Workaholic, and the man who arguably holds the most envied guitar job in the world, Zakk Wylde broke off from rehearsals recently to speak to Paul Flanaghan about the highs and lows of the business and his unconditional allegiance to the Prince of Darkness.

"Yeah, I'm as busy as fucking hell man, right now doing these rehearsals for like nine hours a day, but besides that we just got back from doing a promotional tour. I must have had three hours sleep in like two weeks. Just about got enough time to have a drink of cold beer and have a shit"

Your new Black Label Society album 'The Blessed Hellride'. Where did you get the title from and have you got any favourite songs on there that your looking forward to playing live?

"Well actually the title track we ended up writing that song on the road during Ozzfest, because when we get out on the road on the tour bus we called that the 'The Blessed Hellride', so obviously I like 'Blessed Hellride', 'Doomsday Jesus' or 'Suffering Overdue'. I dig all of them really, it just depends how much beer I drink. We had like three days off and and we just went into the studio in Nashville and cut that stuff and maybe a couple more tracks, then we went out to L.A and went into Paramount studios and got a shit load of booze. When I went in the studio I didn't have any god damn songs as I said, the only songs I had really was 'Blessed Hellride' and that was about it."

So you write all the tracks in the studio.

"Yeah, thats the best way to do it. Look at Sabbath and Zeppelin and all those great bands, they didn't have time to complete production for eight months to make a record, you know what I'm saying? Just look on the dates of some of those records ... 1973-74. What those records represent really is a space in time, it's like Axle Rose... it's taking him fucking 10 years to make a record. If you were writing a record for 10 years and you've got a catalogue of demo songs, how the hell would you know what was good anymore?!"

Does your work with Ozzy always take priority over Black Label Society ?

"Well no, but I mean the bottom line is he's like my dad and I'm always gonna be there for him because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have Black Label so if he calls me up and say's like 'Zakk do you wanna go back out on the road or do you wanna write another record' it's like yes, of course I'll do it you know. I wanna get out on the road right now, and the album's doing really well so I can't wait to get out there and kick some ass. We just did a West Coast run and went off and had a blast on that thing and after that we went to Japan and kicked some ass over there with the Tokyo chapter and then came back over here."

Do the guys in Black Label ever get frustrated when your working with Ozzy?

"Well yes because they wanna get back out on the road you know, but I say to them 'What do you want me to do?' It's promoting BLS at the same time but obviously there will come a point when BLS's doing 24/7, once Ozzy says that he's gonna chill out for a little while, so then it's gonna be BLS."

With BLS did you or have you ever considered getting a frontman?

"No never. I can sing my fucking ass off, anyway so it's like I can't go from Ozzy Osbourne to ... I don't know, name me a frontman out there thats in a rock band that's half way decent."

I notice Ozzy appears on the album on the track 'Stillborn'.

"Yes, well my wife ended up hooking that one up. She was talking with Sharon one day and she said how come Zakk never asks Ozzy to be on any of his records, and I'm like what more do you want the guy to do? I said how much more could he do for me, the guy's schedule is completely out of control so I'm not gonna bother him to come down to sing on one of my piss ass records, and she said I just thought it would be really nice and I said 'You know what, if you have got such a hard on for it you call Sharon and Ozzy and ask them.' So she did and he came down to the studio and kicked some ass and the first thing he asked me as soon as he'd got done singing was 'You got any beers?' and I'm like 'Is the Pope Catholic or what? Come on!'"

Would you say that 'The Osbournes' series was an accurate portrayal of them as a family?

"Well with Ozzy it's never boring, there's always something going on and I always told him dude, if you weren't the greatest frontman ever you could have been a comedian."

When did the Ozzfest kick off this year and is it going to be coming over to the UK?

"It's not gonna be the Ozzfest. It's gonna be four or five bands and Ozzy while were doing a run through Canada and then once were done there then thats when the Ozzfest starts. I'm sure we were supposed to come over to the UK but I think Sharon's main concern was what was going on with the war in Iraq."

Over the last ten or fifteen years your appearance has changed somewhat. It looks like you lift the odd weights or two?

"Yes I was just working out a little while ago, and I'm around 208lbs now."

You surprised me how tall you were when we first met.

"Thats because I had my wifes stilettos on, ha ha!"

I recently interviewed Jeff Pilson who appeared alongside you in the film 'Rockstar' and he said it was something he would like to do again. Would you wanna do more of that stuff?

"Yes, I just did a TV show out here called 'Angel' ... yes, it's one of those Buffy the Vampire Slayer things - it's a spin off from that show. I was down as playing 'Mandy' by Barry Manilow and they had me doing some other fucking songs but I had a good time on it. I'm not an aspiring actor or taking acting lessons or any shit like that, but If I got asked to play a drug dealer I could pull that one off."

What's your take on the music scene in the states these days and what do you like to listen to when your chilling out?

"Well I dig the new Audioslave album, Coldplay... Radiohead's got a record coming out. Disturbed are doing really well and Marilyn Manson's album just went into the charts at #1, so obviously the heavy scene is doing well."

Well thanks Zakk & I hope the tour goes well and look forward to seeing you next time your over.

"Thanks Paul, I just wanna tell the UK Chapter of the Black Label Society to get ready to start wuping some ass when we come over there and I'll see you when we get over there with the Ozzfest man."