In a recent appearance on Ultimate Guitar’s ‘On The Record’ podcast, Testament’s Alex Skolnick opened up about his brief tenure with Ozzy Osbourne during the late 90s after Zakk Wylde’s long run with the singer. He recalled the behind-the-scenes conversations with Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose claiming he was ‘done with Slash’ and trying to get Zakk to take his place.
Here’s what Alex explained about the stories he heard:
“There were all these stories — like I had heard pre-sobriety Zakk Wylde was hanging out with Axl [Rose], and Axl was like putting him in a headlock saying, ‘Yeah, I’m done, me and Slash aren’t getting along, you’re the guy, man!'”
The guitarist also shared the rumors that he heard about the band and Zakk by adding:
“So he [Zakk Wylde] was going to supposedly join Guns N’ Roses. But I don’t know how much truth there is. But craziness, craziness.”
Although Alex clarified that he wasn’t sure if the rumors were true, there were several years where Slash and Rose couldn’t see eye to eye especially when it came to creative vision that turned into disputes within the band.
For instance after the ‘Use Your Illusion’ tour, Slash released an autobiography where he talked about Axl’s tardiness. However, the singer shared with NME in 2013 that he was let down by his bandmate for his false portrayal of him by saying:
“‘The Illusions’ lineups comments that I’ve read in the media or in Slash’s books were, in my opinion, predominantly public gamesmanship, strategy, and politics on their part.”
You can watch Alex Skolnick’s appearance on Ultimate Guitar’s ‘On The Record’ podcast below.
