Rita Haney Thinks Pantera Would Have Reunited if Dimebag Lived

A reunion of Pantera's surviving members is something that's been oft discussed in recent years, and while it hasn't happened and shows no signs of happening, during a recent conversation on the Talk Toomey podcast, Dimebag Darrell's longtime love Rita Haney stated that she felt had the guitarist lived, a reunion would have taken place.

"I totally think so," said Haney. "I mean, [Darrell] had already made the effort to get on the phone with Rex [Brown] on his birthday, on Aug. 20 in 2004, and had made plans to speak with him again. So, yeah, definitely. Because I know how, in his heart, he was Pantera — he always would be. No matter what it was called — Damageplan or what — that was always what was inside of him."

She continued, "I know the things that he was feeling when he came home. He felt he had something to prove. He didn't wanna do those things with Pat Lachman. Pat had already been causing issues and there were problems. I have several voice messages from [Darrell] that I still have of things that he left and was telling me about the things Pat was doing out there. And he was, like, 'Man, I don't wanna work with this dude. I wanna fire him. I just don't want people to think we're difficult to work with.' I mean, that's just how he felt. So, yeah, I definitely believe that they would be standing onstage together."

When asked about the current relationships and whether Vinnie Paul and Philip Anselmo might ever be on speaking terms, Haney stated, "You can never tell about Vinnie. Nothing would surprise me, I guess is how I wanna say that," before admitting it was hard to speak for Vinnie's mindset. She added, "Me, as a fan looking at it, I would love to see those guys hop up onstage and belt a few tunes out together -- just paying homage to their fallen brother. But as far as, I don't know, anything else, like I said, there's always going to be resentments of stuff that was really hurtful. And I don't think you get past those, you just move on from those. So ... never say never. Vinnie can be surprising."

Hear more of the conversation with Rita Haney on the Talk Toomey podcast here and look for the Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled CD/DVD arriving on Nov. 24. A new preview clip for the set has been released here. Pre-orders are available here or via the band's Pledge Music campaign with various incentives.

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