Zakk Wylde says that he would be open to the possibility of producing a new line of guitars from late PANTERA guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott.
Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend and trustee of his estate, Rita Haney, announced last summer that she would be pulling any and all connection between Dean Guitars and the late guitarist after 17 years. She also filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging a myriad of claims including fraud and breach of written agreement.
When Zakk was asked in a new interview with Wall Of Sound if he would possibly be interested in working on a new line of Dimebag guitars through his company, Wylde Audio, he said: “I remember when [the news of Rita’s lawsuit against Dean] first came out, whenever I saw that, but I didn’t know the whole skinny on that. But I mean, it’s just, like, yeah, ’cause, I mean, Dime’s always been associated with them. I mean, actually, he brought them back into business when they were out of business; he brought them back into business just because of his popularity and him playing that guitar. But if we were to ever do something like that, obviously we’d talk with Rita and whatever she wanted to do, you know.”
Dimebag Darrell’s affiliation with Dean guitars began when he was just 14, playing the axes through the majority of the mid-1990s. After switching to Washburn, Dean Guitars basically fell off the map until Dimebag resigned with them three weeks before his untimely death.