Pantera were in Dublin when the unthinkable happened. Twenty-four hours earlier, on September 10, 2001, they’d met in New York to fly to Ireland in preparation for the final leg of the tour in support of their ninth album, Reinventing The Steel, which had been released the previous year. But as they touched down in the Irish capital around noon on September 11, something felt wrong.
“I got off the plane and I had never felt such a cold vibe in my life,” drummer Vinnie Paul told me in early 2004, looking back on the events of that infamous day. “I went to my hotel, got checked in, and my tour manager called and said, ‘Are you watching TV?’ I said, ‘No, why – do they have the [Dallas] Cowboys game on?’ He said, ‘Turn it on!’”
Vinnie clicked the set on in his room, just as an airplane smashed into one of the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center and burst into a blinding fireball.
“Whoa, dude!” Vinnie told him, feeling his stomach drop.
“What fucking movie is this?”
“This ain’t no movie, bro,” the manager replied, confirming Vinnie worst fears. “This is happening. And the tour’s cancelled.”
It soon became clear what was going on. What Vinnie had seen was the second of two planes that al-Qaida terrorists had flown into the World Trade Center. Soon, both towers would collapse, causing catastrophic loss of life.
With flights grounded, the four members of Pantera – Vinnie, his guitarist brother Dimebag Darrell, singer
