During a recent appearance on Metal Injection, Zakk Wylde said he can’t match Dimebag Darrell’s style in Pantera.
“I don’t think you could do that,” the guitarist replied when he changed anything in his playing before playing in Pantera. “Eddie Van Halen is gonna end up playing… Just listen to Ed. Whenever he is playing, you know Eddie’s playing. You can google him on YouTube playing ‘Fire’ by Jimi Hendrix. It sounds like Eddie Van Halen playing ‘Fire.’”
Wylde continued, “We do the Sabbath songs. We play ‘Children of the Grave’ and everything like that. It sounds like Randy [Rhoads] playing Sabbath songs. I think Dime was in the same position. He had to play ‘No More Tears.’ I would hear it and go, ‘My buddy playing my solo. Dime is killing it.’”
He went on to give another example, explaining, “If Phil would sing a Doors song, it would sound like Phil singing the Doors because Phil has a sound. So, in that regard, you can’t tune the solos on tour. ‘I wanna play a solo and walk.’ You’re playing a solo unbroken. It’s just like Dime brought it.”
“I just found it interesting that especially going into the deeper cuts and stuff we play live, I tell everybody I always knew Dime was great but now I know he’s even greater than he was I thought from the beginning. It’s just his writing,” Wylde further praised Darrell.
“I always say it every night, when we were playing the Garden, it’s just like if Dime and Vinnie were right there on the side of the stage, I’d go, ‘Look at what you guys created.’ So it’s really special,” Zakk previously said of how it felt like performing with Pantera.
He added, “I think it’s just a beautiful thing every night paying honor and tribute to Dime and Vinnie every night, Phil and Rex and Dime and Vinnie, this thing that they created that brings so many people joy. So, I just think it’s a beautiful thing every night.”
In July 2022, it was announced that Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo were reuniting for Pantera’s first tour in 22 years. Wylde and Charlie Benante joined as replacements for the Abbott brothers.
The band played their first show in 21 years at the Hell and Heaven festival in Mexico on December 2, 2022. Their next concert is on October 10 at Aftershock Festival. Then, they will be touring Europe in early 2025.