Earlier this week Billboard announced that Pantera’s surviving members, vocalist Philip Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, signed with Artist Group International and agreed to a reunion tour in 2023. “We are thrilled to be working with such an iconic band and bringing their music back to the fans,” said Artist Group agent Peter Pappalardo.
Most metal fans thought that with the deaths of brothers “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and Vinnie Paul, that any chance of a Pantera reunion and/or tour was over. The band split up in 2003, and Abbott and Paul formed Damageplan. Abbott was tragically shot and killed onstage in 2004, and Paul died of heart complications in 2018.
It was also announced that the vacancies in the group would be filled by Black Label Society/Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante. According to Billboard, the lineup has been given a green light by the estates of the Abbott brothers. Brown said last year said that Wylde wouldn’t tour with Pantera if a reunion were to happen, but he obviously had a change of heart.
Wylde discussed his participation in the tour while talking to rock VJ and ambassador Matt Pinfield and Jose Mangin of Danny Witmer presents and this weekend’s Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival in Ohio. “When Vinnie was still alive, when the fellows were all talking about doing it, I just always told ’em, I said, ‘Of course I would… If you asked me, why would I not do it? I’m gonna honor Dime.’ It could be like Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell asking Eric Clapton if he would go out and honor Jimi [Hendrix] and Eric playing Jimi’s stuff and singing Jimi’s songs and they’re going out as the ‘Jimi Hendrix celebration.’ And he’s gonna honor his buddy and he’s gonna play his songs. I think it’s a beautiful thing. It’s like when we do the ‘Dimebash’ [events in honor of Dimebag], it’s a celebration of Dime’s greatness. It’s a Pantera celebration — that’s what it is… You’re celebrating Vinnie and Dime’s greatness and you’re celebrating all the mountains that Pantera conquered and crushed.”
Wylde also stressed that this upcoming tour is a tribute to the band’s classic lineup and the Abbott brothers. “Obviously, it’s not Pantera,” he said. “Pantera is those four guys — it’s Phil, Rex, Dime and Vinnie. But it’s just like when [Led] Zeppelin went out with Jason Bonham [son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham] playing, it was phenomenal. It told Jason, I was just, like, ‘Dude, you crushed it, man.’ It’s a great thing just to hear them play that music again. I’m beyond honored to be a part of it.”
Benante and Anthrax had long been tour mates and friends of Pantera and especially of the Abbott brothers. Dimebag guested on numerous Anthrax albums, and Anselmo even made an appearance on the band’s 1998 effort, “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real,” singing backing vocals on the song, “Killing Box.” Benante told SiriusXM about the first time he met Vinnie Paul: “The very first time, it was the first time we ever were in Texas. And those guys were there. We played at this club, and I believe Pantera were the opening band. A mutual friend of ours, who everybody knows now — Rita [Haney, longtime girlfriend of Dimebag] — she kind of was the conduit to grouping us together to become friendly. We’ve known those guys since 1985, and just the two of them, Darrell and Vinnie, after you met those two, it was like you had a friend in Texas, both of them, and they just made the experience so much better, and you immediately bonded. So throughout the years, we just remained friends.”
“I always equated Dime and Vinnie as, like, Alex and Eddie from Van Halen; I always thought Pantera was like Van Halen reborn,” Benante continued. “They had a guitar player, who was a hero. The drummers were fucking awesome, but the thing about Vinnie that, I think, not a lot of people know — maybe they do — but from a technical side of things, Vinnie made those Pantera records sound like that. He was the guy behind it all who was turning the knobs, EQing sh*t so that his kick drum wasn’t fighting with Darrell’s f*cking chunky guitar. He was a lot of the brains and the glue that held that band together and, basically, pushed that band.”
