Zakk Wylde
From WikiHero
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| Zakk Wylde | |
| First Appearance | Guitar Hero World Tour |
| Genre | Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal |
| Likes | |
| Dislikes | |
| Fretboard | A skull with chains along the sides against a red background. |
Zakk Wylde (born January 14, 1967, in Bayonne, NJ, as Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt) is the founder of Black Label Society, has released a solo record, and replaced Jake E. Lee as guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne. Zakk Wylde also recorded a Guitar Battle specifically for Guitar Hero World Tour. You unlock Wylde by defeating him in a guitar battle and playing his encore song (Stillborn).
He has also contributed with the series with two songs prior to his appearance in World Tour: the Black Label Society song "Fire It Up" appears as one of the leading bonus track in the very first Guitar Hero game (along with Graveyard BBQ's "Cheat on the Church", as the winners of the Be a Guitar Hero contest), and also in the Ozzy Osbourne song "I Don't Wanna Stop" (off his latest album, Black Rain), featured in Guitar Hero: On Tour.
[edit] Biography
Wylde started playing the guitar at the age of 15 and worked at Silverton Music in Silverton, New Jersey. He grew up in Jackson, New Jersey, and went to Jackson Memorial High School, where he graduated in 1985. Wylde has stated that he would practice playing the guitar as much as 12 hours per day and often would play the guitar almost non-stop between coming home from school and leaving for school the next morning, then sleeping through the school day.
Growing up, Wylde played locally with his first band, "Stone Henge", then later with local Jersey band "Zyris". He was taught by neo classical guitarist Sean Roche. Years later, the then unknown 19 year-old Wylde landed the coveted role as lead guitarist and co-writer for Ozzy Osbourne. He sent Ozzy a demo tape in 1987 and was hired to replace Jake E. Lee. Jake E. Lee had replaced the deceased Randy Rhoads, Ozzy's principal guitarist in the post-Black Sabbath period, beginning in late 1979. Wylde has stated that he has no respect for musicians who release material "not true to themselves". The late Randy Rhoads, a rock original, remains Wylde's foremost guitar-playing and stagecraft influence.
Ozzy has always left the option open to his band members to leave if they wish, but Wylde has stayed faithfully by Ozzy's side ever since he was a teenager (although Zakk was replaced in Osbourne's band by Joe Holmes from 1995 until his return in 2001). Ozzy Osbourne was auditioning new guitarists for future material in 2005/2006 but announced Wylde as the official guitarist for his new album, Black Rain.
On January 17, 2006, Zakk Wylde was immortalized at the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame located at 7425 Sunset Blvd, featuring his handprints and signature, in recognition to his successful career as a musician and contribution to music industry. The event was open to the public and many rock celebrities were present, including Osbourne.
Black Label Society's latest album, Shot to Hell, was released on September 11, 2006 (UK), 12, 2006 (US) through Roadrunner Records with production by Michael Beinhorn (Soundgarden, Ozzy Osbourne, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Black Label Society headlined the second stage at the 2006 Ozzfest, with Wylde playing double duty with Ozzy on certain dates. Ozzy's new album, Black Rain, was released in May 2007. Zakk Wylde is currently working a new film called The Berserkers, with Zakk taking on responsibilities for script and production.
[edit] Favorite Guitars
Wylde is known for his use of Gibson Les Paul Custom model guitars with a "bulls-eye" graphic on them, a design he used to deliberately differentiate himself visually from Randy Rhoads - who was also frequently identified by his white Les Paul Custom. Interestingly, one of Wylde's favorite stage guitars of late is a replica of Rhoads' Flying V. The "bulls-eye" paint job was originally supposed to look like the spiral from the movie Vertigo, but when it came back incorrect from the luthier, he liked the result and stuck with it.
Wylde's signature Les Pauls include, a red and flame-maple bulls-eye model, a black and antique-white bulls-eye model, an orange "buzz-saw" model, which Zakk got the pattern off a zippo lighter, and a "camo" bulls-eye model with mother of pearl neck inlays and a green camouflage paint scheme. His original bulls-eye Les Paul was bought from one of the owners of Meteltronics Amplification. Metaltronics was building a one-off live rig for Zakk that was designed around one of the owner's guitars, a creamy white Les Paul Custom with EMG's -- to become known as "The Grail".
Zakk showed a strong interest towards a particular guitar, "The Grail", the ever-present Bullseye-painted Gibson Les Paul custom, and eventually was able to barter for it by trading for two other Les Pauls. All noteworthy rock guitars seem to have sad-happy tales associated with them, and "The Grail" is no exception. It somehow became lost to Wylde for some time when it fell off the truck as he was traveling between gigs in Texas. Rewards were posted to anyone that had information about the guitar - it holds sentimental value to him since it was the guitar with which he wrote and recorded all of his Ozzy material.
Wylde and The Grail were only reunited years later, after a fan bought it at a Dallas pawn shop and realized he may very well have the missing guitar after checking the initials "Z.W." carved into the humbucker pickups backs, and the serial number marked on the headstock. He then contacted Wylde's former webmaster Randy Canis to arrange its return to Wylde.
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Zakk Wylde. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WikiHero, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
[edit] Guitar-playing Style
Wylde is known for his liberal use of pinch harmonics and aggressive vibrato.
