What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers. Don’t forget to hit the bell notification
icon if you want be notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. The mid
90’s were a difficult time for Guns N’ Roses. Original rhythm guitarist izzy stradlin
left the group in 1991 after becoming sober and being frustrated in dealing with frontman
Axl Rose on a musical and business level. Not helping thing was that no one else in
the band was sober.Stradlin would be replaced by guitarist gilby clarke until he was eventually
fired in 1994. Rose would fire Clarke without consulting any of the other members of the
band.
Without a rhythm guitarist Rose brought in his childhood friend a guitarist named Paul
Tobias who would play on the band’s cover of Sympathy For the Devil for the interview
with the Vampire soundtrack in 1994. And As the band looked to write their follow up to
1991’s Use Your Illusion record new album in 1995 the band needed a new rhythm guitarist
and one musician who jammed with the band as a potential replacement was Zakk Wylde.
Here’s an MTV clip from 1995 discussing the possible collaboration
While sources close to Guns N’ Roses confirm a report in the new issue of Metal Edge magazine
that Slash has been jamming with former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. Whether it
was a whim or an audition for a Snakepit touring slot or as replacement for Gilby Clarke in
GNR is not yet clear, but we’ll keep you posted. So you’re probably wondering what
happened? Stay tuned to find out!
In late january of 1995 kerrang magazine published an article which featured an interview with
Zakk Wylde where he first revealed he spent a week jamming with Guns N’ Roses. The article
would state that frontman Axl Rose invited Zakk to jam with the band and Rose for his
part went through a terrible year in 1994 starting out with his two former lovers including
ex-wife Erin Everly and former girlfriend Stephanie Seymour suing him.
According to an interview Wylde gave to Rolling Stone in 2000 talking about the week he spent
with the band he’d say " 'There were never any melodies,' 'There was never any lyrics.'
"I'd say 'Dude, did you come up with any lyrics yet?'
And he's just like, 'Dude, I got people suing me right now.'"
"And He's on the phone with his lawyers 24-7.
'I'd be on the phone with him and he'd be telling me about all these strategic moves
his lawyers were making. I was listening to him playing Axis and Allies on the phone.'"
"And He was, like, 'I can't come up with any lyrics right now - they'd be about every other
lawsuit I got going.'"
And apparently Rose was enthusiastic about the possibility of guitarist Slash and Wylde
doing harmonies together on an upcoming Guns N’ Roses record.
Bassist Duff McKagan reflected on Wylde’s involvement in the band in his 2011 autobiography
revealing
"[Zakk] brought energy and enthusiasm that was lacking within Guns at the time. 'We can
build on the legacy,' he said excitedly. 'We can make something great. Listen to this.'
He saw a piano against the wall and sat down and elegantly played it. I had no idea he
could play piano at all, much less like this.We recorded a few demos with him, but nothing
panned out.
One of those demos that Wylde would record with Guns N’ roses ended up on a Black Label
Society’s debut record as the guitarist would mygnrforum
"One of the riffs ended up on the first Black Label Society record [Sonic Brew], [on the
track] 'Rose-Petalled Garden'. The stuff that I wanted to do, eventually, would have been
like Guns N’ Roses on steroids, man." Here’s an interview with Slash revealing why he thought
the collaboration didn’t sound right.
He’s just a good friend that we jammed with because Now that Gilby isn’t in the band
Axl like well you like how about Zack? You like Zack and i said like yeah It doesn’t
sound right with two heavy lead guitar players. There’s no like the off usually Guns N’
Roses has an off rhythm and a main lead sort of riff and now so me and zakk play the exact
same thing. That’s because we’re both lead guitar players so as much as i love Zakk
we haven’t made any decision. I told Axl I’ll be gone till August touring with Snakepit.
Well talk about it when I get back.
Apart from the fact that the collaboration didn’t sound right was that
It’s important to note that during this time Wylde was also playing with ozzy osbourne
as part of his 1995 album ozmosis which was to be ozzy’s triumphant return after calling
it quits in the early 90’s
One part of this whole story that’s often overlooked and underreported was that both
Guns N’ Roses and Zakk Wylde shared the same manager. Ozzy Osbourne was getting ready
to tour behind Osmosis and needed to know whether Zakk Wylde would be joining him and
during this time Wylde was waiting to hear from the Guns N’ Roses camp. Either way
Ozzy was unhappy with with the communication from wylde’s telling an interviewer
"The next day, I said to Sharon, That's it - he's gone. It's over.' referring to Wylde
And it wasn't because I was jealous - hey, if he joins Guns N' Roses and makes a million
dollars, fine. All I wanted was a straight answer from him-but he didn't show me that
respect. Ozzy would remember
Wylde would reveal that things with Guns N’ Roses would eventually fall through following
his one week stint with the band as by february of 1995 Slash would be out on tour promoting
his side project Snakepit, while former guitarist Izzy Stradlin made a temporary reappearance
in the spring of 1995 and write some demos with Duff McKagan.
Wylde would end up having a chat with Axl Rose shortly after everything fell through
and he would reveal to the same Guns N’ Roses forum I saw Axl not so long ago, and
I said 'What the f happened?' And Axl goes, 'Well Zakk, I heard you wanted two million
up front and your own tour bus.'" And Wylde would end up being replaced in Ozzy’s band
by joe Holmes until 2001 when Wylde eventually returned to play with the prince of darkness.
That does it for today’s video guys thanks for watching. Let me know in the comments
section below what you guys think Guns n roses would have sounded like with Zakk Wylde and
Do you think it could have been a good collaboration. Let me know. Thanks for watching be sure to
hit the like button and subscribe and if you have suggestions for future topics let me
know in the comments section below. Take care.