Zakk Wylde, the current touring guitarist for the reactivated metal legends Pantera, recently sat down for an interview with “The Garza Podcast,” hosted by Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza. During the conversation, Wylde opened up about the complexities of learning the band’s classic material and the genius behind the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott‘s playing.
When asked what the most difficult part of stepping into Dimebag‘s shoes has been, Wylde emphasized that the challenge—and the brilliance—lies in the songwriting choices rather than just the solos.
“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,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Wylde also highlighted specific tracks that he has particularly enjoyed adding to the setlist, noting some unique tuning choices Dimebag employed.
“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 S**t‘ — 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 magnitude of the reunion, Wylde compared the feeling of Pantera‘s first show in December 2022 at Mexico’s Hell & Heaven Metal Fest to his very first gig with Ozzy Osbourne decades ago.
“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.”
Since that debut performance, Wylde—who also fronts Black Label Society and Zakk Sabbath—says the group has found a natural rhythm.
“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.”
