The worlds of Southern rock and heavy metal don’t usually overlap—though later-era Warren Haynes proved there could be common ground, especially when he leaned into heavier riffs outside the The Allman Brothers Band with Gov’t Mule.
Still, back in the early ’90s, the idea of those two styles colliding felt unlikely. Enter Zakk Wylde, then best known as the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, who was deep into a Southern rock phase that led to the formation of his side project Pride & Glory.
That detour made one of the strangest sit-ins in the Allman Brothers Band’s history possible. On 8/1/93 at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA, when Dickey Betts was unable to make the gig, Wylde was tapped as a last-minute fill-in. Bulls-eye Gibson Les Paul in hand, he took the Allman Brothers’ classics for a high-volume joyride that’s still debated today—for better or worse. Purists likely headed for the exits early, but there’s an undeniable novelty in hearing how that catalog might have sounded if the band had gone full metal.
