Dimebag Darrell wanted to ‘go back to Pantera’ before his death

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Guitarist’s close friend says Dimebag wanted to reunite with ex-Pantera bandmates

(Image credit: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)

Dimebag Darrell wanted to reform Pantera shortly before his death, according to a close friend.

Longtime Pantera/Damageplan videographer Daryl ‘Bobby Tongs’ Arnberger told the Landry.audio podcast that the guitarist told him less than a month before he died that he was going to “do whatever it takes” to get his former band back together and reunite with estranged singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown.

Says Arnbeger: The last time I saw him was in November of 2004… I went over to his house. I was just talking to him briefly about everything. He was, like, 'We're gonna go out and do this [Damageplan] tour through December, and I'll see you for Christmas and everything. After that, we're gonna have some new shit going on. And it's not gonna be this. Whatever it takes, we're gonna get these guys back together and do it right.’

“He was saying he was gonna do everything he could. He was pretty much done with what they [Damageplan] were doing at that point. He wanted to move on and go back to Pantera."

Referring to Damageplan, Arnberger added: "He didn't think the other guys were as into it. He obviously didn't feel the magic as much as he did with the other two guys [Anslemo and Brown].”

Pantera acrimoniously split following 2000’s Reinventing The Steel album. Dimebag was shot and killed onstage at the Alrosa Villa club in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8, 2004. His brother, Pantera drummer, Vinnie Paul died in June 2018.

Dave Everley
Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.