busy kicking ass with Black Label that I’m too busy to take a dump, let alone worry about anyone else.

--Zakk, Classic Rock Magazine, October 2006 (http://archive.classicrockmagazine.com/view/october-2006/19/zakk-wylde)

Yeah, I was jamming with them (Guns N' Roses) for about six months. I saw Axl about a year and a half ago, when I was working on 'Stronger Than Death'. He was in the next studio . We were drinldng beers all night, and Del James asked why it never worked out between us. Ax! says: "Well, Zakk, I heard you wanted two million up front and your own tour bus." And I said: "Do you think I'm some dishrag whore, you motherfucker? I want nine million and two tour buses!" We were all laughing about it.

But it didn't happen because once you get lawyers involved, and managers and agents and all that bullshit going on... I looked at Axl and asked: "Who tells you this shit? If! get two songs on a Guns N' Roses record! make a million bucks. Are you out of your mind?"

--Zakk, Classic Rock Magazine, April 2002 http://archive.classicrockmagazine.com/view/april-2002/41/zakk-wylde

“It sounded like the riffs I write and the way I write, mixed in with the way the guys write, you know what I mean,” Wylde says. “It would have been like, when I was jamming with Slash and all the guys, even if I’m in the band there’s only one guy that’s playing the solos to ‘November Rain,’ ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ and all those classic songs. I’m not going to do anything there. But the future stuff that we would have been writing, it would have been cool! Because I love Slash’s playing and I’m buddies with him. It would have been cool, but with those guys there was nothing happening, so we were jamming but it wasn’t going anywhere.”

- Zakk Wylde, 2012

http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/zakk-guns-and-roses-0105-2012.aspx

[Vincent Vega]

Ultimate Guitar, December 2011:

You bring up Axl and Slash—Black Label is going out on the road with Guns N’Roses. What are you expecting?

I get along great with Axl. When I was playing with the guys in’95 or ’96, I had known Slash for a while and Duff and Steven and then I met Matt when he was playin’ in the Cult. We ran into each other and we’d always hang out and everything like that. I’ve known all the guys forever and the only guy I never met was Dizzy and that was about it.

What was that like when you auditioned for Guns N’ Roses back in the day?

Axl called me up and he was like, “Hey, Zakk, we’re talkin’ about guitar players and we were talkin’ about you. Do you want to come jam with us?” I was like, “Yeah, no problem, man. We’ll have a blast.” So we were jammin’ on stuff and everything like that but whenever I’d hang with Axl he was a good dude. He’s not an asshole or anything like that. It is what it is.

Could you have seen yourself joining Guns N’ Roses?

Yeah, why not? I mean I’m friends with all the guys and I can play with anybody, dude.

Obviously you could have covered it musically but would it have satisfied all your guitar urges?

Let’s put it this way—as far as being a guitar guy, being an Ozzy guitarist, like I always said, “It’s the house that Rhoads built.” It’s the pinnacle of playing and there’s no higher honor than being a guitarist and playing for Ozzy. You know what’s expected out of you after Randy. Randy was the Babe Ruth and the Jesus Christ of Ozzy’s guitar players and always will be and that’s the way it should be. Randy started it just like Babe Ruth. Being an Ozzy guitar player is just putting the uniform on. And you know what’s expected out of you and you’re supposed to win a championship every year—that’s what’s expected out of an Ozzy guitar player ‘cause Randy set the bar. From playing with Ozz, where you gonna go from there?

If you had joined Guns N’ Roses, would you have been able to write and do all the things you do with Black Label Society?

When the guys asked me about jammin’ with GNR, yeah, as far as being in a band thing. But with me I love singin’; I love writin’ lyrics; I love producing and playing the piano. I love the acoustic stuff and the heavy stuff and being there for the mixing and dealing with all the merchandise. I love dealing with the backdrops and the production and everything. Now we’re doing videos and I’m involved in everything. I’m like George Steinbrenner [owner of the New York Yankees].

http://www.ultimate-...tml?no_takeover

Edited December 5, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[Nosaj Thing]

"Nah, you can't replace Slash, he's irreplaceable" - Zakk fuckin' Wylde.

He said the same thing about Axl. I just don't get why when ppl like you post you have to be so biased about it.

Good, first reply you've made without resorting to personal insults. That said, I'm not being biased, it's a "fuck you" in the face of those dumb people that said and constantly say: "Slash is shit!". I would never say that Axl is easily replaceable.

In the end, I didn't say anything. Zakk did.

[Riddick Bowe]

remember a cuople of years beck when Zakk told Rolling Stone how he seen Axl at a bar and told him to fuck off. LOL