Zakk Wylde states that this line up “It’s the Pantera celebration. It’s not Pantera”

In a new interview with The Mistress Carrie Podcast, Zakk Wylde discussed the choice to tour with a reunited Pantera, which will include surviving members Philip Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass), as well as Charlie Benante (Anthrax) on drums. According to reports, the estates of Pantera’s founders, drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, have approved the lineup. When asked what he would have responded a few years ago if someone had told him he would one day be the guitarist for Pantera, Zakk replied:

Well, [it’s] the Pantera celebration. It’s not Pantera. Pantera is Dime, Vinnie, Phil and Rex. So that’s Pantera. But no, it’s a beautiful thing honoring the guys every night. Everybody’s having a blast. Everyone that comes down to the shows either — you have the Pantera faithful taking a trip down memory lane, and you’ve got all the younger, like Phil always calls it, the new blood. And it’s amazing every night how many… It’s just a testament to what the fellas created. Because we’ve got so many young people that have never seen Pantera before. For me, for my situation, I never got a chance to see Led Zeppelin. So, if Zeppelin got back together, and you had, I mean, right now with Jason [Bonham] playing the drums, ’cause I never got a chance to see it. So, it’s that kind of situation. So it’s all the younger kids coming up hearing that their older brothers listened to it or their dad or whatever, and now they’re at the gig to hear this music live. So, to me, it’s truly a beautiful thing every night we play honoring the guys.

Zakk discussed how having to analyze Dimebag’s parts has caused his perception of the guitarist to shift.

I already knew my buddy was great. I already knew Dime was great. But then the more I was learning this stuff, I was, like, he’s even greater than I ever thought. But, no, learning all the stuff or going through actually learning the songs, it’s just, aside of Dime’s great technique and his chops and everything like that… I mean, to me, his legacy is — I put it more like Tony Iommi, where what Tony created with Sabbath was basically its own entire genre of music. So Pantera, they’re the gold standard of that genre of music, whether it’s ‘power groove’ or whatever, what Dime called it. The Lamb Of God guys are amazing, but they’re cut from that cloth, that style of music that Pantera forged, and all the bands that come after that. I mean, it’s just kind of like Pantera, what Pantera created in their genre is the same thing as The Beatles, The Stones, Zeppelin and Sabbath, all the bands that we love, where they’re the benchmark of that style of music. So, yeah, that’s why I always tell everybody, it’s not so much how fast Dime was and everything like that; it’s what he wrote. And that’s his legacy, to me.

He also shares what it’s like to play the intro to “Walk” every night.

It’s truly amazing. Phil always says it every night. When we’re, doing the shows with Metallica, he goes, ‘I think a lot of people don’t know who we are, don’t know who Pantera is, he goes, ‘but once that riff starts. They go, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard this song before.’ It’s an iconic riff, for sure. Totally.”

In a different interview, he also addressed how it it to play “A New Level” as the beginning track.

Oh, it’s awesome. I love every second of the show — from the beginning to the end, man. Obviously, when we’re doing ‘Floods’, I get pretty choked up doing that one, especially the end bit, the outro of Dime’s, ’cause it’s just me by myself. I don’t see the video screens that are behind me, but, obviously, when I’ve seen the footage of it, it’s just, like, ‘Wow.’ There’s just pretty much not a dry eye in the house on that one. Yeah, I definitely get choked up doing that one, when we do ‘Floods’. Everybody in the camp, everybody’s just all great people. I mean, we’ve all known each other — the fellows in the band, we’ve known each other, but as far as the whole camp and the crew, we’ve all known each other from various tours and things. So it’s like one gigantic family out there. So, I mean, the whole vibe, it’s just a beautiful thing.