- 7 weeks ago
Guitar legend Zakk Wylde sits down with Metal Hammer to break down his top 5 favourite guitar riffs of all time, including timeless classics from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
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00:00I understand what people say, oh, it's all the same, but, you know, you might as well just say that
00:04the stones are all the same.
00:06You know, I ain't buying it.
00:13What's going on, gang?
00:14Zach Wild, Black Label Society, Pantera Celebration, Ozzy Osbourne, Experience Hendrix, Zach Sabath.
00:22I do dishes and laundry as well.
00:24And we're all doing the hang with Metal Hammer over here talking about our five favorite riffs and solos.
00:32Riffs, I think riffs of all time, you'd have to go, because I think all, you know, us rock metal
00:39guys or, you know, rock guitar player, you would have to learn, would have to be Smoke Underwater.
00:43As soon as you hear that riff, it's just like, wow, you know, it just, the simplicity of it and
00:50how powerful it is.
00:52Just amazing.
00:53I was always, it was Sabath, and then I found Zeppelin and then Deep Purple after that.
00:59But yeah, but I mean, but like you said, it's not so much that, I mean, aside of the great
01:04musicianship of all three bands, it's just great songs, just song power.
01:09And, you know, and all these iconic riffs, but I mean, it's just the great, great performances by all the
01:15guys, the vocals, the bass playing, the drumming, and the production on the album, just timeless.
01:21I guess if you took Sabbath, it would be probably Paranoid.
01:25You know what I mean?
01:25Just down, down, or Iron Man.
01:27We can go, we'll go Iron Man.
01:29You know, just down, down, down, down, down, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,
01:33dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, you know, because you can play these riffs on one string.
01:35That's how iconic and classic they are.
01:38That's the great thing about Ozzy singing.
01:40It's just like a lot of times, you know, he'll sing the riff.
01:44If it's a power, if the riff's that powerful, like instead of Ozzy, I mean, because Ozzy could go, there's
01:50other options Ozzy could, you know, take.
01:52He could go, I'm going to make it more of a, you know, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,
01:57dun, dun, dun, dun.
02:05You know, like just a long note over it, you know, but, or a staccato thing, you know, instead he
02:14just, I'll just sing the riff, you know, and from all the years of me playing with Oz, like whether
02:22it was Miracle Man, Crazy Babies, Perry Mason, No More Tears, My Mom Coming Home, usually would always be the
02:31first thing that came to his head.
02:34And very, very rarely did he go, I got, I got to come up, I don't like what I'm singing.
02:40I got to come up with something better.
02:41I don't like that.
02:43Very rarely.
02:45It, it, it, it would happen, but I mean, but very, usually it'd be out of, out of 10 songs,
02:51like nine or eight out of 10.
02:54He'd knock it out of the park.
02:55It would just, whatever you're hearing on those records is pretty much the first melody.
03:01He's like, play it again, Zach.
03:03Like, you know, I'd play the riff or whatever, Miracle Man, and he'd go, right away.
03:11And, you know, even No More Tears, I remember when we had that, and what I'll sing in between the
03:20riff, right?
03:20It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:22Then Oz goes, all right, play it.
03:23Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,
03:28dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
03:29So I could only imagine when they did War Pigs, you know, and it was just going to be a,
03:34you know, acapella thing, like No More Tears.
03:36I'd ask, when we stop, sing something.
03:39They'd probably, you know, the first thing he sang, which is mind-blowing.
03:46So, I mean, he's just really the king of the melody.
03:48I mean, whether it's his love for the Beatles, you know what I mean?
03:52And just him hearing all these amazing melodies all the time, but it's just his knack for singing, like Symptom
03:58of the Universe, he's just mind-blowing.
04:01You know, just that, the, the, because Oz wouldn't know whether it's major or minor.
04:07It's like, Oz, you know that's minor or whatever going over a major, and he's like, ah, Zach, I have
04:11no idea.
04:11I just know what sound, to me, I like the sound of it.
04:14You know what I mean?
04:15Yeah.
04:16Like if he was putting whatever in the soup, it's like, Oz, you know, what did you put, Tabasco?
04:20Well, I like the Tabasco, but not too much.
04:23I put a little bit of that in there, some cilantro, and a little bit of lime.
04:27And I was like, wow, this tastes really good.
04:29You know, he's like, yeah, yeah, I thought, you know, together they taste really good.
04:32I was like, wow, I would have never thought of that.
04:34You know what I mean?
04:35So, and he's just, he's just going on what sounds good to him.
04:40You know, which is really, I mean, that's a gift.
04:42No, because that's what everybody always says.
04:44Well, Oz, you know, I remember when somebody would just go, because obviously they're not musicians,
04:48so they wouldn't know how the car is being built, you know, if you're not a mechanic
04:52and you don't know what you're talking about.
04:54But I remember like people were like, oh yeah, well Ozzy, you know, the music, and I go,
04:59you know, you have zero clue what you're talking about.
05:02Because it doesn't matter how good the riffs are and the music, you got to have a vocal line
05:07over the thing.
05:08Otherwise, it's just sitting there, it's a blank piece of canvas.
05:13You know what I mean?
05:14It needs a vocal line over this stuff, you know?
05:18Whether it's, you know, I mean, all the songs we love, whether it's a Beatles song, a Stones
05:22song, a Sabbath song, Zeppelin song, whatever, you know, you got to have the vocal, the vocal
05:28line over it, you know?
05:30We'll probably have to go with Whole, I mean, Whole Outta Love, obviously you got to play
05:34that one.
