ZAKK WYLDE IS A MENSCH

So unless you spent your summer someplace where there’s no internet or any way to get metal news, you should be aware that Zakk Wylde a) has been replaced by Firewind’s Gus G. as Ozzy’s new guitarist and b) got the news when Ozzy did an interview announcing he was parting ways from his longtime axe-slinger, because apparently Ozzy and Sharon are too chickenshit to actually pick up the phone and make a difficult call. And so it would be completely within reason for Zakk to have nothing but terrible things to say about all parties involved – in fact, I kinda expected him to do just that. This is the man, after all, who threatened to kill Dave Grohl just for writing some riffs for Ozzy, and who basically attacked a journalist who repeated a rumor that Wylde’s pal Mike “Metal Mets” Piazza might be a homosexual.

But Wylde is actually taking the news really well, or, at least, he’s putting on a good face. From a recent interview with MusicRadar.com (via Blabbermouth):

“It’s always been this way: ‘We’re going out on the road.’ It’s like, ‘When?’ ‘Tomorrow.’ ‘What?!’

“I’m the last person to find out anything, you know? ‘Wait a minute…I have three kids?’ [laughs] ‘Yeah, they’re 17, 16 and 7, man, so we need some college money now.’

“But I’ve been with Oz since I was 19; I’m fucking 42 years old. It’s just like…like with my dad passing away, same with my mom…I don’t go, ‘Oh, this sucks.’ I never ask; I always thank.

“At least I got to spend 23 years with the boss. And he knows I’ll always be there with him. Gus, who’s playing with him, he’s fucking awesome. So I hope he has a millisecond of the good time I had – that’s a fucking lifetime. Gus will have a fucking blast, you know what I mean?”

Even if Zakk is just trying to save face here, I think he’s handling it the right way – bitching in public probably wouldn’t do anything but alienate the Osbournes, which, let’s be real, is not in Zakk’s best interest, regardless of what we as a community think about Ozzy and Sharon. And there’s really no reason to rag on Gus G. – he had nothing to do with the shitty manner in which the acquittal was handled.

Weigh in below and let us now if you think Zakk is being a classy dude, or should tell his former employers to blow it out their collective ass.

-AR