Even though half the band has sadly passed on, there is still occasional talk of a Pantera reunion. Bassist Rex Brown recently addressed the hopes, bringing the topic up himself, and offered an interesting morcel – if a Pantera reunion were to happen, Brown "guarantees" Zakk Wylde wouldn't be involved.
Speaking to eonmusic, the topic came up and here's how Rex addressed it:
It must be hard to imagine how huge the band would be if you were able to tour, had all four members been alive today; surely Pantera would be bigger than ever?
It would be sold out stadium shows, yeah. Offers still come in for Philip and I to do it if we wanted to, but if you don’t have the other guys in the band it’s not going to sound the same. If we were ever to do something like that it would have to be spot on, or I wouldn’t do it. It would be a tribute.
I wasn’t going to bore you with the usual question about a reunion with Zakk Wylde taking Dime’s place.
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.
Brown's use of "guarantee" is pretty interesting here. Why his reservation about Wylde is unknown at the time.
Wylde hasn't addressed a fabled Pantera reunion since October 2019, shortly after drummer Vinnie Paul passed. At the time, Wylde was interviewed by The Cassius Morris Show and said
"When Saint Vinnie [late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who died in June 2018] was still around, they were talking about it then," Zakk said (hear audio below). 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.
"If we got together and we ended up doing it, it would be like… I just look at it like if Eric Clapton went out and was with Mitch [Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix's drummer] and Noel [Redding, Hendrix's bass player] and singing and playing Jimi's songs, and he's honoring Jimi, 'cause that was his buddy.
"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 [late Pantera guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott] — 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."
Will such a reunion ever happen? It's really up to Phil and Rex. Now, there is a new wrinkle in the equation – if it were to happen, who's playing guitar and drums?
