In the summer of 1985 Keel was playing Dallas, Texas for the first time when two young rocker-looking dudes knocked on the door of our tour bus. They introduced themselves as the Abbott brothers of a local band called Pantera and asked if could they come on board to play me a few songs off their most recent independent release Projects in the Jungle. It took all of hearing 10 seconds of the first song to realize I was hearing an extraordinarily-gifted group of musicians who were writing and playing well beyond the scope of their teenage years. That auspicious introduction was the start of a friendship with the band that lead me to become one of their very early supporters. Throughout the ensuing years I would travel down to Texas whenever I could to hang out and party with them. I mentioned them in interviews whenever I could, trying to elevate their status in the national press. I even convinced our record company at the time, (Goldmountain) to sign the band and indeed they did offer Pantera a small production deal. Unfortunately it did not lead to a major-label release.

In 1987 I played the guys a song which I had initially recorded for Keel called “Proud to be Loud,” and the guys decided to re-record it for their next album which would be called Power Metal, their first full-length recording with new vocalist Phil Anselmo. I produced that track alongside Vinnie Paul and played rhythm guitar on it as well. In addition, I played a short solo on another track called “We'll Meet Again.” I could not have been more proud when the guys finally secured their major label deal and released Cowboys From Hell in 1990... almost almost half a decade after I had first met them. Twenty million album sales followed, and validated what I had known all along since that first encounter on our tourbus: That Pantera were destined for greatness.