Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, ex-Ozzy Osbourne)

Main years active: 1965-1989 to date

We’ve looked at how immense Tony Iommi’s riffs are, but perhaps we’ve neglected his world-class soloing a bit. Sorry, Tony. Let’s redress this by taking a long hard look at one of the most accomplished lead guitarists playing today, Zakk Wylde. Now, Zakk is a man with more knowledge of Iommi’s guitar playing than most people, having spent over 20 years as a member of Ozzy Osbourne’s band, in which he regularly played Sabbath songs. A key feature of both Zakk’s and Tony’s guitar technique is their ridiculously advanced alternate picking, gained after literally decades of practice. Think you can do it too? Watch this…

Zakk Wylde ‘2002 Solo’

Total Guitar issue 210 (originally on sale 24 December - 20 January) featured Tony Iommi on the cover and contained 11-pages of Iommi coverage, including an in-depth interview and a complete tab of 'Planet Caravan'.