A huge thanks to Carise Yatter and Eli Levin for hooking me up with this…to be printed (translated, I think) in Israel’s only full color blast metal print magazine, Rockpoint!

Our country is so weak and pathetic. That’s the reason why our country’s in the state it’s in. My dad was a World War II vet, he was an orphan, his sister died in the orphanage, he went from the orphanage straight to Normandy, winter, spent four and half years in the war, got blown up, the whole nine yards. Got a steel plate in his leg, a hearing aid, the whole nine yards. Married his first wife Marilyn, she passed away with Lou Gehrig’s disease, married my mother – she died the same day Marilyn died – I mean, my dad never saw a psychiatrist. He was just like, “Well, gotta go to work today.” And that’s that. It’s like “Doesn’t it bother you?” “Yeah, I’m very upset, but what do you want me to do? You want me to stick a gun in my mouth and blow my head off? What do you want me to do?” Tough shit, suck it up, and get on with it. Tough luck, you know what I mean?

…

ZW: Hey, what’s going on? Is Aviva there?

MI: That’s me!

ZW: Hey, how are you doing, doll?

MI: First of all, congratulations on quitting drinking. I saw on your bio that you said it’s no big deal. But it’s a huge deal.

ZW: Not in Black Label. I mean, the whole thing is that everybody around here is not a candy ass. It’s like anything. If you’re going to learn how to play the guitar, stop drinking or stop smoking, or whatever, I don’t need to spend $20,000 to go to a rehab. I’m going to just like seriously STOP. (laughs) Cause at the end of the day, that’s all they’re gonna tell you there anyways. I mean, you already know. Seriously. And everyone’s like oh do you miss it or not, I mean, no. It’s like I still go to bars, I still go to Hooters, i still hang out with the guys, I just don’t… I mean it’s like Tiger Woods. Sex rehab? I mean give me a break. He didn’t do anything wrong. The only thing (where) he does have a disease? He’s got a wife and two kids. That’s his disease. It’s like, no you can’t be having sex with other chicks, dude, unless the wife’s in on it. You know, what I mean? But it’s like, what’s he gonna go to sex rehab for? What did he do wrong? If he was a single guy, he’s the greatest golfer that’s ever lived, he’s a billionaire, and if he was a single guy he’s living every guy’s wet dream. He could bang any chick he wants on the planet. And they’ll all do it for nothing.

(If for some strange reason Tiger Woods wanted an overgrown Jewish chick – me – I wouldn’t touch him even if I wasn’t married but whatever – ed.)

He’s living the life, I mean and the whole thing is, going to sex rehab is not going to fix this guy. (laughs) Four on one, that’s even better. You know what I mean? But that’s our country. Our country is so weak and pathetic. That’s the reason why our country’s in the state it’s in. My dad was a World War II vet, he was an orphan, his sister died in the orphanage, he went from the orphanage straight to Normandy, winter, spent four and half years in the war, got blown up, the whole nine yards. Got a steel plate in his leg, a hearing aid, the whole nine yards. Married his first wife Marilyn, she passed away with Lou Gehrig’s disease, married my mother – she died the same day Marilyn died – I mean, my dad never saw a psychiatrist. He was just like, “Well, gotta go to work today.” And that’s that. It’s like “Doesn’t it bother you?” “Yeah, I’m very upset, but what do you want me to do? You want me to stick a gun in my mouth and blow my head off? What do you want me to do?” Tough shit, suck it up, and get on with it. Tough luck, you know what I mean?

MI: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s also the Israeli mentality.

ZW: That’s – Black Label is bigger than a band. It’s a mentality. That’s it. It’s its own religion. And so, it’s just like, people are like, “Oh, you got the blood clots” and this n that, and I go, well, I never thought to myself “Oh, well, why me?” In Black Label, it’s more like “Why not? Bring it. Is that all you got?” You can bitch and moan about everything but complaining does not fit in my – I don’t have enough seconds in my day to sit around and bitch and moan about everything. It’s just like. “Alright, well, tough shit, we got a flat tire, this sucks.” Well yeah, it does suck, but we can talk about it all day or we can fix the fucking thing. What do you want to do? Just shut the fuck up and let’s get going here.

MI: So, well what do you live for – I mean, I read that you quit drinking because the doctor said you wouldn’t live to hit 50 if you didn’t… so what makes you want to live?

