In the era of comebacks, flashbacks, remakes, and reboots, Pantera are rocking their way back into the headlines. But there is one man, Charlie Benante who is defending this ressurgance.
According to Blabbermouth, Charlie Benante says that “it felt right” for him to take part in Pantera’s comeback more than 20 years since the last time the band performed live.
Joining the Anthrax drummer in Pantera’s reformed lineup are surviving members Rex Brown (bass) and Philip Anselmo (vocals),along with guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society ZZY).
Benante opened up about his participation in Pantera’s return during a new appearance on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, hosted by wrestling superstar and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho.
Charlie said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net) “I had found out [about Pantera playing shows again] towards the end of December [2021] — maybe it was the beginning of January [of 2022] when Philip called me up — and I immediately said, ‘Yup. I wanna do it.’ It just felt right. For some reason, with Darrell and Vinnie being gone, I, myself, missed these songs. You can listen to ’em all you want, but I think having them being performed in front of you and being performed the right way, it really resonated with a lot of people once they really found out that this was gonna happen.”
He continued: “We always joke about if The Beatles, if John [Lennon] and George [Harrison] had still been here, would there have been a reunion. And I think the first thing I said was it probably would have been at the first Live Aid. The thing about Vinnie and Dime not being here anymore, and Philip and Rex are here, I think those guys felt, ‘I wanna go play my songs again too.'”
