Zakk Wylde on Possible Pantera Music: “It Would Need a Different Name”

Zakk Wylde has been clear about where he stands when it comes to Pantera creating new music. While he stepped in as a touring guitarist in 2022, filling the void left by the late Dimebag Darrell, he doesn’t believe Pantera can exist without its original core.

Speaking with SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Wylde stated:

“Pantera is those four guys. So, yeah, you can’t replace that.”

However, Wylde did acknowledge that the band has discussed “doing something” with older material. He revealed that Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend, Rita Haney, possesses recordings of Dimebag writing riffs and ideas, leaving the door open for potential posthumous releases.

Wylde likened the situation to Eric Clapton finishing an album from Jimi Hendrix’s unreleased ideas, saying:

“If it’s Jimi’s original ideas, and they’re just going to properly record ’em, take it from the little tape recorder from a cassette, yeah, that would be cool.”

Still, he drew a clear distinction between working on Dimebag and Vinnie Paul’s pre-existing ideas versus writing entirely new Pantera music, stating:

“How could you call it Pantera unless it was just pre-existing material and we were gonna record it—stuff that was in demo state or whatever, and it is songs that the guys wrote.”

As for brand-new Pantera music with Wylde in the mix?

“You’d call it something else.”

From his comments, it seems that Wylde wouldn’t be involved in writing new Pantera songs unless they were built from Dimebag’s original ideas. If that’s the case, he seems open to the possibility—but under the right circumstances.

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