Back in July, it was reported that Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, along with Pantera’s surviving members, singer Philip Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, will tour as Pantera, headlining a number of major festivals across North America and Europe and staging some of their own headline concerts.
As per a report by Billboard, Wylde and Benante’s involvement in the project has been approved by the estates of Pantera’s late co-founders, drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott.
Zakk Wylde says he has to learn Pantera songs
Zakk discussed his participation in the Pantera celebration tour during an appearance on The SDR Show.
He said: “I had nothing to do with [putting the Pantera thing together]. 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?'”
He continued: “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?”
Zakk went on to clarify that he has yet to learn how to play the Pantera material, despite the fact that he was close friends with Dimebag.
“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.'”
