John Mayer once famously compared playing blues solos note-for-note to “playing last night’s Lotto numbers,” but Zakk Wylde believes players don’t need to drastically reinvent a guitar solo to put their stamp on it. The answer, he says, hinges on “the beauty of the guitar”.
Wylde has had to be original throughout his career, and some of Ozzy’s most iconic riffs have been forged by his fingers. But he’s also spent large portions of his career playing other people’s solos. From tackling the lead work of Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee with the Prince of Darkness to honoring Dimebag in Pantera, he’s learned how to make the solos his own without straying from the path.
Through his own experience, the notes can stay the same – fans want to hear those notes. The change-making comes from the articulation, bends, and pick attack, the facets that make every guitarist fundamentally unique.
“Whether you're playing 'Walk' [or something else], Dime has signature solos,” he tells UK music store Andertons. “If me and you are playing the solos to 'Hotel California', and we're playing with the Eagles, you've got to play those solos the way they are on the record... If there are other solos where there's room for improv, then you can [do that], as long as you're in E Minor and you hit on signature notes that are in there.”
“But,” he continues, “[for songs] like 'Hotel California', 'Stairway to Heaven', or if Dime was with Ozzy, playing my stuff... if he did it note for note, it's Dime's touch and Dime's feel.”
Another of Wylde’s impressionist gigs is Generation Axe, a G3-type supergroup formed by Steve Vai. That's seen him, alongside a stellar cast of shredders, take on rock classics, from “Bohemian Rhapsody” to “Hocus Pocus”.
“Every time we do the Generation Axe thing, whether it's what it's Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, Tosin Abasi, Yngwie [Malmsteen] – all of them [only have to] play one note, literally one note, just a vibrato or a chord, [to hear their unique] guitar tone, their feel, their vibrato.
“I know exactly who's playing. Forget about looking. I hear one note, and I go, 'Yeah, that's Tosin.' Or, when you hear Nuno shredding, within two notes I already know it's him.
“That's the beauty of guitar,” he says. “You could take the same scale, have two different guys play it, and it sounds worlds apart. They're using the same ingredients in the soup and it tastes complete. It's two different bowls of soup. I think that is just awesome.”
On the topic of note-for-note solos, Gene Simmons has extended his beef with Ace Frehley by recalling a strange moment they shared when writing "She", from 1975's "Dressed To Kill". He claims the Space Ace stole Doors guitarist Robby Krieger’s solo for “Five to One” and tried to pass it off as his own.
Of course, it isn't the first instance of an artist borrowing generously from someone else. The Beach Boys lifted the essence of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" for "Surfin' USA," and Neil Young has admitted to stealing a Rolling Stones melody. But the Ace incident might just take the crown.
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