Pantera: News, History & Updates

Biography by DAVID ELLEFSON from MEGADETH

Exclusively for Alternative Nation

What Made Pantera Unique

David Ellefson: So, the first album feels like the first time, right? For me, my Pantera is still the Power Metal album. And that is pre-Cowboys from Hell. That was the first album when Phil Anselmo had just joined the band – it still had some ZZ Top, some Van Halen and a little bit of some Megadeth, Metallica, right? They were transitioning to what would become Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display. Basically, the ’90s version of Pantera. I was introduced to them by a girlfriend of mine from Texas back in 1988. I was down there. I met the guys. We went out, drank hard, a good time, and Dimebag – who was known as Diamond Darrell at that time – after we had been drinking all night, he comes up to me, and he looks me dead in the eye, and he goes, “David, I just want to tell you the Peace Sells album changed my life.” And I kind of shrugged it off like, “Oh, thanks, man. Appreciate it.” And I remember he put his hand on my shoulder. He goes, “No, it changed my life.” It was like a sobering moment, right there when he said that.

We knew of them. They were making some headlines in some of the magazines – especially the regional, smaller metal magazines. So to meet them, to hang out with them, see that they’re cool guys, they invited me on stage the next night to play “Peace Sells” with them and jam. They were playing a venue there in Dallas that they always played. It was packed. It was sold out. I remember those guys could drink a lot and still play really well. Whereas Megadeth, when we drank a lot, we didn’t sound so good. [Laughs] I was very impressed on how they did that. But they were just a powerhouse of a band. And you could tell they grew up together. They spent their time in the clubs. You could tell Phil Anselmo was a star in the making. And these guys, they really had the goods.

So fast forward, I remember Dave and I were on a promotional tour for Rust in Peace. And we had just done something in New York City, and we had been given a cassette copy of Cowboys from Hell, from Bob Chiappardi, who ran Concrete Marketing. And Concrete Marketing…Pantera’s manager Walter O’Brien had actually, I think, come out of that organization in some way. And funny, Walter O’Brien was our first contact at Combat Records when we were talking to them about signing our deal with Combat Records in 1984. So that’s how long we had kind of known Walter. So, now it’s 1990, he’s got this band, Pantera, that he just signed to ATCO Records.

And I remember Dave and I getting a copy of that, and I listened to it on the plane from New York to LA where we lived at the time. And I could hear the Metallica in it. Like it had really stepped up. The production had stepped up, the songwriting, Phil no longer was kind of in this…like I said, Power Metal was sort of this Van Halen, ZZ Top, almost thrash metal kind of thing. But they had really dialed it in. And Cowboys from Hell I thought was funny and very fitting for those guys, especially having gone out drinking with them, I knew. It’s like, “Yeah, that fits.” And I was sober at the time. This is 1990 so I was sober.

And it was great to see them. Because I could just tell from the press and the magazines that they were a band on the rise. And now they were there. They were at the starting line, ready to get in the race, big time for sure. So for me, taking them on tour, that on Vulgar Display…to me, Vulgar Display, I love that record. That, to me, is Pantera hitting their hitting their stride, for sure. I loved everything about that. Being on the road with them, watching them play those songs. Power Metal and Vulgar Display are probably my two bookends of Pantera – that I that I really love about them.

David Ellefson exclusive Alternative Nation interview conducted by Greg Prato.