The reception to the Pantera celebration shows have been largely positive, with fans even recently making it known that they'd be cool with a Pantera live album. Pantera is currently Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown alongside Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde – a configuration that Billboard had reported was okay'ed by the estates of Pantera founders Vinnie Paul and "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.
Though if you ask Mudvayne and Hellyeah vocalist Chad Gray, he's not sure Vinnie Paul would've been thrilled. In an interview with The Jesea Lee Show, Gray said his former Hellyeah bandmate was not into the idea of a Pantera reunion while he was alive.
It should be noted right up top that Gray later states he has "nothing but love for Zakk. And Charlie's a fucking tremendous talent" and "I've got nothing but really good things to say [about Benante and Wylde's performances]." So none of this is a shot at the new guys.
"I know what it is, and I know that some levels of the intention are true and pure, but I also know that from sitting in on a million fucking interviews with Vinnie Paul and him and I interviewing together and shit, and the whole time, basically, that [Pantera reunion] wasn't happening," said Gray.
"And there was always some clown interviewer [who] apparently was just setting himself up for failure, he'd be, like, 'So what's the deal with all the mutterings we're hearing about the Pantera reunion with Zakk,' and Vinnie would literally go, 'My brother's dead.' It's all he would say. That's all he would fucking say. And they wouldn't say another fucking word. And that's where it was. And that's the way Vinnie thought about it. Pantera was done 'cause his brother was dead.
"So when I hear that and I hear how passionately he said that, and I know how much he meant it… He didn't care. Vinnie didn't need the fucking money. Vinnie's whole heart was in Hellyeah. He loved Hellyeah so fucking much. It was such an honor to be able to play in that band with him and have him literally bleed for that band. It was everything to him, and he didn't care about Pantera anymore."
Gray mentioned that he knows "people are loving to fucking be standing on that floor again… blazing into those fucking songs and playing that setlist," but that seeing a Pantera without the brothers has been difficult.
"I was best friends with one of the fucking men that did it, that made that band happen and stuff like that. And he was never behind it, man. He was just never behind it.
"So it's hard, for me to… 'cause I have a lot of fucking respect for Vinnie Paul. I really do. And I have a lot of respect for Dimebag Darrell. And it's cool — let it be the tribute thing or whatever, but really question how much longer it goes or what else happens with it.
"I would just like to make sure that we're giving love and respect to those two fallen brothers, man, because they were a really, really fucking big part of music, man. It seems like kind of a cheat that they're not here to be a part of it, something that they built with their own hands."
