Zacky Vengeance, the left-handed Avenged Sevenfold guitarist, is about to drop a new solo album on April 3, and he's here to tell me, Meltdown from WRIF, all about it! Watch the interview below.
The new album is called Dark Horse. As he told me, he'd been working on these songs for some time.
"It's something I never really anticipated doing, because Avenged has always been, you know, my baby since the day we started. And with this, we were home, you know, for five years before we got back out on the road in 2023. And I started just playing around on acoustic guitar and writing these songs with melodies and stuff. And I didn't really know what to do with it. And I knew it wasn't really the sort of stuff that I'd present for Avenged. But as I was writing this stuff, you know, life was happening all around me. And it was just a really good way to get things off my chest, kind of tell my own story."
Zachery Baker - Dark Horse
If you're expecting his solo stuff to sound like his day job's band, think again.
"I grew up listening to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson and stuff, along with bands like Social Distortion, The Misfits, and, you know, Guns N' Roses, Metallica. I listened to everything. But for some reason, it was just way easier for me to write these basic songs on an acoustic guitar and be able to sing them. You know, I don't really have a heavy rock voice, kind of an interesting, unique sort of sound. And I never really even liked my voice. So I was like, well, maybe I can just write these songs and, you know, sell them to people. And then I was like, I have no interest in giving away anything personal in regards to music, you know. So it's like, I'm going to finish this up and see what happens. And then I started getting some support, you know, from my bandmates and people that I trust. And I just, you know, ended up making an album. No record labels, no anything. No producers. Did it all myself."
You might've noticed that he's using his real name on this release. That's on purpose.
"Because the songs ended up being so personal that I wanted it to be my birth name, you know, the name that I was born with, because it tells the story of me behind the guy behind Zachy Vengeance and the guy behind, you know, Avenged Sevenfold. And it's just opening up as a, as a human, as opposed to like where people see us on the stage, we've built it. And some people are finding out about us now and seeing us play in stadiums. Well, this is where that guy came from. You know, this is me growing up. This is the stuff that I have dealt with. This is the stuff that I deal with now. And I just wanted people to, to kind of have the opportunity to find me relatable, you know, to give kids that are coming up, um, inspiration and to know that this was, you know, it was a rough road to get to where we are and doesn't get easier. That's life is always happening around you. And, uh, I just wanted, I wanted it to be completely from the heart and personal."
Avenged Sevenfold
What's going on with the band, you ask? "So we're, we're just getting ready to start putting together some set lists and some announcements that I can't really talk about, but we definitely have some things in the works in regards to getting this tour up and running, making it exciting, doing stuff that is kind of in typical Avenged fashion, stuff that people don't expect."
He went on, "Just really listening to our fans also, like we don't want to be one of those bands that just go up there and just play the hits and become, we want to go and make every concert an experience. And I think there's some rock bands that do a really good job of that. And we're just really working on making it the best experience. There's no phoning it in. You know, it's not just a cut-and-paste repeat of the last tour. It's gotta be special."
There's so much we talked about. Watch the interview above, or download the Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast.
