Zakk Wylde Opens Up About Ozzy Tribute Song

Black Label Society's new album, Engines of Demolition, features a song called "Ozzy's Song" that's in honor of the late Ozzy Osbourne. Zakk Wylde, of course, played lead guitar in Ozzy's band for years.

Now, Wylde is opening up about the tribute. He tells Revolver magazine that writing the tribute to the late metal icon was an emotional experience.

"We laid Ozzy to rest, and then I flew back out and we played Jones Beach [Theater in Long Island, New York]. That was the first Pantera show after lay­ing Ozzy to rest," Wylde tells the outlet. "I was having Ozzy flashbacks because the last time [Ozzy and I] played there it was raining and it was packed. I remember the first 30 rows, every­body was knee-high, thigh-high, in water... I'll never forget that."

He continued, saying, "When the Pantera celebration run ended, I came home and sat in our library here at the house and I was looking at one of Ozzy’s books that we have. I was just looking at him, and I listened to the tune, and I wrote the lyrics right there."

According to Wylde, his wife Barbaranne actually came up with the name for the song. "We’d keep listening to it in the truck. And every time, [she] would say, 'Babe, put on Ozzy’s song again.' She just kept referencing it as 'Ozzy’s Song.'"

"So, I was like, 'I'm just going to call it "Ozzy’s Song" because that’s what it is,'" he added. "Obviously, we had to end the record like this — [it had to] be the last song."

Wylde also said that what made Ozzy so special was that he touched people in a "positive way." Ozzy is sadly gone, but it's a treasure that his music lives on.