In a new interview with Anthony Bryant of The Hair Metal Guru, Terrence Lee “Terry” Glaze, the original voice of PANTERA, spoke about his exit from the legendary metal band prior to the arrival of Philip Anselmo. Glaze was the frontman of PANTERA during the band’s early’-’80s “party metal” phase and sang on the band’s first three albums. After leaving PANTERA, Glaze formed the band LORD TRACY.
Asked what caused him to depart PANTERA, Glaze said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m not exactly sure that I remember. It was just life, just things. And you might have a disagreement on how to proceed in certain ways. But it was just basically that.”
Reflecting on the last gig he played as a member of PANTERA, Glaze said: “I think we were playing in Wichita Falls maybe. And it was so weird. It was just weird. We were playing, and it was a great show. And then just ‘bye’. I remember driving home by myself in my truck and just thinking, ‘Wow.’ There wasn’t any effort by us to solve it. It was just, ‘This is the way it’s gonna be.’ And so I took the next step.”
Asked by Bryant if he could point to any specific issue that caused him to want to leave PANTERA, Glaze said: “Well, I don’t know, but it wasn’t musical direction. It wasn’t anything like that, ’cause I loved playing in the band.”
Regarding what he thought of PANTERA‘s heavier, more aggressive musical direction on 1990’s “Cowboys From Hell” album, Terry said: “I didn’t really know what the other bands were doing when [I was] in LORD TRACY. And [LORD TRACY‘s debut album] ‘Deaf Gods [Of Babylon]’ [came] out in ’89. PANTERA‘s record [came out] around then about some time. We bumped into each other out on the road. And I was just happy that we were both getting to do what we wanted to do. And that’s really when I became aware of what was going on. So that’s ‘Cowboys From Hell’ and ‘Deaf Gods’. We go back sometime after that. LORD TRACY‘s playing The Basement [in Dallas, Texas]. [‘Dimebag’] Darrell [Abbott, PANTERA guitarist] shows up, gets on stage. It was a blast. He comes out. We go out. He’s got a limo, and he’s got a cassette and he starts playing me tracks from the next [PANTERA] record. And he plays me ‘Mouth For War’, me and him in the backseat after the gig. And he’s sitting there air-guitaring it, and he goes, ‘VAN HALEN, right?’ And that’s probably my favorite song, ‘Mouth For War’. But I just remember Darrell doing that, and it was so cool.”
Glaze went on to say that he was happy to see his former bandmates doing well, even though they were no longer playing together. “There’s plenty of room for all kinds of art,” he explained. “And so thank goodness that everybody doesn’t like the same thing and we all like different things and there’s something for everybody. So it was great. They’re out there doing it. I’m out there doing it. I feel so lucky.”
During the same chat, Glaze reflected on Dimebag‘s 2004 death. The PANTERA guitarist was murdered while on stage at the Alrosa Villa in north Columbus, Ohio. The shooting happened in December 2004, only moments after Dimebag‘s then-band DAMAGEPLAN took the stage. Regarding how he found out about Darrell‘s passing, Terry said: “I was here [at home]. I was asleep. The phone rings. It’s my best friend, Buddy Blaze. He says, ‘Turn on your…’ whatever. And [my reaction was one of] disbelief. A couple days later, [I went] to the funeral. Darrell‘s buried in the same cemetery that my grandparents and my father-in-law are buried. So I go to that cemetery all the time. My grandparents are here. My father-in-law’s here. Darrell‘s over here. But I go to the service, and it’s packed with everybody, and I’m just kind of watching it. It was me and Buddy and Tommy Bradford, the original [PANTERA] bass player. And [I was in] disbelief. I go to the celebration the night, that night, [and I see] everybody [there]. [I was still in] disbelief. The next morning or the next day, I go back and it didn’t really hit me until I saw the dirt. And that’s when I [felt], ‘This is real.’ But that’s what I remember.”
Two and a half years go, Terry called PANTERA‘s current comeback a “good thing”, saying that it’s a great way to celebrate the music of the Texan metallers. Glaze made his comments while speaking to Eonmusic.
On meeting and forming a band with Dime and Vinnie, Terry said: “We wanted to play with the best drummer we could find, and the best drummer in our school was Vince Abbott. So we got together and jammed, and we tried to get him to play with us. The agreement was that we would take his little brother Darrell who was in middle school. We weren’t really interested in a young kid in middle school, but we reluctantly agreed, thank goodness. We were lucky enough to do that.”
Going on to talk about his desire to see the band’s early output reissued — 1983’s “Metal Magic”, 1984’s “Projects In The Jungle” and 1985’s “I Am The Night” — he said: “I think that it would be a great thing for everybody to get to hear more Darrell, and so that’s where I stand with it. It would be amazing. You could do a big box with everything, and it would just be cool.”
He continued: “You see them all over the planet. I bought copies of CDs that that are pressed out that are that are not legal — bootlegs — but, you know, that’s the only way to get copies of all this stuff now.”
When Eonmusic noted that PANTERA bassist Rex Brown had said the brothers were “dead against” any re-release of those early albums in a 2021 interview with the site, Terry countered: “As far as what the band with the brothers, how they felt, that comes up even to this day, doesn’t it? So, you know, people change their minds, and business opportunities happen and what are you going to do?”
When asked about his thoughts on the recent PANTERA‘s current comeback tour, featuring Brown and surviving vocalist Anselmo alongside guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante, Terry said: “I just feel kind of the same way I feel about VAN HALEN; it would be difficult for me to think that that was VAN HALEN without Eddie Van Halen, and Alex is still alive. Imagine if Eddie and Alex are gone, and then it was VAN HALEN. It’s just hard for us old people.”
He continued: “But you know, man, more power to everybody to get to celebrate the music and get together and have fellowship. I especially think about all the young people who never got to see them, now they get to finally go out and celebrate those songs. That means so much to them and that music means so much to a lot of people around the whole planet. So more power to them to celebrate music. Anything that gets people out, live together for rock and roll, that’s a good thing.”
In 2021, Brown dismissed the first three PANTERA albums, telling Eonmusic it was with the addition of Anselmo that the PANTERA story really began.
“The old singer? Shit, it was going nowhere really quick,” Rex said. “He just was not on the same wavelength as the three of us. The dude’s never had a job in his life. I see him shootin’ his mouth off in some of these magazines, and it’s, like, ‘Dude, you were in the band for fuckin’ four years,’ you know what I’m saying? ‘Now you’re wanting claim to fame 35 years later? Sorry, pal, you missed the boat!’ So I don’t want to give any credit where it’s fuckin’ undue, you know? Once we got Philip in the band, it developed into something else, and that was the PANTERA that we know now, and that’s why we never talk about those old records.”
Looking back, Brown conceded: “Hey, look, it’s great to go back memory lane and all that kind of stuff, but those are the farthest things that I wake up for in the first of the morning. ‘Oh, remember that one tune ‘Nothing On (But The Radio)’, and the singer?’ No! I mean, I hate fucking songs like that, but it was a growing process, and now, because the things are out, and they’ve been bootleged a hundred thousand times, people consider it a part of our history. It’s not. Unless Philip‘s singing on it, it’s not PANTERA. That’s the way I look at it.”
When asked outright to clarify that he had absolutely no desire to ever see those records reissued, officially, Rex was emphatic; “God no, god no! The brothers were against that, and I’m against it, and that’s just it. Period. It ain’t coming out.”
