PANTERA's REX BROWN: 'No, We Didn't Record A Live Album' In Minneapolis

PANTERA bassist Rex Brown has denied that the band's club show in Minneapolis, Minnesota was recorded for a future live album.

Prior to PANTERA taking the stage on August 15 at First Avenue, comedian Craig Gass performed a stand-up set during which he told the crowd: "Announcement number one. The band you are seeing tonight is not called COWBOYS FROM HELL," a reference to the fact that First Avenue announced the PANTERA gig by tweeting out PANTERA's CFH — Cowboys From Hell — logo on Tuesday, placed over the band's star on the wall outside the venue. "You are about to watch an exclusive show from the band PANTERA. The rumors got out quickly, [and] you guys bought up all the tickets. And you may have heard this rumor. And this is also true. We are recording our first-ever live album right here at the First Avenue. So, there's a couple things you need to know about it. First of all, you will all, for eternity, be heard on a live PANTERA album. That's the good news. The bad news, you're not gonna get paid for this. Welcome to the music business."

Brown has since taken to social media to confirm that Gass's announcement of a PANTERA live album was in fact just a ruse that was part of his stand-up routine. The bassist shared a few photos from the Minneapolis show and he wrote in an accompanying caption: "Photos from @firstavenue ! What a great night! And no, we didn't record a live album that night. That was a joke that @craiggasscomedy made!"

Had the PANTERA live album materialized, it would have marked PANTERA's first release with the band's reformed lineup, featuring classic-lineup members Philip Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass),along with Zakk Wylde (guitar) and Charlie Benante (drums)

During the First Avenue concert METALLICA's Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett joined PANTERA on stage for a performance of the song "Walk". The club show took place the night before the reformed band opened for METALLICA at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

According to Setlist.fm, PANTERA's setlist for the concert was as follows:

01. A New Level
02. Mouth For War
03. Strength Beyond Strength
04. Becoming
05. I'm Broken
06. Suicide Note Pt. II
07. This Love
08. Fucking Hostile
09. Walk (with Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett on backing vocals)
10. Domination / Hollow
11. Cowboys From Hell

Encore:

12. Yesterday Don't Mean Shit

The classic PANTERA lineup played First Avenue several times, including twice in 1990 around the time the band's major-label debut, "Cowboys From Hell", was released, one with EXODUS and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES in the Mainroom and a headlining show in the smaller 7th Street Entry.

In July 1997, PANTERA released a live album called "Official Live: 101 Proof", recorded throughout the "Tourkill" trek the band embarked on in support of 1996's "The Great Southern Trendkill" album.

In a recent interview with Brazilian music journalist Igor Miranda, Wylde was asked about Benante's recent comment that there has been talk of the current lineup of PANTERA releasing a live album. Zakk said: "Yeah, whatever the fellas wanna do, we knock it out. Let's be real — it's a live album every night. People with their phones and everything are recording it anyway, so it doesn't [matter] to me. You go up there and you play to win every night."

As for the possibility of new songs from the current PANTERA lineup, Zakk said: "No, we haven't sat and talked about, like, 'Oh, guys, let's get together and write songs,' or whatnot; there hasn't been anything like that. I mean, the only discussions we'll have is just what other new songs we wanna put in the setlist. Like when we put 'Floods' in and then we got together at rehearsals, got together over at Phil's house, we just rehearsed everything. But no, nothing like… We haven't been sitting around writing riffs and things like that."

Miranda also asked Wylde about whether he views the current PANTERA lineup as a tribute or something else. Zakk responded: "Yeah, that's what I feel it is. It's not even a tribute. It's more just a PANTERA celebration. Like whenever we go out and do the 'Experience Hendrix' [tours], which I always have a blast when I do that, it's all of us going out and celebrating Jimi's greatness. To me, this is [a] PANTERA celebration. We're celebrating all the mountains that PANTERA conquered. So that's what this is."

Wylde also addressed the fact that he doesn't exactly reproduce the parts originally written and recorded by late PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. He said: "Oh, yeah, even if Dime was up there playing the solo to 'No More Tears' or 'Mama I'm Coming Home', it's gonna sound like Dime playing the solo to 'No More Tears'. 'Cause he has his touch and his feels. Like when Randy Rhoads was playing BLACK SABBATH songs, it sounds like Randy Rhoads playing BLACK SABBATH songs. You listen to the 'Tribute' album [from Ozzy Osbourne], when Saint Rhoads was playing 'Iron Man' and he was playing 'Paranoid' and 'Children Of The Grave', it sounds like Randy playing BLACK SABBATH songs. It's Randy's guitar tone and Randy's touch and Randy's playing. But that's what makes it cool. Yeah, to me, it's just common sense. Dime just sounds like Dime no matter what he's playing."

The reformed PANTERA is headlining a number of major festivals across North America, South America and Europe and staging some of its own headline concerts. They are also supporting METALLICA on a massive stadium tour in 2024.

It was first reported in July 2022 that Anselmo and Brown would unite with Wylde and Benante for a world tour under the PANTERA banner.

Up until his passing in June 2018, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for Dimebag's death.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Vinnie, who was Dimebag's brother, and Anselmo had not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie suggested that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag's killer.