“He thought it sucked and I told him to leave it alone. I was literally in tears”: Rex Brown on the Dimebag Darrell guitar solo he fought to keep on record

Dimebag Darrell’s legendary guitar playing and pioneering heavy metal style is powerful enough to bring a tear to anybody’s eye, but for Rex Brown, the late Pantera electric guitar hero’s playing once made him cry for another reason altogether.

In the new issue of Guitar World, the Pantera bassist and former Dimebag bandmate was asked – alongside a huge array of other big-name guests – for his favorite Dimebag guitar solo.

Brown didn’t have to think hard for his answer, and cherry-picked Dimebag’s lead effort from Pantera’s famed cover of Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath, which featured on Far Beyond Driven in 1994.

However, as he recalls, the solo ended up bringing a tear to his eye when he had to fight Dimebag from cutting it altogether.

“Planet Caravan,” Brown answers when asked. “[Dimebag] thought it sucked, and I told him to leave it alone, so he comped it and stayed with that one. I was literally in tears.”

Brown’s affection for Planet Caravan shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, he’s previously spoken at length about just how much he appreciates Dimebag’s display on that particular track, and admitted he had to “leave the room” while he was recording because of how good it was.

Speaking to Tone-Talk in 2022, Brown recalled, “We actually learned the song in about 15 minutes. I played fretless bass on it, and played synthesizer on it. Vinnie played the bongos.

“Now this is very, very important. Dime, when he went to play that lead, the first one, I had to leave the room because it was so fucking good.

“Planet Caravan, it’s like an E9 kind of a chord, and just the way that Dime played, it was the perfect chording for him to play over,” Brown expands. “And the way he put those notes together, just off the fly. You know, he always came in with something, but we cut this so quick that, I think we’d gone out to dinner and he just came back and let it let that one have it.

“It was like… I won’t say Eruption, because that changed fucking everything for everyone. But I will say that it was one of those moments for me, of listening to that and being right next to my best friend [who] just played it. So [I] keep that in my heart.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features a full tribute to Dimebag Darrell.