ZW: Yeah, well it’s not only that. The drinking… the bottom line is like the doctor told me to quit, and you know, it’s just like it used to be the point where I was having fun with the drinking, and then the drinking started having fun with me. So I was just kind of like, “You know what, man, it’s time to say goodbye.” You know what I mean? So it’s just like an old friend or anything like that. Of course, I’m going to miss it, because it’s just like you know I went to one of these AA meetings and it’s just nothing but depression and I go, “Guys, I gotta be honest with you, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you any bad stories! The only stories I have of boozin’ with my buddies and us hanging out is good times. I never lost everything and I’m not in the same place where you guys are at. I never woke up everyday going “I feel sick and tired, I’m feeling sad-” I’m sorry. That’s just pussy ass candy ass shit. I never felt that way. I just wake up kinda still buzzed from the night before from us having a great time, and I’d just crack a couple of more beers and I’d feel human again. And then just get on with the rest of the day. Go get something to eat, go hit the gym, what time are we going on stage? I never was like, I never had any problem. We still answered the bell like all the time. I never missed a show – the whole nine yards. So, I don’t know. But then again, I never did drugs or all that other stuff, so… it’s just like anybody, it just got old, and that’s that.

MI: You haven’t gotten “old”. Black Label’s been around a while, since what, since ’98?

ZW: Yeah, 1998.

MI: So do you have a plan for what you’re doing with Black Label or is it just like, off-the-cuff creatively? (Thanks, Paulie! – ed.)

ZW: No. Well, the whole thing is that Black Label is bigger than a band. It’s a mentality and it’s just, you know, one gigantic family. Like I said, we don’t have fans, it’s a family. We’re one of those bands, the whole mentality is kinda like how the Grateful Dead is, you got all the Deadheads, and it’s just like we all roll together, y’know what I’m saying? It’s just its own universe, you know what I mean? It’s pretty much the same thing with Black Label.

MI: That idea kinda goes towards the charity project you’re doing – what is it, St. Jude’s?

(The first-ever BLS Chr!stmas tune, “The First Noel” is available now on iTunes. The track is a beautiful instrumental which highlights Wylde’s prowess on the acoustic guitar. Black Label Society’s proceeds from sales of the single will be donated to The Zakk and Barbaranne Wylde Foundation at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, a charity The Wyldes have long supported. Click here to purchase the track.)

ZW: Yeah, yeah. Me and my wife… our parents always gave to St. Jude’s and everything like that, so now that we’re in the position to help out.. you know, that’s just the Black Label way. If you’re in a position where you can help someone, you do it. Just do the right thing, you know what I mean?

MI: That’s cool. OK, let me ask you about the video. The video is awesome. It’s HILARIOUS. Where did you get this idea from?

ZW: Well, you could always do…the thing with us is that it’s always like, “Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to do another stupid video where it’s just the band playing and it’s just lame and you’ve seen it a million times?” I said “Fuck that, let’s just do something as gay as possible, that we can possibly do.” So we’re keeping it gay, man. The whole thing is just keeping it gay, really gay. With us, a running joke around here is that we’re not going to die in a bizarre gardening accident, or a drug OD, or suicide, you know, that’s not an option in Black Label. The whole thing is, you know what we’re gonna do? We’re gonna die just of cardiac arrest of laughter around here. It’s just like, someone is always laughing his balls off, so I just said “Let’s just do a goofy ass video.” How many times can you sit there with me playing the guitar, we’ve done that a trillion times, man. And then all you gotta do is just watch other videos from other bands and it’s that same boring garbage I’ve seen a million times.

MI: (Laughing) You were in the spandex, doing the moves.

ZW: Without a doubt. It was pathetic.

MI: Naaa it was cool. What did I want to ask you… do you have plans to join up with Vinnie Paul in the future? Like, to do the supergroup? Probably, everyone asks you this, but I never heard a real response…

ZW: Naw.. I’m good. I love Vinnie. Vinnie’s a brother and everything like that. He’s a Black Label brother. I love him. We talked about doing Hellyeah and Black Label going out together but I love Vinnie, Rita, that whole camp, you know what I mean? I saw Rex not too long ago cause they had the Down thing going over in England, and we were doing a festival on a Saturday and I think they were doing it on a Sunday. So I saw Rex, caught up with him, saw how he was doing with the wife and kids, and everything’s cool with those guys. So it’s just like… I love them and I wish them all the best, but I know Vinnie is just out there whooping ass right now with the Hellyeah guys, and those are the Mudvayne guys, who are supercool guys as well, to work with them. Hopefully, we’ll hook up at some point and do a tour together.

MI: Cool… my friend Shirley Naor wants to know, what guitarist made you pick up a guitar? What was your influence?

ZW: My guitar teacher, Leroy Wright. I saw Leroy playing and it looked like the coolest thing in the world to do. It’s just like watching his hands and everything – the dude was playing all of my favorite bands. Black Sabbath, he played some Zeppelin for me, y’know. He played some Eddie Van Halen stuff, some Rush, and whatever. I was just like “this is the coolest thing on the planet.” So, it just looked so interesting to me and I was like “G-d, that’s what I want to do with my life.” That’s when I was 14. That’s when I got serious with it.

