Black Label Society guitarist/frontman Zakk Wylde has reiterated what an honor it is to be a part of the upcoming Pantera tour that celebrates the band’s legendary heavy metal legacy. This summer, it was announced Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante would join Pantera’s surviving members, singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, for a number of concerts that are part in tribute to late guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott.
Wylde recently spoke with The SDR Show in how the tour came to be.
“I had nothing to do with [putting the Pantera thing together],” he said. “I’m friends with the guys. It’d be like if Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell were gonna do a tribute to Jimi [Hendrix] and they [asked] Eric Clapton, ‘Eric, would you sing and play Jimi’s stuff? We’re gonna put this tribute thing together.’ It’s just, like, of course Eric would [do it]. ‘Just let me know when you wanna do it.’ It’s just like anything. Like when we do ‘Experience Hendrix’, we do anything like that, it’s just, like, ‘Would you guys like to go out and honor Jimi Hendrix?’ It’s just, like, ‘Yeah. And why wouldn’t we?'”
“Yeah, of course. I’m gonna be honored. Even if it was a festival they were putting together and they wanted Black Label to come up and have Phil sing and they were gonna have all the different bands up there — Lamb of God, Black Label, Anthrax — and all the bands were gonna play a Pantera song and Phil’s gonna sing. Of course we’d be involved. Why wouldn’t we be involved?”
While Wylde is certainly excited for the opportunity, he admitted he still has to learn most of the songs.
“I don’t know [how to play] the songs,” he said. “If Dime had to play the ‘No More Tears’ solo and ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ and ‘Miracle Man’ and ‘Perry Mason’ and play ‘Suicide Messiah’, it’d be, like, ‘You must know Zakk’s stuff.’ He [would be], like, ‘No. I don’t know any of his stuff. Zakk’s my buddy, but no, I don’t know any of his stuff.'”
Wylde previously said that learning “Dimebag” Darrell’s parts would be similar to how he previously had to learn the guitar parts of Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee when he performed with Ozzy Osbourne.
“You approach it the same way as you do when I’m playing with Ozzy,” he said. “Obviously I’ve gotta learn [Randy] Rhoads’s stuff and I’ve gotta learn Jake’s [E. Lee] stuff, and when I was doing the [Black] Sabbath stuff, you learn it and do it as faithful as you can. Charlie’s gotta learn all of Vinnie’s parts. You approach it as if you’re in a cover band. When we do the Zakk Sabbath stuff,” referring to his Black Sabbath cover band, “I don’t start changing lyrics midway through ‘War Pigs’. You learn the songs — so that’s what you do.”
Right now, it looks like Wylde still has a little time to learn the tunes. Pantera is booked for select shows starting in December with the Hell & Heaven Open Air festival in Mexico.
- Randy Couture Predicts Outcome Of Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul - May 4, 2024
- Jon Bon Jovi Shares If He Will Ever Sell His Music Catalog - May 4, 2024
- ‘He Wiped Out’: Vince Neil Takes A Spill On Stage - May 4, 2024
