Talking exclusively in the new issue of Metal Hammer, Black Label Society leader Zakk Wylde has reflected on consoling his close friend and Pantera predecessor Dimebag Darrell in the 2000s. Following Pantera’s initial dissolution in 2003, Dimebag (real name Darrell Abbott) was unsure of how to continue making music and start afresh with his next band Damageplan, according to Wylde. Pantera had been the guitarist and his drummer brother Vinnie Paul’s life’s work since they co-founded the groove metal four-piece as teenagers in 1981.
“That was the only time I ever talked to [Dimebag] when he wasn’t a force of positivity,” Wylde told writer Jon Wiederhorn. “Clearly, he was still upset about Pantera. They had worked so hard to get to where they did and then it all ended, and he basically had to start over again. He was like, ‘Zakk, what am I gonna do?’”
