1964
Vincent Paul Abbott is born on March 11th in Dallas, Texas. Rex Brown is born on July 27th in Graham, Texas.
1966
Darrell Lance Abbott is born on August 20th in Dallas, Texas.
1968
Philip Anselmo is born on June 30th in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1983
Brothers "Diamond" Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott, Rex "Rocker" Brown, and singer Terry "Terence Lee" Glaze formed what would be known as PanterA and they released their first album, Metal Magic on Metal Magic Records, and, if you've heard any of it, you know why it didn't sell very well.
1984
The band released Projects in the Jungle, which also sold rather poorly.
1985
Terence Lee records one more album, I am the Night, before they drop him like a bad habit.
1986
With Lee gone, PanterA picks up a vocalist by the name of David Peacock for a little while, but he never records an album with PanterA. In late '86, he leaves the band and a certain guy named Phil "the man" Anselmo comes into the band and things start to pick up a bit.
1988
PanterA release their most successful album to date, Power Metal, which sells over 30,000 copies. The album, combined with relentless touring, nets Pantera a huge underground following worldwide.
1990
PanterA swing into the 90s, dropping their glam look and adopting a trademark "Power Groove," and release Cowboys from Hell on Atco/Eastwest Records, produced by Terry "Rope King" Date. Although it never really breaks the charts, the album is a success worldwide, and things were just getting started. They toured with Judas Preist doing over 180 shows
Later, Dimebag (as he is now called) would say that they were so glam before because they wanted to be like their idols, who, for the most part, was KISS.
1991
PanterA release the first of three home videos, Cowboys From Hell, with footage from the Judas Preist tour.
1992
Vulgar Display Of Power is released after only two months of writing and recording! Mouth For War was the first metal single ever to debut at #1 - beating Metallica's "Enter Sandman", while the album topped the U.S. metal charts for weeks on end! Critics are unanimous in their enthusiasm...Guitar World raved "Anselmo sings with the fury of a post office psycho" and the Village Voice called Pantera an "angry, cantankerous, ferally aggressive band that channels all the free-floating rage of their environment into a murderous mettalic growl."
They perform before one million Russian metalheads at the "Monsters of Rock" festival in Moscow, and the album gets up to #42 on the Billboard charts. Eventually, it would go gold and then platinum in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and Japan.
1993
PanterA tours like crazy (AS A HEADLINER FOR THE FIRST TIME!) and release the Vulgar Videos from past tours. Oddly enough, they're seen hanging out with their "good buds" Skid Row, but otherwise everything seems pretty normal.
1994
Straight off the road, they wrote and recorded Far Beyond Driven in 6 weeks. Entered the Billboard charts at #1 baby! (First metal band to ever accomplish that feat!) Then they did their first headline arena tour in the USA and Europe in 1994.
Phil Anselmo, who had been somewhat active in the media, is accused by UK press of being a racist and the band has never returned to tour there since.
1996
PanterA release The Great Southern Trendkill on May 7th. The album turns out to be a huge success, even though America's trends are shifting more toward softer music and not going against the grain. The album is much more diverse than the previous efforts and they are truly establishing themselves as the new leaders in metal. PanterA explain, "Due to the musical climate not being conducive to heavy music PanterA went against the grain and made the fuckin' heaviest record of 96-97 for you the fan. Heavy music is alive and well. PanterA move on forward UNSCARRED and unaffected by the trends. See ya on tour soon." And see ya on tour they did. They started touring that summer with EyeHateGod and White Zombie. In July, Phil "died" of a heroin overdose for five minutes before coming back. He responded with a note that basically said "I'm not going that easily" and continued the tour the next night.
1997
PanterA continues a smaller-scale U.S. tour with Anthrax, but are able to play longer as they are the true headlining band on the bill. Later, they would tour with their idols KISS in Mexico, Argentina and Chile, and then with Sepultura and Fear Factory on the Ozzfest tour.
PanterA was nominated for their first grammy with the super-dark, Suicide Note, Pt. 1. However, they would eventually lose to Nine Inch Nails in the best metal performance category.
Official Live: 101 Proof is released July 29th which has 14 live tracks and two tracks of new material. Also the long awaited third home video is released, 3: Watch It Go, on November 11th. It debuts # 1 on Billboard Music Video Chart.
2000
Pantera released their newest cd "Reinventing The Steel" on March 21st... This is their first studio album in 4 years!