During a recent appearance on Fueled By Death Cast, Zakk Wylde touched on his relationship with Ozzy Osbourne while explaining why he decided to start his gear line Wylde Audio.
[metalwani_content_ad]
Zakk said:
“For me, it was just a matter of the next progression of where things go.
“Derek Jeter, he played with the Yankees; then, let’s say, Derek Jeter was managing the Yankees; then he was the GM; then Vice President of Operations. The only next logical step for Derek would be to be a team owner.
“For me, I couldn’t be treated any better than everywhere I was at. And I consider them all family to me – being with Gibson and Marshall and Dunlop. All the companies I’ve been with, I have great relationships with everybody there and they’re all great people, so I love them all. It’s just a matter of that.
“I mean like with Ozz. I couldn’t be treated any better, and you have all the freedom in the world as a guitar player. Ozzy just lets you do whatever you want to do.
“But if you want to write lyrics, you want to come up with melodies, you want to do the artwork, you want to produce, then you have to start your own thing outside of that.
“Your parents aren’t gonna let you put your Led Zeppelin posters up in the living room. You need to get your own apartment at that point, you know what I’m saying?”
Asked about his long-term goals for the company, Wylde replied:
[metalwani_content_ad]
“I think it’s just like with everything – you start the band and you play in front of 10 people at the pub, and then you play in front of 15 people, and then 20 people. Eventually, we’re making a living with the band. I think with all bands, that’s how you start out.
“Obviously, it’d be, like, ‘Oh, man, it’d be great if we could do this for a living,’ and if you get anything on top of that? Then it’s gravy. It’s just icing on the cake. You start off small and you just [go] brick by brick and you keep building. You have to embrace the process.
“It’s just like learning guitar or… lifting weights or working out or somebody that wants to lose weight or anything like that. If you’re going to get frustrated after a week if you didn’t lose 20 pounds… if you don’t lose that weight and people get discouraged and they quit, but if it’s just a slow build…
“That’s the whole thing, is embracing the process. If you’re learning guitar and you’re practicing, the whole thing is you just have little goals and you set them and then you try and reach them.
“I think that’s where a lot of people have problems if you’re not embracing the process. [It’s the] same thing with a band. If your band isn’t as big as The Stones after putting the band together after eight weeks… come on, man.”