Guitarist Zakk Wylde spoke to Guitar World where he discussed which were the hardest parts of standing in for the late guitarist Dimebag Darrell, Wylde admitted he didn’t know any guitar parts of Darrell before joining Pantera.

Here’s what the guitarist said:

“It’s so funny that people think I’d already played all these songs. On the first Anthrax/Black Label run we did, Frankie Bello was like, ‘Zakk, you know all the parts, right?’ I go, ‘No, I don’t know any of the parts. Why would I?’

“It’s like if Dime agreed to fill in for me doing a run with Ozzy and I asked him, ‘Hey, can you come up right now and play the solo to ”No More Tears”, ”Miracle Man” or ”Stilborn’?’ He’d be like, ‘Well, I’ve heard the songs, but that doesn’t mean I know how to play ’em. First I gotta learn ’em!’ You have to practice, and you have to work on it to get everything right.” […]

Regarding learning the songs, Wylde said:

“The hardest thing wasn’t learning them; it was learning the proper way to play them so they sound like Dime because everybody’s gonna play certain things their own way.

”I remember when I used to play (Rush’s) ”The Spirit Of Radio”, I learned it on the B string and the G string, and I had to do this big stretch. My guitar teacher was like, ‘No, no, Zakk. It’s all open strings. It’s on the second fret on the E and the B.’ That was way easier.”