JO: On the Pride and Glory CD, in the liner notes you thank Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Bros., Vinnie Moore, Randy Castillo...Are these people that you look up to, or your musical inspirations?

ZW: Yeah, those are some of my favorite bands. I learned how to play from listening to their records.

JO: How old were you when you got the Ozzy gig?

ZW: Nineteen.

JO: Do you remember the first show? Were you totally nervous?

ZW: I never really get nervous at a show. I just get psyched. I think the first thing we did was an arena show in Pensacola, Florida.

JO: Where do you see the metal scene going? Do you feel it's on the verge of coming back?

ZW: I don't think it ever went away. I think it will always be there. It's just a matter of... I mean, if MTV is playing it, then I guess it's in. If MTV just quit playing all the rap/rock like Korn and Limp Biscuit and started playing Pantera, Black Label and bands like that, everyone would be like, wow! MTV dictates what's in or what's out. Its lame, but that's how it goes. Just because MTV is playing Green Day...I hate their music so why the hell would I want to be in a band like that? You can't go by what the trends are. When the grunge thing came around, I had nothing to do with that. When GnR was huge, you had everybody trying to have more tats than Axl. Everybody is waiting for the next thing. Music is changing, and it should be changing, otherwise it gets boring as hell, ya know?

JO: What is the biggest musical inspiration in your life right now?

ZW: Just beer.

JO: So, it'd be safe to say that the driving force behind Black Label would be beer?

ZW: Its alcohol-fueled brutality, man!

JO: I recently picked up the Spitfire release of the "No More Tears" cover you did.

ZW: We re-did it because we had to re-package the record. We got a cease and desist from Johnny Walker. Hell with that, I mean, if I have to get a new Black Sabbath album because they changed the artwork, I would hope that they would include a bonus track on it, that's my whole take on it. Mike Inez was in town, so I said "Hey Mike, you want to come in and throw some bass down on the track?" It's a little bit chunkier than when we originally did it.

JO: It sounds great. It definitely has a different take on it, but I totally dig it. Have you received any feed back from Ozzy on that?

ZW: I don't even know if Ozz heard it. I saw him about three months ago and I played him some of the new Black Label stuff.

JO: How did he respond to it?

ZW: I don't know, he was like "what the hell is this?" But he was digging it.

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