See who Zakk Wylde had as a special guest to operate his Whammy pedal during Pantera's Becoming

Zakk Wylde had Anthrax's Scott Ian to operate his DigiTech Whammy pedal as Pantera played Becoming in front of a rapturous crowd iat Movistar Arena, Santiago Chile on 12 December. And it isn't his first rodeo in stepping in as temporary cover for longtime Dime and current Zakk guitar tech Grady Champion. 

"On the Panthrax tour back in 97/98 I had the most important job in the show – the Whammy pedal part in Becoming," Scott Ian wrote alongside first-person camera footage of him using the Whammy side stage. "Under Grady’s tutelage I went from Padawan to master and was given this great responsibility. 

"The other day in Santiago I was given the opportunity to perform this key task for Father Zakk. It had been many years since I had been charged with this principal duty. I swept my initial trepidation away with a swift Black Tooth and took on the job of all jobs at a Pantera show. With a deep breath and a loosening of foot I shrugged off the years and Whammy’d away and NAILED IT. Thanks Grady!"

Above you can see how it looked from the front. Wylde, Charlie Benante and Phil Anselmo were once again joined by Cattle Decapitation's Derek Engenmann after original Pantera bassist Rex Brown caught Covid, forcing him to set out the rest of the band's South American shows this month.

On the subject of the song Becoming, from 1994's Far Beyond Driven album, Zakk Wylde recently revealed to recent MusicRadar poll-winner Ola Englund in the video above that he'd studied the Swedish guitarists video play-through of the song when he was learning it for these Pantera shows. 

Dimebag Darrell's longtime tech Grady Champion talks guitars, amps and tone