Ex-PANTERA Manager: 'I Don't Think VINNIE Will Ever Be Able To Communicate With PHILIP Again'

Former PANTERA manager Kimberly Zide Davis, who joined Concrete Management in 1994, and served as vice president of artist management until the organization ceased operations in 2003, was interviewed for Guitar World's January 2010 issue, which pays tribute to late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Guitar World: How do you think the growing rift between [singer] Phil Anselmo and the rest of [PANTERA] in the late Nineties affected Dimebag in particular?

Zide Davis: From Dime's perspective, I think it was hard for him to understand how you can be in a band with someone, and one day they're great and they're your buddy, and then all of sudden they're dark and not the person they were for the last 10 years. I think for Dime, in particular, it was really hard. He and Philip had been really close. And they were also the two main creative people — a lot of the interaction in the band in that regard was between the two of them. All of a sudden it was like Philip was on another planet.

Guitar World: Following the aborted tour for "Reinventing The Steel" in 2001, was there ever a point where you felt you were close to getting Phil and the band together again?

Zide Davis: Unfortunately, no. I don't think that moment ever existed. I literally spent the years from 2001 to 2003 trying all that I could with Concrete to get them to communicate. But numerous conference calls and other things were set up, and Philip never responded — or in some cases he responded in the press rather than actually just communicating with the rest of us. So I don't believe it would have been fixable. Twenty years down the line, who knows? But when people say, "If Dime had lived, do you think PANTERA would have gotten back together?" I would have to say, from the point that I know Vinnie [Paul Abbott, Dimebag's brother and former PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN drummer] and Dime were at when Dime was killed, no.

Guitar World: When Dime and Vinnie formed DAMAGEPLAN, do you feel it was with the intent that there was no going back to PANTERA?

Zide Davis: I believe their intention was for DAMAGEPLAN to be their band for the rest of their lives. I saw them play twice with that band, and it was really endearing to me, because there had been a point in time where they didn't know if they would ever play again. They had been burned, and hard. Dime picked up the pieces and he moved on. But it wasn't easy, and I think he was very clear about the fact that it wasn't easy.

Guitar World: Do you think they always hoped that one day PANTERA would reunite?

Zide Davis: Sometime toward the latter half of 2003 I remember having a conversation with Dime where he said, "I'm officially finished. I'm picking up and I'm moving on." Until then, he and Vinnie hadn't been able to move on. They felt very stuck in a pattern that just went around in circles. And it wasn't until they were both at peace with the fact that PANTERA was done that they started doing DAMAGEPLAN.

Guitar World: Is there still no interaction between Phil and Vinnie?

Zide Davis: There is not. And I don't believe there ever will be. And truthfully, I don't know if they would be interacting even if Dime hadn't been murdered. But his death sealed it. I don't think Vinnie will ever be able to communicate with Philip again, and I don't really blame him on a lot of levels.

During the Guitar World interview, Zide Davis also revealed plans for PANTERA to release 20th-anniversary reissues of the "Cowboys From Hell" (in 2010),"Vulgar Display Of Power" (in 2012) and "Far Beyond Driven" (in 2014) albums containing extra material.

For more information, visit www.guitarworld.com.

Pictured below: Kimberly Zide Davis with Dimebag