Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante, the drummer for Anthrax, will perform on Pantera’s 2023 reunion tour.
Next year, the group will perform at a number of major festivals in North America and Europe as well as some headlining shows of their own.
This summer, Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown, guitarist Zakk Wylde, and drummer Charlie Benante of Anthrax will embark on a world tour as Pantera. The band will headline several significant festivals in North America and Europe as well as some of their own headline shows, a source close to the band tells Billboard.
The lineup has received approval from Brown, who declared last year that Wylde wouldn’t perform with a reformed Pantera if that were to happen, as well as the estates of the band’s founders, Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. What made him change his mind is unknown.
Due to his association with the Abbott brothers, his accomplishments in hard rock and heavy metal, and his status in the industry, Wylde has long been regarded as the de facto replacement for “Dimebag” Darrell. Wylde is the Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne’s principal guitarist.
Wylde was close friends with “Dimebag” Darrell, who was killed in 2004 while playing with his band Damageplan on stage in Columbus, Ohio, and Vinnie, who passed away in 2018 from heart disease-related complications. Prior to “Dimebag” Darrell’s death, Wylde performed the second guitar solo on Damageplan’s song “Reborn” and appeared on stage with them for a number of performances for MTV’s Headbangers Ball tour.
This summer, Wylde will accompany Ozzy Osbourne on his No More Tours 2 tour for around seven weeks from early May to mid-June.
The tour, which was initially announced in 2018, was postponed twice because of Osbourne’s health troubles and then rescheduled twice more owing to COVID worries.
Early in the 1980s, before Anselmo joined the band, Benante began working with Pantera. Prior to the release of Anthrax’s debut album Fistful of Metal in 1983, drummer Benante joined the group and has remained with them ever since. Stormtroopers of Death, a crossover thrash band, also count him as a member.
Dennis Arfa and Peter Pappalardo, who work for Artist Group International, will handle the booking for Pantera’s North American shows.
Scott McGhee of 1 Degree Music Entertainment is in charge of managing the band.
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