MI: Did you ever think you’d end up where you are now?

ZW: No, but I mean, people are just like, “When did you know you made it?” The whole thing is I just wanted to be a musician. Put it this way, and that’s the whole secret to life: if you’re making a living doing what you love then you’ll never work a day in your life. Ever. You know what I mean? So people are like “Oh, what’s the secret of life?” I go, “Find what it is you love.” You love animals? Then just be a vet, man. Take care of animals. That’s the coolest thing in the world, to save someone’s dog or something like that, that’s a family member. Whatever you have a passion for, you should go for it. Like I was doing porn for a while, and then I got married. So I had to stop that. (Laughs).

MI: Speaking of which, what’s with this “Bones” movie? I tried to look it up and I couldn’t find it anywhere…

ZW: It’s going to be coming out pretty soon. It’s just – they just contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do it. I was like, “Yeah, I have no problem,” you know what I mean? We just ended up knocking it out. I play, like, this mentor, the so-called older dude to Jimmy, who’s the star of the movie, and it’s just like…whenever you end up doing those projects, like a “Rock Star” thing or anything like that, it’s always a good time anyway. Everybody’s super cool that’s working on the thing, and it’s just.. if I asked you to be in a movie for me and i wanted you to be a drug dealer or something like that, you’d be like, “Yeah, no problem-”

MI: Yep! (yeah, keep me in mind, bro!!! – ed.)

ZW: Yeah, you’d have a good time with it, so like I said, it’s always a good time.

MI: Alright, cool (puts on accent) Let me talk about my country! Well, my other country. Israel! So, you know Ozzy went to Israel and he had a good time?

ZW: Yeah, Oz said he had a great time when he was over there. I talked to him not too long ago.

MI: Alright… what about you?! Would you go?

ZW: Yeah! I think we’re planning on going over to Israel and also I wanted to do a USO thing where we’re gonna do some gigs for the troops as well, so we’re trying to sort that out right now.

MI: That’s awesome! You’re talking to somebody now in Israel?

ZW: Yeah, my manager is. We’re trying to sort it out and see if we can make it happen.

MI: That’s really cool! I saw that thing on Twitter about USO shows… I threw it to you once… do you even read what people throw you on Twitter? You must get like hundreds of (tweets).

ZW: Yeah, yeah I talk to everybody. I’ll see when the tweets come in … I think it’s a great way to keep in touch with the whole, with the rest of our Black Label family. Everyone just writes, “Hey what the hell’s going on, I’m doing this today, and it’s like a whole Black Label Family gathering, meet and greet and all this other stuff. I think it’s way cool. We take shots of the shows, record some of the shows, tweet it, it’s cool. It’s just a great way to keep in touch with everybody, man.

MI: Is our time up yet?

ZW: What else you got?

MI: Actually that’s about it, except.. there is one other thing I wanted to ask you (very uncomfortably). And I do this with love, because I want you to know, I wore your sweater, the Black Label hoodie, two years straight in one of the most religious neighborhoods in Jerusalem and I didn’t give a fuck.

ZW: You can ask me, no problem.

MI: What’s your fascination with the Nazi shit? Like, you write about it a lot, and you put it a lot to the graphics, and whatever. What’s the deal? I don’t think you’re a Nazi or anything, G-d forbid, but why do you like it? What’s the deal with it?

ZW: I don’t even know what you’re talking about. What are you talking about?

MI: Like, a lot of the songs are like, “Final Solution” and “Death March” and all this shit, and I also read one time that Black Label, like the reason you called the band Black Label was after the order that put the Gestapo to shame and made them look like Boy Scouts or some shit? Is it true? Is it not true?

ZW: I don’t know, whatever. Lyric wise, I just fuckin’ write about war, religion, life in general, you know what I mean? My dad passing away, my dad died, I wrote a song about that channeling, so it’s just like –

MI: I’m sorry (about your dad)

ZW: – whatever is happening in my life, and stuff like that. So it’s just like reading stuff, and stuff that I’m into, you know what I mean? That’s what I’ll write about lyric wise, and you can never run out of ideas. I read a lot of autobiographies, I dig that, just reading about people’s lives and shit like that. I always find that really interesting. I’m like way into that, so like I said, war, religion and all that stuff. Usually, that’s the center of a lot of the lyrics I write.

MI: What’s the last thing you read?

ZW: What’s that, doll?

MI: What’s the last thing you read?

ZW: I’m actually reading that Led Zeppelin thing right now. The new one that came out? LZ 75? I’m checking that out right now.

MI: Cool! (lets out the fangirl gushing she held back for 15 minutes, says bye, etc.) ‎\,,/_{òÓ}_\,,/

Check out the Berzerkus Tour 18.10.2010 in Pittsburgh review here.