Original Pantera vocalist Terrence Lee “Terry” Glaze recently reflected on his time fronting the legendary metal band during their early “party metal” era, long before Philip Anselmo took over the microphone.
During a recent appearance on the “Pod Scum” podcast hosted by “Reckless” Rexx Ruger, the singer looked back on his contributions to the group’s first three studio albums: 1983’s Metal Magic, 1984’s Projects In The Jungle, and 1985’s I Am The Night. After his departure from the Texas outfit, he went on to form the hard rock group Lord Tracy.
When asked how he views those initial records today, the frontman encouraged fans to focus on the incredible guitar skills of Dimebag Darrell Abbott.
“Well, when you first start off, of course everybody’s gonna look back at their first efforts and go, ‘It’s not as good as my more mature efforts.’ But I think if you listen to that stuff, Darrell‘s guitar sounds amazing from day one, and especially by the second album, Projects, he’s fully formed. And so if you can look back past my glam singing and listen to the guitars, the rhythms, they sound very consistent to everything they ever did. Darrell‘s just a bada**. So I’m very proud and really fortunate to be just a tiny part of the history of that whole thing. So, I think I would encourage everybody to go back and look up Darrell‘s playing, ’cause it’s just amazing.”
Discussing what it was like to share a band with the Abbott brothers—guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and drummer Vinnie Paul—he described them as lovable, larger-than-life characters who fully embraced the rock and roll lifestyle around the clock. He also highlighted the young guitar prodigy’s unmatched talent and wild backstage antics.
“I always remember Vinnie Paul and the rest of those guys, they were kind of like wrestlers — 24-7, and they never came outta character. They were just big, lovable rock and roll animals. So it was a lot of fun,” Terry recalled.
“Dime was a special little person. And he terrorized the crew, and no one ever got him back. I was always shocked that everybody loved Dime so much that he did some of the most crazy stuff to all the road crew and no one ever touched him. I don’t really have any of those stories that I wanna share out on a microphone, but every night was an adventure with Darrell. And you’re out there playing and you’re learning how to rock and you’re learning how to play live and you look to your left and you have a guitar player who can play literally anything. He was destroying [Eddie] Van Halen before YouTube. He was destroying Randy Rhoads before YouTube, and then adding his own flavor. How lucky was I that the first real band I ever get in, it’s in a band with Darrell and Vince? It was just an amazing opportunity and I don’t take it for granted.”
Despite parting ways with the heavy metal pioneers, the singer confirmed that he paid close attention to their massive career evolution and kept in touch over the years. He shared a heartwarming memory of hearing their breakthrough 1992 album before it was officially released.
“For sure. Before Vulgar [Display Of Power] came out [in 1992], Darrell came to see Lord Tracy play in Dallas. And after the show, we went out in his limo and he played me a cassette, the rough mixes of Vulgar. And he was sitting there air guitaring to ‘Mouth For War‘. And he was looking at me just smiling. He goes, ‘Van Halen.’ And I was, like, ‘Yes.’ And then the next tour, when they came to California, I went out with them for a couple days with them and saw ’em, and it was incredible.”
