ZAKK WYLDE Praises DIMEBAG’s ‘Amazing Technique’ And Songwriting: ‘The Solos Are The Icing On The Cake’

In a new interview with The Garza Podcast, hosted by SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza, Zakk Wylde was asked what the “hardest part” has been of him being the touring guitarist for the reactivated PANTERA and learning to play the band’s classic songs. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “You just sit and you learn ’em. What I just find super interesting is going into the catalog and all the chord choices that Dime [late PANTERA guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott] would make. Going into a pre-chorus or something, it’s, like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s cool. I would’ve never went there.’ And I could hear where Dime’s going. Like, if Dime was there, I’d go, ‘Oh, I see what you did there.’ He’d say, like, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s the reason why I went there, because it seems like it’s obvious to go here. So I would go here.’ You know what I mean? But I think that’s what makes Dime — another realm of his greatness, just like Randy [Rhoads] and Eddie [Van Halen] and all the guys he that inspired him, is his writing. Aside of his amazing technique and the solos and everything like that, it’s just his writing. So all the guys that we love, whether it’s Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Randy, Eddie, it’s their writing. And the solos are the icing on the cake. But you have to have the cake to put the icing on. Mind you, the sugar is good. There’s nothing wrong with getting a massive case of diabetes, a delicious case of diabetes. But the frosting is amazing. It’s delicious, but you need the cake.”

Naming some of the specific songs that he enjoyed learning to play, Zakk said: “I thought it was fun when we were playing ‘I’ll Cast A Shadow’. We added that to the set. That one was cool. In D. And it was one of the few songs that Dime ever wrote that was in D, with the drop-D tuning. Yeah, we added that one. And then ’10’s’ we added to the show. That was fun, playing that one every night. And then, obviously, ‘Floods’, some of the darker ones and the mellow guys. But I have a blast playing every one of the songs. ‘Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit’ — that was always fun playing that one. It was a good up rock song. But I just love the whole thing, right from the beginning to the [end] — the whole set. It’s fun playing the whole thing. And rolling up there with Charlie [Benante, drums], Rex [Brown, bass] and Philip [Anselmo, vocals] and the whole PANTERA celebration family, everybody that’s there, the crew from hell and everything like that — just all great people, and it’s a beautiful thing every night.”

Reflecting on the current PANTERA lineup’s first-ever show, which took place in December 2022 at Mexico’s Hell & Heaven Metal Fest, Zakk said: “Actually, the first one, before the kabuki dropped, it felt like — I got the rush, kind of like the first Ozzy [Osbourne] gig I ever did. The adrenaline and the rush brought me back to the first Ozzy show I ever did in Pensacola, Florida. It was like that — the four of us all together and ready to do this thing… It was a lot of fun, man. For sure.”

Asked when he felt that he finally found his “groove” while performing the PANTERA material, Zakk — who still fronts his long-running band BLACK LABEL SOCIETY and the early BLACK SABBATH tribute act ZAKK SABBATH — said: “I think the more and more you do it, the more you’re comfortable… Even anything — even doing the Ozzy shows, doing the ZAKK SABBATH shows, I think with anything, the more you do it, the more it’s — not easier; [it’s] just more natural every. Or even with BLACK LABEL, I think the first three shows [of the tour] or whatever, everybody’s worried about it being… even the crew, making sure the lights are cool and the guitar changes, this and that, and whatever. But, like I said, the whole crew, [they’re] all great people, so when we all get together, it’s like getting together for summer camp. So it’s all good. It’s always a blast, man… We’ve all known each other for years, but now I get to roll with the fellas every night and the whole camp.”

Two years ago, Zakk told Australia’s Heavy about his approach to playing the PANTERA material: “You play the songs. I mean, obviously I’m gonna play how I play, but you stay faithful to the songs. If Dime was doing the same thing for me, if he was filling in for Ozzy and Dime was playing the solo to ‘No More Tears’, no matter what, if he played it note for note, it would still have Dime’s touch and Dime’s feel on his tone. So, yeah, it’d be the same thing. It’s no different than when we were doing Ozzy stuff, when I’m playing ‘Mr. Crowley’, you stay faithful to what [Randy] Rhoads wrote. The same thing when I do Jake’s [E. Lee] stuff, I stay faithful to Jake’s solo in ‘Bark At The Moon’ and everything like that.”

Two years earlier, Zakk told Guitar World about reproducing Dimebag’s parts: “No matter what I do, it’s going to sound like me. I can practice all I want and stay as faithful as I want, but I am never going to escape that. It’s like if Randy Rhoads were to play Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Eruption’. No matter what he did, it would sound like Randy playing, not Eddie. You’re never going to mistake Randy for Eddie or Eddie for Randy, and it’s the same thing here with me playing Dime’s stuff.”

The reformed PANTERA is headlining a number of major festivals across North America, South America and Europe and staging its own headlining tours. They are also supporting METALLICA on a massive stadium tour.

It was first reported in July 2022 that Anselmo and Brown would unite with Wylde and Benante for a world tour under the PANTERA banner.

According to Billboard, the lineup has been given a green light by the estates of Dimebag and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, as well as Brown, who in 2021 said Wylde wouldn’t tour with PANTERA if a reunion were to happen. It’s unclear what changed his mind.

Up until his passing in June 2018, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for Dimebag’s death.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend Rita Haney in 2011 called on Vinnie and Philip to settle their differences in honor of Dimebag.

Vinnie, who was Dimebag’s brother, and Anselmo had not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie suggested that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag’s killer.

Haney told the producers of “Behind The Music Remastered: Pantera” that she forgave the singer after they found themselves unexpectedly face to face at a concert in California.