Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown will unite with Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante to perform the music of Pantera live on tour in 2023. Though according to Benante in a recent Q&A before an Anthrax, the "tour" won't be anything massive. When asked by a fan if the Pantera tour will be a full-blown trek, Benante said "I don't think so."
Benante later responded to another fan regarding online hate for the upcoming tour, plainly stating that those folks shouldn't come. Which makes sense – why bother showing up to something you're not going to enjoy? It's really that simple. Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian also joked about Benante's sentiment, adding "That's the line online tomorrow: 'Charlie Benante on Pantera tour: don't come'."
In a recent and extensive interview with Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Wylde said he plans to approach the music the same way he approached playing someone like Randy Rhoads' parts with Ozzy Osbourne – as faithfully as humanly possible.
"You approach it the same way as you do when I'm playing with Ozzy," said Wylde. "Obviously I've gotta learn Rhoads's stuff and I've gotta learn Jake's [E. Lee] stuff, and when I was doing the Sabbath stuff, you learn it and do it as faithful as you can. Charlie's gotta learn all of Vinnie's parts. You approach it as if you're in a cover band. When we do the Zakk Sabbath stuff. I don't start changing lyrics midway through 'War Pigs.' You learn the songs — so that's what you do."
Benante concurred, adding "I can't go do this as the drummer from Anthrax because it would be a different sound completely. So the way I'm gonna do that is if you close your eyes, it's gonna sound like it's Vinnie, basically. And that's how it's gonna be… The sound is gonna sound exactly like him."
