Zakk Wylde’s Gibson Les Paul Custom with the cream-and-black bullseye graphic finish is one of the most iconic electric guitars in modern rock/metal history. Nicknamed “the Grail,” it is instantly recognizable, and for many is one of the defining images of Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears-era.
And yet it was a total mix-up. That was not what he wanted. In a new interview with Guitar World, the Black Label Society frontman and longtime Ozzy guitarist reveals that it wasn’t meant to look like that.
He was looking for circles, yes. Wylde needed something to distinguish himself from Randy Rhoads – the late Ozzy guitarist famously played an Alpine White Les Paul Custom, whose finish had curdled to a similar shade of cream over the years. But it definitely wasn’t a bullseye finish he had in mind when he sent the guitar off for a refin.
“After we'd recorded No Rest for the Wicked, I was gonna be shooting some photos and I realized I was gonna look like I was trying to be Randy, with the cream Les Paul, so I sent it to be refinished,” he says, “It was meant to look like the poster for [1958 Alfred Hitchcock film] Vertigo, but it came back with the bullseye.”
That Vertigo poster is one of the all-time classic movie posters, the work of Saul Bass operating at the height of his powers, and it’s an infinitely more complicated design than what Wylde received.
Bass’s illustration features white spiral design on orange, with the silhouette of James Stewart’s Scottie Ferguson and a line drawing of Kim Novac’s Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in the middle – like flies caught in a spider’s web.
That would have been cool. But as it turns out, Wylde was happy enough with what he got. And he has made it a leitmotif of his guitars ever since, riffing on it with various signature guitars, first with Gibson – notably with his bullseye camo model – and later with his Wylde Audio guitars.
In 2012, Wylde did actually get a vertigo design on a signature Les Paul Custom, but it was more like the Vertigo record label logo than the Hitchcock movie. The Grail, meanwhile, remained a reliable steed for Wylde’s adventures in his full-bore pentatonic exertions, and it led a charmed life.
Wylde says it was true love with the Grail. He got it from a buddy named Scott Quinn, who worked out of Garden State Music, in New Jersey. Wylde’s name was ascendant. He had just been signed to the Gibson artist roster on the back of his Ozzy gig.
He could get anything but he wanted Quinn’s Les Paul Custom, which was already loaded with a set of EMG active humbucker pickups. Wylde says Quinn had an idea for a swap.
“Scott, a huge John McLaughlin, said that if I could get him a double-neck, he’d trade the Grail for it,” says Wylde. “Gibson hooked me up and I made the trade.”
It was a square deal. We don't know what Quinn did with his double-neck but the Grail made its mark.
“I'd played this guitar and been knocked out by how amazing it sounded and how well it played,” he says. “When I plugged it into my Marshall combo, I was astounded. It was one of those moments where you just really connect with an instrument.”
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