PANTERA Ozzfest 2000 Diary Part 4
by Madd Maxx Hammer

Your standard diary usually requires a daily entry. With that style of diary it would actually be boring. Because each day is like the previous day. Most of the time you don't know what day it is and what city you are in. A typical day would be, get up and go to the venue at about 12 noon. Once at the gig find catering and eat. After eating (by the way catering is always awesome) hang out and wait for the singer of Godsmack so I can work out with him. Sully of Godsmack usually arrives to the gig between 1 and 2:30pm. Once he gets situated I work him out for about 1 to 2 hours. Sully is a real cool guy. Very down to earth. Godsmack will release a CD of new material on October 31st. He played some select tracks from the CD and it sounds good. Anyway, once Sully is done I just hang around and check out the bands until Phil of Pantera gets to the gig, which is about 5pm each show day. Phil will tell me what time he wants to work-out (he works out every show day without fail). Usually until the time to work-out I talk boxing with Phil. He is an expert on the sport. He knows all the fighters, especially the heavyweight division. He probably knows more about professional boxing than he does about his own band.

The work-out is about 30 minutes. Phil just likes to warm-up before he goes on stage. Sully on the other hand wants a full blown work-out. So with Phil I have him put on some boxing gloves and put him thru a myriad of drills with the focus mits (if you know boxing you know what focus mitts are, if you don't, don't worry). Once I see sweat on Phil's brow, we wind down. After that my work for the day is done. At which time I go to the bus and burn. Once that feeling settles in Pantera is about to hit stage (they go on at 8pm each show). I check out the show and after go the dressing room and hang out til the band cools down and makes plans from there. Usually after a show we hang in the dressing room or hang with fans at the after-show meet and greet. Then it is off to the bus where we eat, watch boxing on tape or horror movies or just jam out to music. Phil is in a side band called Super Joint Ritual. We listen to that tape constantly. Super Joint is over the top HEAVY!!! Be looking for Super Joint Ritual in a record store near you in the near future. Then it's time to crash out. The next day, the same routine. It's not a routine in the true sense of the word. The tour is a great experience.

PANTERA Ozzfest 2000 Diary Part 4 Page 2