Surviving Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown will team up with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde for a Pantera tribute tour in 2023. Benante recently revealed that Anselmo originally floated the idea to him in December 2021, and "then it became real about January [or] February." Now The Pit has revisited their interview with Anselmo from this past February (so around that time) regarding Pantera, where he said brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul wanted Pantera to be a legacy band.
"Dimebag and Vince always wanted this band to be a legacy band, to be massive, to be our own conduit to success, simply put," said Anselmo. "I think Dime and Vince — I know Dime and Vince — would want the legacy and the name of Pantera to go on and on and on and in everybody's damn face. I know that for sure. Abso-fucking-utely, dude. That would be their biggest dream."
In a recent and extensive interview with Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Wylde said he plans to approach the music the same way he approached playing someone like Randy Rhoads' parts with Ozzy Osbourne – as faithfully as humanly possible.
"You approach it the same way as you do when I'm playing with Ozzy," said Wylde. "Obviously I've gotta learn Rhoads's stuff and I've gotta learn Jake's [E. Lee] stuff, and when I was doing the Sabbath stuff, you learn it and do it as faithful as you can. Charlie's gotta learn all of Vinnie's parts. You approach it as if you're in a cover band. When we do the Zakk Sabbath stuff. I don't start changing lyrics midway through 'War Pigs.' You learn the songs — so that's what you do."
Benante concurred, adding "I can't go do this as the drummer from Anthrax because it would be a different sound completely. So the way I'm gonna do that is if you close your eyes, it's gonna sound like it's Vinnie, basically. And that's how it's gonna be… The sound is gonna sound exactly like him."
As for when exactly the Pantera tour will take place, Benante simply said he has no idea. So stay tuned!
