PANTERA Didn’t Record Live Album In Minneapolis: ‘That Was A Joke’

by
Pantera 2023

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

Before PANTERA took the stage on August 15 at First Avenue, comedian Craig Gass entertained the crowd with a stand-up set where he told the audience: “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 turned to social media to clarify that Gass‘s announcement of a PANTERA live album was actually just a joke as part of his stand-up routine. The bassist posted a few photos from the Minneapolis show and wrote in the 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!”

During an interview with AndrewHaug.com at Knotfest Australia in Melbourne this past March, PANTERA bassist Rex Brown was asked if he would be open to collaborate on new music with the reunited iteration of the band.

 “Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I could tell you more but I’m not going to,” he responded.

Elsewhere in the conversation, Brown discussed the experience of performing as PANTERA for an entirely new generation of fans.

“You can’t see it on the YouTube. You can’t feel that vibe until you actually come to the show,” he said. “And we haven’t been doing interviews just for the fact we want people just to come to the show. It’s not about anything prior past or present that I wanna talk about today — just the show tonight.

“We’re pinching ourselves over these new fans that have never seen this before, and it’s a whole another generation that we either didn’t know a) that were out there, b) that were still listening to us, and the turnout has just been unbelievable. Of course, at first you had the naysayers and all that stuff, and as we played gig by gig, it’s made us tighter. And I’ve been trying to rehearse this band as much as I can within schedules, and we’ll just go down for no f**king reason and just jam. That’s what makes a band tight.”

PANTERA, consisting of Phil Anselmo on vocals, Rex Brown on bass, Zakk Wylde on guitar, and Charlie Benante on drums, is headlining major festivals in North America, South America, and Europe. Additionally, they will be performing their own headline concerts and supporting METALLICA on a massive stadium tour in 2024. This marks a significant moment for PANTERA fans, as it is the first time the band’s surviving members have come together for live performances in over two decades.

According to Billboard, the lineup has been given a green light by the estates of the band’s founders, drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, as well as Brown, who previously said Wylde wouldn’t tour with PANTERA if a reunion were to happen. It’s unclear what changed his mind.