Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society

Two decades after Ozzy Osbourne liberated him from the mean streets of Bayonne, New Jersey, it’s still impossible to pinpoint exactly where Zakk Wylde the rock fan ends and Zakk Wylde the rock god begins. As the teen heir to longtime Osbourne guitarist and co-writer Randy Rhoads, Wylde so idolized the former Black Sabbath frontman that he named his first son in the Oz Man’s honor. (Fun fact: His second son is named Hendrix Halen Michael Rhoads, after Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Jersey-born masher Mike Piazza, and Rhoads, respectively. How’s that for geeky?) After splitting with Osbourne in the mid-’90s, Wylde aggressively cashed in on his pseudo-celebrity, guest-hosting radio shows, lending his likeness to an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and, yes, marketing his own brand of “Berserker” hot sauces. So Wylde is something of a mondo-fan. He can also rip your head off with his crunchy, virtuoso guitar riffs. See Wylde and his trademark “bull’s-eye” Gibson Flying V perform with his band, The Black Label Society, as they support the group’s newly released Skullage retrospective CD/DVD. Nu-metal rock outfits Sevendust and Dope will warm up the head-bangers.