How He + Ozzy Got the Nickname ‘The Gruesome Twosome’

Ahead of Back to the Beginning, Zakk Wylde joined Loudwire Nights on Monday (June 30) to celebrate his love for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“It’s pretty much like an Ozzfest on steroids,” Wylde told Chuck Armstrong about Back to the Beginning.

“That’s what was so great about the Ozzfest. Every year you had all the best in hard rock and metal touring … You’ve got Metallica on the thing, you’ve got Alice In Chains, you’ve got Guns N’ Roses, I mean everybody. It’s just like an Ozzfest on steroids and growth hormones. It’s like the Dorian Yates of the metal fests.”

Though Wylde will likely find himself onstage throughout the event, his main gig will be performing with Pantera — something he’s very excited about.

“It’s going to be awesome being up there with Phil, Rex and Charlie,” he said.

“I’m doing the Pantera celebration, jamming some Sabbath stuff. It’s going to be a blast.”

For Wylde, jamming Sabbath tunes is much more than a hobby — it’s something he’s turned into a project with his band Zakk Sabbath. When Chuck asked him about his favorite songs — and potentially the songs he’d be playing in Birmingham on July 5 — he had a tough time narrowing down his list of picks.

“Especially the obscure songs, not the ones that are always played on the radio,” he shared.

“There’s certain songs you know no one’s going to touch, because the guys are going to play it. But as far as Father Tom [Morello] picking, [he is] making sure everybody has something they can play. There’s tons of stuff on that menu at the Black Sabbath steakhouse.”

As Wylde thought more about the event, he admitted that fans aren’t the only ones who don’t know what to expect.

“Nobody knows what’s going on,” he said.

“It’s kind of like how it was when I first joined Ozzy. Nothing has changed. We’ll figure it out when we get there. Are you sure about this? Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

Zakk Wylde Shares the Story of How He + Ozzy Earned the Nickname ‘The Gruesome Twosome’

Anytime Wylde gets into an interview, there’s no question he’ll have an Ozzy store or two to share. And that was certainly the case when he joined Loudwire Nights for his recent chat.

“When I first joined the band, the first album and everything, I remember Bobby Thompson, God rest his soul,” Wylde recalled about Ozzy’s longtime tour manager who passed away in 2003.

“Bobby had been with Ozzy since the beginning…throughout the years, you just meet crew guys and you know everybody. And then everyone’s kind of either working with each other at some point or another, just like the Pantera celebration. There’s people that I’ve known since I first started with Ozzy that are just part of the crew and part of the family.”

When Wylde started talking about Thompson, he shared a story about when he was rooming with him in London in the early days.

“We were working on No Rest For the Wicked and we were drinking one night,” he shared.

“He goes, ‘You’ve got to stay out of the web. Stay out of the web. He’s pulling you into the web.’ And the web was going out drinking with [Ozzy] every night. No one wanted to drink with Ozz except me because I was like, he’s the best. He’s the coolest. He’s the Fonz. I’d be drinking with Ozz [and so] Bobby was like, ‘Zakky, you got to stay out of the web.’ But I like the web, you know?”

The more Wylde explained the situation, the more it became clear that the concern on behalf of Thompson and the other crew guys wasn’t simply about drinking with Ozzy — it was about what would happen after.

“Ozz, I didn’t know, is the last person you wanted to rob a bank with because he would name names and just tell everything to Mom,” he said.

“Sharon would go, ‘Well, who were you drinking with last night,’ and he would go, ‘I was with Bobby, Zack, Randy and Mikey.’ He would name names. He would tell you where the money was, where the bodies were buried. I was like, how come no one likes going out drinking with us? They were like, because they wanted to keep their jobs, that’s why. Stay out of the web, man.”

And that’s where Wylde and Ozzy earned their nickname, The Gruesome Twosome.

READ MORE: ‘We Grew Up as Youngers’ – K.K. Downing Looks Back on Early Days With Judas Priest + Black Sabbath

“Mom, she’s like, ‘Oh, the Gruesome Twosome were out drinking last night again,” Wylde said, laughing.

“Whereas my friends went to a community college or Stanford or Harvard or Notre Dame or Penn State University, I went to Ozzy Osbourne University. I majored in stouts, beers, pale ales, all types of stuff. I had triple straight A’s in that. My liver and my pancreas can attest to that.”

What Else Did Zakk Wylde Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• What he’s planning to do at Back to the Beginning: “I’m going to be doing dishes, laundry, making everyone Valhalla Java Odinforce Blend. It’s going to be amazing.”
• Why he credits Black Sabbath with more than just starting heavy metal: “We’re all employed and we can pay our bills and take care of our families because of these four guys. That’s right, they created an entire industry.”
• What it was like auditioning for Ozzy in the ’80s: “I thought it was my friends having their mom prank me and it was Sharon on the phone. They flew me out to L.A., I met Ozz, I crapped my pants, obviously, and then Ozz goes, ‘What, what is that smell? Just do me a favor, play with your heart, then change your trousers, then make me a ham sandwich and go light on the Colman’s mustard. It mustn’t overpower the flavor of the sandwich.’ So, I’ve been making him ham sandwiches and going light on the Colman’s.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Zakk Wylde joined Loudwire Nights on Monday, June 30; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.