It’s always a blast to see Black Label Society in action and we had the opportunity to catch up with the Doom Crew leader himself, Zakk Wylde. We spoke with the guitar god in his home state of New Jersey before he took hold of the Food Truck and Rock Carnival at Oak Ridge Park. Wylde, who is Jersey to the bone, dished on musical influences as well as plans for brand new music and touring. Check out our interview with Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society below:

What can you tell us about the progression of the new Black Label album?

I’ll be knocking out some vocals on it and working on my new dance routines and everything like that. It’s all the good stuff.

Are you recording now?

Yeah we have about 28 songs, it’s more like the Book of Shadows stuff and more of the mellow side. You know like “Angel of Mercy” and “Scars” on the last album, I love doing the mellow stuff as much as I love doing the heavy stuff.

How do you go about narrowing down 28 songs to about 12 to 15 for a new album.

Well we play the songs for friends and whoever starts masturbating during the song and whatever song has the most erotic potential, that’s what we go with. We notice and we watch them behind a two way mirror and we can go, “Wow they really seem to be enjoying this one.” That’s when the clothes start coming off, that’s how we test our music. We bring the whole Madonna thing to a whole other level; it’s pure erotica.

We’re in your home state of New Jersey. How was it for you growing up here and how was the music scene out here for you?

I loved growing up out here. Obviously you had Bon Jovi and [Bruce] Springsteen from Jersey. I just love Black Sabbath and Zeppelin and Randy Rhoads and then you get more into the fusion stuff . Growing up you just have people in your development stages who are important parts of your life. I was fortunate to have that growing up out here.

What does the rest of this year have in store for you and the rest of Black Label?

We still have some shows to do and we go down to Australia and roll with the Australia chapter, New Zealand chapter, we go to Asia and finish this album and 2016 off we go.

Our thanks to Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society for the interview. Order the band’s latest album 'Catacombs of the Black Vatican' via iTunes.

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