By Martin Popoff
"No, Pantera will be its own animal. Pantera is going to... at the level we're at, things like that, I'm sure we're going to sit back for a second once we all get back together and look at the landscape and decide which pulverizing way to take it. There's no doubt in my mind that it's going to be bone-jarring heavy metal, you know, the anthemic heavy metal that we're known for. I just want to know where everybody's head's at. I want to know what the true logical next step for Pantera should be before we actually take the step. As far as doing different mediums of music, that is the epitome of why you make a side band. If I was to approach Pantera with music than I had written for any of my other bands, it just would not feel natural, correct or anything; it wouldn't feel good at all, it wouldn't feel right at all. Basically that's saying that we know, as Pantera, we know how to write Pantera music. We've done it for so many f**king years. I just want to take it - once again, you know, me being me - I just want to take it that next hundred feet further. I want more, you know? More and more and more."
Last time Zakk came through with Ozzy, he regaled for us in graphic detail how Phil, due to his back problems, was going to get scooped out from the front, worked on and then filled back in with his waiting innards. I asked Phil if this ghoulish operation had taken place yet.
"F**k, no, man," says Phil with a rumble and a sigh. "I don't have the time to do it. With all that's going on, I mean, I don't have time to sit through half a year to a year of recovery. I don't have any of that f**king time."
But at some point you have to make that time, no? "It depends. It really depends. A whole lot. I'm hoping that one day this doctor has this incredible breakthrough on back problems and it's real for a change and maybe really help me out. If not, then I suppose one day I'm going to go until I can't go anymore. I'm going to go and go and go until they have to put me on the slab and do what they gotta do."
