
The iconic hard-rock shredder breaks down his incredible career and runs down one of his carpal tunnel-inducing face-melters.
From Ozzy Osbourne to Black Label Society to Zakk Sabbath to, most recently, his stint filling in for his old friend āDimebagā Darrell Abbott in Pantera, Zakk Wylde has left an unmistakable mark on the hard-rock and metal music worlds. Fresh off performing āThe Star Spangled Bannerā at the Cleveland Browns game in October, and paying homage to his boss Ozzy at the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Wylde joins this episode of Shred With Shifty to share his teachings from the book of rock.
When he was learning to play, Wylde studied Frank Marino, Al Di Meola, and John McLaughlin along with Sabbath shredder Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, and āKing EdwardāāEddie Van Halenābut Osbourneās original right-hand guitar-man Randy Rhoades was top of the crop. Little did Wylde know heād go on to replace him after his tragic death, following up the work of Rhoades, Brad Gillis, and Jake E. Lee. He got to join his favorite band, but it wasnāt an easy gig. āWhatās expected of you as an Ozzy player?ā says Wylde. āThe bar that Randy set was lights out.ā
After a quick pinch-harmonics tutorial, Wylde lays out how he used a Marshall JCM800 and Boss SD-1 with his āholy grailā bullseye GibsonĀ Les Paul Custom to track the alternate-picking intensive on āMiracle Man,ā a mix of āingredientsā from all the players Wylde loves. (āPass the Ritchie Blackmore, boss!ā) For those thinking of skimping and swapping in some hammer-ons and pull-offs, Shifty warns: āThere are no shortcuts! Pick every note!ā
Along the way, Wylde discusses the inner workings of his tenure with Osbourne, including being the longest-running player in the groupālike āworking at the deli,ā according to Wylde. And tune in to hear about Wyldeās relationship to Ozzyās wife and manager Sharon Osbourne, who he refers to as āmomāāa role she performed well when she busted him at a nightclub while he was underage.
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
- Rig Rundown: Zakk Wylde āŗ
- Zakk Wylde: āYeah, I Got That Riff at the Tony Iommi Swap Meetā āŗ
- Zakk Wylde's 5 Favorite Les Pauls āŗ
Tsakalis AudioWorks Phonkify X and Mothership Tube Overdrive + Preamp Demos | NAMM 2025
The latest iteration of Tsakalis' expansive envelope filter is a pure funk machine. All the classic '70s-era sounds are packed in there, but with three separate filters, you can get so much more out of it. Both the octave and filter are switchable, and with effect order switching you can really push the limits of out-of-this-world wah sounds. It will be available in March for $229.
EHX always brings some fresh goodies to NAMM and this year they showed us a trio of tone twisters. The most impressive unit had to be the POG3 that builds off their stupendous previous iterations and put lightning-fast tracking and perfect polyphony over four octaves with smoother tone and performance than ever before. It has six voices including DRY, -2, -1, +5th, +1, & +2, you can mix each with individual sliders and create enveloping stereo effects with dedicated pan knobs and selectable LEFT/RIGHT/DIRECT outputs. The effects section has been expanded to offer envelope control and adjustable Q for the new multi-mode FILTER, enhanced DETUNE section with SPREAD, and individual DRY effect selection, plus the famous ATTACK slider for subtle or dramatic swell effects. It also includes expression effects like Freeze, Glissando, Volume, Filter, X-Fade, and Warp.
Collings brandished a fresh offset solidbody electric. The 71 M is built with an ash body, a slab-sawn hard maple neck, rosewood fretboard (with a 10" radius), Mastery Offset bridge & vibrato, and a set of Lollar JM-Style pickups ā P-90 (bridge) and Blademaster (neck). A 25 1/2" scale length, Kluson Supreme tuners, Davies Radio knobs with push-pull series/parallel on the tone, Jupiter Vintage Yellow capacitors, and narrow-tall frets round out the experience.