05:36That's three.
05:37Look at Jimmy.
05:38I mean, it's just like between, you know, the Rain song, I mean, he could have quit right
05:43after that one, that's Lights Out, Game Over, right there, that's Hall of Fame worthy, right
05:47there, you know, just the Rain song, with the tuning on that and the whole line, and just
05:51the composition.
05:52But then again, like you said, with what Robert sang over it, it's just phenomenal.
05:59I mean, for me, I remember, I mean, it was a big deal when I learned it, was, I guess
06:05these two, and these are more chord song kind of thing, but I remember it was a major
06:10breakthrough, when I was down, down, down, down, down, down, down, c-g-d-a-e, is Hey Joe
06:21by Jimi Hendrix.
06:22That was a big one.
06:24Also, Jimi, I'm sure a lot of the stuff, if they had the riffs, it's just like, all right,
06:28let me just, let me figure out what I want to sing on this, you know what I mean?
06:33As opposed to singing and playing at the same time.
06:35You know, he might have actually sat down, just wrote Purple Haze and sang, or else,
06:42you know, the other way, one of them is just like, you know, where you write the music
06:46and you go, let me see what, let me listen to it and see what it inspires, you know what
06:51I mean?
06:52And then, you know, then you got to go back and you got to, you got to sit and practice
06:57playing, you know, because obviously you're approaching it like a singer.
07:00You know what I mean?
07:01So I'm sure, that would be an interesting question to ask Jimi Hendrix, you know, like
07:05Jimi, when you wrote this one, did you write it sitting down, singing and playing at the
07:09same time?
07:09Or did you write the music first and then go, you know, and approach it like what you want
07:15to sing on this thing?
07:17That would be a good question.
07:18And then another big one was obviously Back in Black.
07:21When I was able to, you know, I couldn't play the lick.
07:25So, but eventually when I, you know, once, like you said before, you practice it enough
07:30and then you get around to doing it.
07:33Something that's super difficult and then you practice, practice, practice, and then
07:35you, then you get a little bit more every day.
07:38So it would have to be the Lickin' Back in Black.
07:40So, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan,
07:43dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan.
07:44You know, and then you need to play along with the record, you know?
07:46And you're like, oh my God, this sounds amazing.
07:48So, I mean, let's be real.
07:50Whole Art of Rosie's a lot different than Back in Black.
07:55You shook me all night long, you know what I mean?
07:59So, you know, I think, I understand what people say, oh, it's all the same.
08:04But, you know, you might as well just say that the stones are all the same.
08:07You know, I ain't buying it.
08:10You know, Start Me Up is completely different than Street Fightin' Man and Can't You Hear
08:16Me Knockin' is different than Wild Horses, you know what I mean?
08:21So, it's like saying Mama, I'm Coming Home sounds just like Miracle Man, you know.
08:27Two different songs, man.
08:28Yeah, you got the chords, but, you know, to actually have your fingers move to be able
08:34to play the lick, you know, to have to do finger exercises and everything like that,
08:37just getting a grasp on the instrument.
08:39No, it took a while, but, you know, anybody will, you know, when you start playing and
08:44then you get, like you said, get a little bit better and better every day.
08:47Like, Dorian Yates didn't just start off as Dorian Yates' six-time Mr. Olympia, you
08:52know what I mean?
08:52It was just, you know, a little bit every day.
08:55You just put another brick on the empire.
08:59But, no, those five, I guess, you know, I mean, are just massive.
09:04I think the simplicity of it, you know, whether it's Into the Void,
09:12The Ocean by Zeppelin,
09:14I mean, that's great.
09:20You know, just the, or Heartbreaker, you know, with Zeppelin,
09:25Into the Void with Sabbath.
09:29You know, just, I think the simplicity, and then it goes back to Smoke on the Water.
09:35You know, you're looking at three notes, you know,
09:37da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
09:40Yeah, it's phenomenal.
09:43But the simplicity of it.
09:44I mean, like when we're, with Dime, you know, with Walk,
09:48da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
09:51I mean, it just, like, lights out.
09:53And look at, well, what do we got, two notes going on here?
09:56I mean, you know, with Black Label, you know, it's stillborn.
10:00Da, da, da, da, da, that's one note.
10:02You know, I mean, so, let's see, let's see what you can do.
10:06And I mean, you know, with the chorus and everything,
10:08there's four, there's four actual notes in that song.
10:13Actually, probably, no, three.
10:15Because you got, no, it's four.
10:18F sharp, and then the chorus is F sharp, D, E, and B.
10:24So that's that.
10:25So you got four notes in that actual, the whole song.
10:29But then, you know, you take something like the Kinks, you really got me now.
10:32You know, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
10:38da.
10:38It's the same thing, just going up.
10:40It's phenomenal.
10:41I'm just saying, when you think, then you break it down.
10:44You don't realize that you're only listening to the same riff over and over, just ascending.
10:51You really don't realize it when you're listening to it, because it's just,
10:53and once again, the vocal line that's over it, and it's phenomenal.
10:59There's just as much, I mean, that's an art form in itself,
11:04taking something that simple and making it, it's, like you said,
11:10there's so much going on, but so little stuff going on, you know what I mean?
11:15So it's, or it's a great meal, and there's really not a lot of ingredients.
11:19Same type of thing, yeah.
11:21Same type of thing.
11:22Same type of thing.
11:23Same type of thing.
11:26Same type of thing.
11:29Same type of thing.
11:29Same type of thing.
11:29Same type of thing.
11:29Same type of thing.
11:29Same type of thing.