It’s Official: ZAKK WYLDE And CHARLIE BENANTE To Tour With PANTERA’s Surviving Members

First reported as a rumor by BLABBERMOUTH.NET last night, it has now been confirmed that ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante and OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Zakk Wylde are the musicians who will join PANTERA‘s surviving members on a reunion tour.

Wylde and Benante, along with 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.

Benante and Wylde have both voiced their appreciation for PANTERA‘s musical legacy on a number of occasions in recent years. Back in June 2018, just one day after the death of Vinnie Paul, Benante told SiriusXM about the first time he met the PANTERA drummer: “The very first time, it was the first time we ever were in Texas. And those guys [PANTERA] 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.”

In 2019, Anselmo, who has spent the past few years playing a PANTERA-centric set with his solo band, THE ILLEGALS, told Chile’s Humo Negro that he would consider getting together with Wylde and Brown and performing PANTERA‘s classic songs in concert. “Well, Zakk is a busy man,” he said. “He does his own band, he does stuff with Ozzy and all that stuff. We spoke about it maybe one time. And I think everybody — everybody — is… I guess they’re like me. Keep an open mind about it. We’ll see. But I know from all the hard work with [Anselmo‘s] THE ILLEGALS [project] here to make those songs right, all of us, we would have to take time off and really practice together and get everything perfect. So it’s a lot of work. And I’m doing a lot of bands, man, right now. [But] if everything was lined up, I would do it — sure. Fuck yeah! Why not?”

Zakk was also open to the idea, telling “The Cassius Morris Show” in October 2019: “When Saint Vinnie was still around, they were talking about it then. I mean, the way I always looked at it is it’s a PANTERA celebration and an honor. I mean, every night I’m playing with Ozz, we honor Saint Rhoads [late Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoads]. I’m playing the Randy stuff every night, and I’m blessed and it’s an honor to do it. Basically, we’re paying tribute to Randy every night — keeping his music alive.

“No one’s replacing anybody. No one’s replacing Randy Rhoads — he was a one-off. Just like no one’s replacing Jimi Hendrix and no one’s replacing Dime — or Vinnie.

“If [LED] ZEPPELIN was going out, and if Jason‘s [Bonham] playing drums, no one’s replacing his father. What they’re doing is celebrating his father’s greatness and what he achieved and all the mountains he conquered with ZEPPELIN. It’s more of a tribute and a celebration than it is… You can’t replace any of these people I’m talking about — they’re all legendary guys. But, yeah, you’re just celebrating all their achievements — that’s all.”

When Eonmusic interviewer Eamon O’Neill added that he wasn’t about to ask the usual question about a reunion with Zakk Wylde taking the place of Dimebag, Rex offered: “It’s going to come up, and it wouldn’t be Zakk Wylde, I guarantee you that. I’ve just put it out there so we can get on past it.”

In February 2020, Haney said she would “definitely” be in favor of Anselmo, Brown and Wylde teaming up for a PANTERA tribute tour. A few days later, Brown weighed in on her comments, writing on Twitter: “I wanna make sure that ppl understand what I’m about to tweet.. It’s not up to Rita to say what will happen, only what Philip & I say…I’m in!! Dig?!?!?”

When asked to clarify if she would “be okay with a tour,” she responded: “I definitely would. I’d wanna be at every show. [Laughs]”

Talk about a possible PANTERA “reunion” intensified when Anselmo regularly joined Wylde‘s BLACK LABEL SOCIETY to perform PANTERA‘s song “I’m Broken” during DOWN‘s 2014 stint on the “Revolver Golden Gods Tour”. That buzz only got stronger after Brown joined the jam on May 23, 2014 when the tour swung through Texas.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Source:  www.blabbermouth.net