RIP Dimebag Darrel

Back in the day i was a huge Pantera fan so when i read this i got really pissed off:

'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott killed at 38
Guitarist considered a leading light of metal
Thursday, December 9, 2004 Posted: 1:26 PM EST (1826 GMT)

(AP) -- "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, who was fatally shot during a performance, was a frenetic, ear-shattering guitarist whose riffs for Pantera and more recently Damageplan were a staple of heavy metal music. He was 38.

Abbott was shot to death as he took the stage Wednesday with Damageplan and began to play the first song of the concert at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio.

Three other people also were fatally shot before a police officer shot to death the gunman.

The deaths shook the heavy metal music industry as colleagues reeled from the news and fans flooded Web sites to share their grief.

"This is insane and this is beyond travesty," Killswitch Engage frontman and former Damageplan tour partner Howard Jones told MTV. "This is beyond anything I've ever heard. This shouldn't happen in or outside of the rock and metal community. He will be missed and mourned as a person, as a musician, and as a friend."

Rob Blasko Nicholson, the former Ozzy Osbourne bassist, told the music channel Abbott was a legend.

"I'm speechless," he said. "This is totally unreal."

"When you think of '90s heavy metal or hard rock, Pantera is one of these seminal bands. They are quoted today as influences by many bands," said Tom Calderone, MTV's executive vice president. "Hard rock has lost a legendary guitar player."

Abbott and his brother, former Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, produced Damageplan's debut album, "New Found Power," which was released in February. Other band members are vocalist Patrick Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla.

"Damageplan carries on the tradition Pantera started, the ... hell-raising tradition we were all about," Vinnie Paul Abbott told The Dallas Morning News in October. "We do play some Pantera songs. Me and Dime wrote them, and we feel like we have the right to play them. But the focus is on Damageplan."

Born on August 20, 1966, in Dallas, Darrell Abbott and his brother were introduced to music by their father, country songwriter Jerry Abbott, who owned a recording studio. Although Abbott grew up around country music, he often said he gravitated toward rock music and was influenced by the likes of Tony Iommi, Ace Frehley, Eddie Van Halen and the late Randy Rhodes.

The Abbott brothers and bassist Rex Rocker formed Pantera in 1982. Then Abbott went by the name "Diamond Darrell." Abbott later began to use "Dimebag" and was often referred to as "Dime" by fans and friends.

Pantera's early music leaned more toward hard rock. Joined in 1987 by singer Phil Anselmo, the band began to develop a heavier sound. After releasing a few independent albums, Pantera signed with Atlantic Records in 1990. It was also the period when Abbott came into his own as a guitar player, developing his heavy, frenetic sound that can first be heard on the 1990 album "Cowboys from Hell" and on the 1992 standout "Vulgar Display of Power." It was followed up by 1994's "Far Beyond Driven."

Pantera's manager Kim Zide-Davis, who worked with Abbott 1994 to 2003, was overwhelmed by the news of his death. She told the AP she often told the guitarist he was "a living cartoon character."

"He would do things that you wouldn't believe a real person was capable of," she said.

She said there was a sweet and caring side of Abbott that many people never saw.

"Everything you saw from him was real. That was who he was," she said. "He lived and unfortunately died by his guitar. What you saw on stage was his enjoyment."

Abbott and his brother left Pantera in 2003 and formed Damageplan. In recent years, he also made recording appearances on Nickleback's "The Long Road" and with one of his influences, KISS' Ace Frehley.

Dozens of messages were posted to the Dallas band's Web site after the shootings.

"This is the worst day in metal history," one posting read.

"The metal world feels your pain," another wrote.

It always sucks when a musician dies. But at least we still have his music. RIP Dime.

I actually spoke to someone who was at the Columbus show. Dimebag definitely went out in a way befitting his nickname.:1orglaugh I doubt it is any consolation, but he likely died with a smile on his face.:thumb:


OEC

It is always unsettling to lose someone in a violent manner, even more so when it is someone of greatness and influence, I know thousands of fans who picked up their first guitar because of Dimebag and Pantera.

This loss is even more personal for me because Dime was a friend as well as Vinnie, Phil, Rex and Val being one of the first bands I ever toured with, working on the security team.

Even as this is very difficult for me, I have to laugh in rememberance of the times on the road with all the antics - good hearted fun and just plain cruel jokes and pranks pulled on each other, band members and road crew alike, no one was safe from the alcohol fueled tomfoolery.

All I can think of at the moment is pain, shock and utter disbelief that brother Vinnie and family are going though at this time... as well as everyone else, but especially Vinnie and all who witnessed this moment of insanity firsthand.

For those of us who knew Dimebag would have never expected his life to end in this way but more due to alcohol related causes as was the running joke on the road - he would say if David Crosby can get a transplant, so could he.

The only thing left to say is at least he went out doing what he loved best, hopefully quickly and painlessly... deepest sorrow and sympathies to brother Vinnie, the rest of the Abbot family, the surviving members of Damageplan and Pantera as well as the families of Nathan Bray and Erin Halk.


:buttrock: Rock On Dime .... show 'em all what it means to be a Cowboy From Hell.