Zakk Wylde did not have the best week. On Saturday, Ozzy Osbourne performed in Anaheim, California, as part of this year’s BlizzCon event. Wylde, according to reports, had every intention of playing with the Ozzman as he has for the last eight years. But Wylde, for whom the routing of the Pedal To The Metal tour was tweaked so that he could be on the same coast for the event, was nowhere to be found when Ozzy’s set began. Instead, a Grecian guitarist named Gus G., who plays with a metal band called Firewind, took the stage.
Likewise, behind the kit, there was no Mike Bordin, because he’s on tour in Europe with Faith No More. So, Ozzy asked drummer Tommy Clufetos to fill in. While Gus G.’s participation was promoted as a one-off, all signs seem to indicate Wylde is out as Ozzy’s axeman, which the Black Sabbath frontman so much as said in July, apparently because his own solo material was started to sound an awful lot like Wylde’s band, Black Label Society.
Then, to add insult to injury, Black Label Society was forced to pull out of the remainder of the Pedal To The Metal tour with Suicide Silence, Bury Your Dead, Mudvayne, and more, because of Wylde’s health. Apparently, Zakk has been diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs. He is currently at a hospital in Eugene, Oregon.
Why not take a trip back in time, to when things were kosher with Ozzy and Zakk’s lungs were just as fine as the lungs of a chain-smoking metal dude can be. Here is a clip of a beardless Wylde, doing some acoustic noodling for MTV… presumably, for Headbangers Ball. The song is “Machine Gun Man,” from Wylde’s 1994 album Pride and Glory, and it proves, once again, that with or without Osbourne, Wylde is one of rock’s finest shredders.
...Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily