Metal lovers know many names of virtuoso musicians. After all, it is in this style of rock music that the most complex guitar parts are found. Zakk Wilde is known as a talented guitarist and composer. Already at the age of 20 he took guitar lessons, and at 21 he already recorded an album in a team with the legendary Ozzy Osbourne.
The beginning of a musical career
Zakk's first guitar experience was a failure. He was sent to a music school at the age of 8, but he very soon left her. As a teenager, he returned to music. Of all the instruments, the future idol of millions gave preference to the guitar. He learned to play it on his own, according to the compositions of the legendary teams AC / DC, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead.
At the age of 17, Zakk Wilde gathers his first own group, which glorifies him throughout Jersey. The team was called Stone Henge and was not known outside the state. Young musicians played for three years, after which the company broke up.
Collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne
Among the preferences of the young guitarist, Black Sabbath's work was especially distinguished. In 1987, he decided to audition for Ozzy Osbourne. At that time, Zakk Wilde did not consider himself an outstanding musician, so he did not hope for an invitation to the collective. He believed that he would receive only an autograph of his idol, but in reality it turned out differently. For almost twenty years, he collaborated with the Ozzy Osbourne Band.
During this time, Zakk Wilde went on a tour with his idol as a lead guitarist and recorded eight albums in his group. Often work with Ozzy had to be combined with his own solo projects. It is interesting that Zakk calls his wife “my Sharon”, and the name of his own group contains the word Black, as in the main project of Ozzy.
Pride & glory
In the early nineties, Zakk believed in his own strength and decided to pursue a solo career. By then, he had already learned to compose guitar parts and made them for all releases of Osborne. He also mastered the keyboard parts and tried himself as a vocalist. However, the first personal experience was unsuccessful - the Pride & Glory trio could not conquer the American charts. Under this name, Zakk released only one album. The group went on tours several times with more famous bands and played before their concerts, but Wilde's first musical experiment did not win universal love.
Failure slightly upset the musician, but he decided not to stop there. For some time he prepared songs for a solo album and at the same time worked with Ozzy, who decided to return to the stage. At the same time, Zakk began to search for himself. He auditioned for Guns'N'Roses and performed in one of the bars with his own compositions.
Main solo album
In 1996, Ozzy found a replacement for Wilde. The time has come for the implementation of Zakk as an independent performer. In this he was helped by Geffen, which became the sponsor of his first album, Book of Shadows. It includes all previously written compositions. One of them was the song Thowin't It All Away, dedicated to the death of Shannon Hoon. It was with him that Zakk believed in himself as a composer.
Book of Shadows II (Zakk Wilde) - an album released in 1996. It was a real discovery for metal lovers. Critics noted the unusual sound and the presence of his own style in the musician. After this album, the record company offered to record another one, and beginners and already known performers began to ask Zack's group.
Black label society
By 1998, Zakk had assembled his own team. He wanted to give the project the name Hell's Kitchen, but later changed it to the Black Label Society. This group lasted the longest, although it had serious problems with the selection of musicians - the rotation of the compositions occurred several times.
Despite all the problems with his own project, Zakk Wilde released albums annually. At the same time, the musician went on tours with Ozzy for the first two years. The schedule was very busy, but Zach's results were amazing. Fans warmly received each new album. They noted that every year the group is getting better. Wilde preferred to do the mixing and production of records on his own. He still tries to do as much as possible on his own.
Long Play Stronger Than Death
It was this album that came out first with the name Black Label Society on the cover. Heavy guitar parts, reefs and cuts - this is how Wilde's work can be characterized. Most critics were happy to find stylistic matches in the band's first album with other bands that preferred metal.
Despite this, hard rock lovers warmly accepted the new album, and it sold out in large numbers. Separately, it was noted that for an unprepared audience, the work of BLS was too heavy. Between 1999 and 2001, as many concerts as possible were held in support of the new album. On them, Wild often improvised and demonstrated new solo guitar parts. The result of this work was the album Alcohol Fueled Brewtality Live, recorded from concert materials.
Over the entire existence of the group, a large number of concert albums and videos have come out, which are called real guides for playing the guitar for beginner metallers. Especially notes Zakk Wilde DVDSkullage. This is a concert video, which is a collection of the best songs of the team, including within its framework Wilde sang four acoustic songs. It was released in 2009.
The film "Rock Star"
In 2001, Zakka was invited to dream about the movie "Rock Star." The reason for this was that Zakk Wilde growth is quite impressive - 188 centimeters. The creators of the picture, it was important to find a person who will be clearly visible on the general plans during recording concert scenes. Wilde played the Steel Dragon guitarist around whom the story was narrated.
This picture was partially recognized as documentary. It was based on the story of Judas Priest and its lead singer Tim Owens. The film was produced by George Clooney, and Wilde's stage partners were Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. Interestingly, the second guitarist Kirk Cuddy was played by professional British actor Dominic West.
There are rumors in the press that Zakk Wilde gave guitar lessons to the entire cast of the film. He helped to correct the script and make concert scenes more accurate and faithful. Critics could not find kinolapy in this film.
1919 eternal
In 2002, another Wilde studio work was released - the 1919 Eternal album. He attracted attention with his design, borrowed from the Nazi poster of the Second World War. This poster was used to recruit the Dutch. The album Wilde dedicated to his grandfather, who was born precisely in 1919.
The attention to this album was attracted not only by provocative artwork, Zakk included the song America the Beautiful, which can be called the unofficial anthem of the United States. He played her instrumental version. In the same album, you can note a couple of songs that are interesting for their unusual structure - Genocide Junkies and Life / Birth / Blood / Doom. The bassist
Robert Trujillo seriously worked on them
.Return to the old sound
Later, the group released a lot of great compositions. One of them Stillborn received recognition from the audience and rose to 12th place in the rock charts. However, by 2006, critics noted that Wilde had lost his sound. He released acoustic, concert and studio albums, but they all stayed afloat only thanks to lovers of reefs. In 2006, he disappointed fans with Shot to Hell, where the guitars were too smooth. In addition, several ballads that were too light in sound were included in this album.
In 2009, Wilde will be hospitalized with pancreatic necrosis. Time spent in the hospital gives him the opportunity to rethink creativity and echoes of the style of Osborne and other groups playing classical metal began to appear in the group's albums. As evidence of this fact, you can bring the album Order of the Black.
In 2016, Zakk returned to solo work and released a sequel to Book of Shadows. The second part included a lot of good compositions. For example, the single Sleeping Dogs. Zakk Wilde presented this song a little earlier than the entire album. After the release of this song, several authoritative publications called the solo album the most anticipated of the year. Interestingly, all the compositions were recorded at Wilde's home studio, which he called Black Vatican. Work on a solo project was carried out in a short time, as the guitarist toured a lot with his team and participated in combined tours.
For the second solo album, about forty tracks were recorded, of which the musician chose only 14 of the best. Zakk decided to release his solo album again because of the relentless attention to the first part - Book of Shadows was re-released several times. In his interviews, the musician notes that the name of the studio where the albums are recorded is not at all interesting for him, his task is to create good music. He emphasizes that, despite strict contracts, he does not feel limited in creativity and no one tells him what to do.