Rex Brown recently decided to address the speculation about a possible Pantera reprise with Phil Anselmo and one of the band's longtime friends, guitarist Zakk Wylde.
Addressing new comments by the late-"Dimebag" Darrell's longtime girlfriend Rita Haney, Brown took on the idea once-and-for-all via Twitter...and then deleted his post.
"I wanna make sure that [people] understand what I'm about to tweet," Brown wrote in the since-deleted post. "It's not up to Rita to say what will happen, only what Philip & I say... I'm in!! Dig?!?!?"
Haney told The Blairing Out Show at the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund benefit that she fully supports the idea of Brown and Anselmo organizing some kind of Pantera tribute, but she says a band reunion without the brothers Darrell and Paul seems "distasteful."
"It's kind of a cliché to say, but [Darrell] truly would be grateful that he meant that much to them," Haney said. "And I think if they wanna honor their fallen brothers with a tribute, I think that that's great."
She continued: "...[F]rom a fan's point, if I hadn't been able to see them play or hear those songs...I think it's great that they could at least see it performed — and by people that truly love 'em. So yeah, I think it would be a really cool thing."
Following Darrell's murder in 2004, Wylde has repeatedly been brought up in speculation about how a Pantera reunion could work, assuming Paul reconciled with Brown and Anselmo (he never did).
Wylde was a friend of Pantera's throughout its heyday and a close confidant to Darrell. He intimately knows Darrell's unique style of guitar playing and has before expressed interest in collaborating with the surviving Pantera band members.
Anselmo has spoken reverently of Pantera in the recent past and for years lamented his rift with Paul. Following Paul's death in 2018, Anselmo performed some Pantera material in honor of his old drummer.
Brown's declaration of interest is an important moment. It's likely, however, that the fate of any Pantera-related project rests on Anselmo's shoulders, his busy schedule (he fronts several different bands) and how he can reconcile performing Pantera music again with his lack of closure with two of the band's late-co-founders Darrell and Paul.
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