The Pantera reunion tour has long been considered the great, fabled, metal reunion tour of all time — and one that would almost certainly never happen. Given that guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbot and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott are both dead, it’s been generally assumed that the tour was a pipe dream. But now, it appears that the band’s surviving members, vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, are cashing in and doing a Pantera reunion tour.
According to Billboard, Anselmo and Brown have signed up with Artist Group International to book a set of 2023 North American dates under the Pantera name. The only other thing that the band have revealed is that guitarist and longtime friend of Dimebag’s Zakk Wylde will not be involved.
Says booking agent Peter Pappalardo, “We are thrilled to be working with such an iconic band and bringing their music back to the fans.”
We hope this “reunion” brings some Pantera fans joy and a sense of excitement. We hope they have a good time. But for what it’s worth, I think this is an incredibly stupid idea. So much of Pantera’s untamable magic was the Abbott Brothers, Dimebag especially (no shade on Vinnie, we love Vinnie, but he wasn’t the fleet-fingered riff god that Darrell was). Meanwhile, Pantera broke up under unpleasant circumstances, and I never got the vibe that Phil and the Abbotts were back on awesome terms. This feels like well-packaged sour milk to me. But hey, guess I won’t buy tickets and that’ll be that.
More on this story as it unfolds.