Daryl “Bobby Tongs” Arnberger, who was one of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott‘s closest friends gave a two-hour interview to the “Landry.audio” podcast.
Daryl talked about PANTERA‘s early glam days, the arrival of singer Philip Anselmo, the changing of the band’s sound, Anselmo‘s drug addiction, PANTERA‘s breakup, Dimebag‘s gradual frustration with DAMAGEPLAN.
Speaking about Darrell‘s desire to reform PANTERA in the months leading up to the guitarist’s untimely death, Arnberger said:
“Oh, yeah. He would have. The last time I saw him was in November of 2004. I was about to go back out with SLIPKNOT or [MARILYN] MANSON, one of the two. And 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 sh*t 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.”
Asked what it was about DAMAGEPLAN that was irking Dimebag shortly before the band’s final tour, Arnberger replied:
“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,” presumably referring to Anselmo and PANTERA bassist Rex Brown.