In a new interview with Talk Toomey podcast, iconic guitarist Zakk Wylde discussed his performance with Pantera, more, Wylde places late guitarist Dimebag Darrell in the same league as Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, and Jimmy Hendrix as well, writing-wise speaking.
On whether there were any Pantera songs or parts that took him longer to figure out than the rest, the guitarist said:
“What I just found really awesome was Dime’s… I mean, the reason why we’re still talking about Dime’s greatness and everybody, and all the guys that we love, whether it’s King Edward (Eddie Van Halen), St. Rhoads (Randy Rhoads), Jimi Hendrix, I mean, all the guys, it’s what they wrote. Aside of Dime’s great technique and how amazing he was and how fast he could play and everything like that, it’s what he wrote, just like with Randy and Eddie and everybody.
”I mean, all the guys that we love. But Dime’s writing, like his chord choices and everything like that, it’s just, like, ‘Oh, wow. That’s definitely really cool.’ So, a lot of unexpected pre-choruses and things like that. It’s, like, ‘Oh, wow. I wonder what made him go there,’ like really interesting chord choices. But, yeah, for sure.
“Going through, learning the whole catalog and learning deeper cuts and everything like that, I was, like, ‘Wow. This one’s pretty cool. I mean, even the pre-chorus to ‘Walk’ or just the opening riff, a lot of a lot of the chord choices would end up becoming… They’re dissonant, where that’s obviously what Dime’s going for, is the dissonance, whereas opposed to something would be like if it was a more ear-pleasing chord choice, but it would sound routine, and you could just tell Dime was going for… ‘No, that’s what everybody expects us to go.
”So, let’s go here. Everyone expects us to make a left turn. So, let’s make a right.’ So, it’s, like, oh, ‘Wow, that’s definitely interesting.’ So, yeah, that’s what I found, learning all the material and everything like that. So, for sure. So that, to me, is what puts Dime in that league with all the guys we love, whether it’s Jimi Hendrix, whether it’s Eddie and Randy. It’s his writing.”
