Zakk Wylde

When the godfather of heavy metal (that'd be Ozzy) asks you to assume his lead guitarist position, you must be shredding something right. Zakk Wylde's riffs are so unhinged he's accompanied the blizzard of Oz off and on for the past two decades. Some reasons why: the seven-minute, highway-to-Hades march of "No More Tears"; the whirlpool hook of "Counterfeit God"; and the speed - demon tempos of "Stoned and Drunk."

Ah, but Zakk Wylde isn't simply Ozzy's sometime sideman. He's also quite a frontman, whether he's lighting a bonfire beneath his current outfit (Black Label Society) or leading his former power trio Pride & Glory through chunky slabs of Southern comfort ("Horse Called War") and a faithful rendition of Black Sabbath ("The Wizard"). Hear also the Skynyrd grind of "Losing Your Mind" and the bold Bon Jovi intro of "Fire It Up."

A rabble-rousing master of the riff, Zakk Wylde has lived his life on the very edge (see the literal, blatant honesty of "Berserkers," "Too Tough to Die," "Crazy or High," and "Demise of Sanity"). Wylde's metallic therapy sessions aren't always about Zakk, however — the steady stomp of "Destruction Overdrive" reminds us how we're killing ourselves, and the surprisingly tender "Won't Find It Here" tears a page from the self-help book Wylde never wrote.

Like many tattooed and scarred Jersey boys before and after him, Zakk Wylde turned a teetering life of booze, drugs, and general damage into an esteemed career of guitar solos and ridiculous side gigs (filling the gaping Randy Rhoads hole of Ozzy Osbourne's solo career, not to mention a brief brush with Guns N' Roses). All the while, he's proven himself adept not only at the expected but also at a long line of tears-in-beer classic rock ("The Blessed Hellride," "Between Heaven and Hell," "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow").