The “nearly joined” tales often get exaggerated. Watchtower‘s Jason McMaster‘s model about turning down an audition for Pantera stays detailed and grounded: a cellphone name from the Abbott camp, a respectful decline, and another follow-up that confirmed it was an actual invite, “to solely audition.”
Chatting with Ralph Rasmussen of Radio Bypass, McMaster laid out the timing and the setup like this: “Yeah. To be absolutely appropriate, I used to be… This in all probability was in round ’86, perhaps early ’87, however I do know I’ve that timeframe nearly spot-on. Mr. Abbott, [‘Dimebag’] Darrell [Abbott, Pantera guitarist] and Vinnie‘s [Paul Abbott, Pantera drummer] father, known as me on the cellphone and stated, ‘Hey, these are my boys, and I am type of managing them.’
“And I am, like, ‘Oh, I do know who you might be.’ He was already type of a legend in Texas, and Pantera was already identified. And I used to be in a band known as Watchtower, which is that this progressive… Earlier than you would put the phrases ‘math’ and ‘steel’ collectively, we have been ‘math steel’. We have been this technical thrash band, this progressive thrash steel band, which isn’t… I imply, now it is commonplace so that you can discuss excessive steel and have or not it’s fully math rock and math steel, and there are such a lot of completely different genres of what I am type of speaking about.”
“However anyway, Watchtower is arguably the pioneer of that style. However I digress. The purpose is, I used to be on this actually bizarre steel band. And that is how these guys knew me, and I knew them to be this type of glam rock. They did not have Philip [in the band yet]; that they had [previous Pantera singer] Terry Glaze, they usually have been a bit bit extra — I do not know — [like] Def Leppard [or] Bon Jovi.
“And that is high-quality. They usually have been kicking ass. They have been a touring band. They might run round Texas and roll up via Oklahoma, go all the way in which to Nashville, and play their manner all the way in which again. They usually have been killing it. They usually have been younger. And, everybody, I haven’t got to say it — that they had Darrell. However Vinnie and Rex [Brown, Pantera bassist] are these dangerous motherfuckers too. In order a band, [they were] unstoppable, it doesn’t matter what. All my buddies, we knew who they have been, in fact,” McMaster recalled.
“So, Mr. Abbott calls me, and I respectfully decline, as a result of I am about to have to switch a guitar participant in Watchtower, which was no straightforward feat due to the fashion of music it’s. It is like you may’t simply name up, ‘Hey, Joe, throughout the road, come and play a guitar.’ ‘Oh, I bought 5 strings.’ You must have the third eye vast open and be into Mahavishnu Orchestra and Rush in a blender on crush to grasp what it’s. And, anyway, I defined that to him, and he was high-quality. Two weeks later, Vinnie calls me to mainly say, ‘Are you certain?’ And this was an invite to solely audition,” he added.
When Rasmussen requested if Pantera was “type of the largest band within the space at that cut-off date”, McMaster pushed again after which defined why the band’s later run nonetheless makes the “why me?” query humorous in hindsight.
“No. I did not know them to be so far as what you’ll name the ‘largest’ band. I imply, that they had a footprint, they usually had buzz. Years later, I used to be blessed sufficient to get into a bit dialog about what we’re speaking about with Darrell. And I am, like, ‘Why me?’ As a result of, clearly, it is humorous as a result of they bought Philip and ended up being this large monster that defies style of… They have been thrash.
“For a minute, they have been the heaviest factor on the radio. They have been thrash, they usually have been energy steel, they usually have been doom. Oh my God — the riffs and simply Philip‘s voice, they usually have been this conglomerate of every thing. They have been monstrous, they usually have been clearly breaking down partitions, kicking ass and taking names with Philip.”
“No matter choices they made, they made the suitable ones. Clearly, I used to be not the suitable man, and I knew it prophetically someway. And here is the factor, too — I bought requested to audition for Skid Row too, and it was verbatim the identical storyline. [Skid Row guitarist] Snake calls me in the future, he calls me two weeks later: ‘Are you certain?’ Similar reply I had,” he recounted.
McMaster circled again to the actual cause he handed: songwriting possession, sharpening his lyric-writing, and making decisions that match the place he was heading.
“This is my actual reply. After I’m leaving Watchtower, and I am becoming a member of Harmful Toys, there’s one thing that lots of people do not understand. It was actually exhausting to make that call to go away one thing I had been in for nearly a decade, after which go together with these guys I had identified for six months and go make a model new document. In lower than a yr, I am in arenas and on MTV, not in that order.
“However what’s lacking on this dialog, and this sounds egocentric, perhaps not, however this was one thing that I had caught to my shoe, I will simply name it, ‘trigger it wasn’t one thing that I wore like a badge. I had an opportunity to sing my songs as a result of in Watchtower, they wrote the lyrics. I wrote the melodies. They could have had compositions that advised me the place they anticipated me to sing and what would resemble a verse, a refrain, a bridge, et cetera.
“However that is my voice, and it is my melodies, and that is the way in which the music goes. And I had rather a lot to do with that. However I did not write the lyrics, in order that half was lacking in my skillset, and I wanted to sharpen that knife, and this was an opportunity for me to do it.”
“So by the point the Skid Row provide to audition — to be 100 thousand % clear — clearly they’re doing the suitable factor too, and I’ve mad respect for them as effectively and their choices that they’ve made too. And it is in all probability robust within the sneakers that they’re sporting proper now. They caught to their weapons. It have to be exhausting to have a unique singer each few years.
“However they’re nonetheless a badass band, they usually’re clearly unstoppable, and respect to that. However the level: I had an opportunity to be a songwriter, so once I’m saying this to those guys, I am nonetheless engaged on this proper right here, and I needn’t let you know that in so many phrases. And to provide you a bit little bit of introspection, if that is even a phrase, into the place I’m. And so, now that I’ve my very own songs to sing, I really feel rather a lot higher, perhaps even about being a alternative singer. And I’ve just about been a alternative singer since I bought all of it found out,” McMaster completed.
