MY LIFE IN THREE GUITARS Zakk Wylde

The trio of axes that have meant the most to the Ozzy, BLS and Zakk Sabbath guitar god

- MARK McSTEA

SHRED LEGEND ZAKK Wylde was grabbing some downtime when GW connected with him at his home in California not long after he appeared at Ozzy Osbourne's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Only hours before we connected, he'd been busy tracking songs for the next Black Label Society album, before heading into six weeks of rehearsals for a Zakk Sabbath tour. After that, he’s scheduled to start rehearsing for the Pantera celebration tour, followed by more Zakk Sabbath. He's also already penciled in numerous BLS shows. As Wylde says, “It’s just music, music, music as far as I can see, and that’s how I love it.” No matter how busy he is, Wylde is always ready to talk guitars, and the rock 'n' roll viking was stoked to tell us why these are the three most important axes in his armory.

1 Gibson Firebrand SG (1981)

“This was the Firebrand SG in Pelham Blue, the first real ‘quality’ guitar I ever owned. I did so much of my learning on it. I bought it at Red Bank Music [in New Jersey] back in the day. There was a lot of publicity for these models at the time; I remember the Gibson ads saying, ‘A Firebrand for under a grand.’ It was a fantastic guitar, though, and a major step up for me. My guitar teacher at the time, Leroy, recommended it to me. He was a fan of SGs; he thought the double cutaways and access to the top frets would suit the stuff I wanted to play. I wasn't really playing shows when I got it, more parties and jamming in the basement. I spent a ton of time woodshedding. I never changed a single thing on it — it's completely stock. I still pull it out from time to time at home; it's a bit of a lost classic in the Gibson range. Another thing about it was the color, which I liked so much that I've used it on a few guitars since then as well as on some of my own Wylde Audio fiddles.