Dimebag Darrell (born Darrell Lance Abbott on August 20, 1966, Arlington, Texas – December 8, 2004, Columbus, Ohio), also known as Diamond Darrell until mid 1992, was the lead guitarist for the heavy metal bands Pantera, Damageplan and Rebel Meets Rebel.

He took only one guitar lesson and then focused on self-prescribed teaching through a mix of watching and talking to the local country acts recording at his father's studio and playing along with his favorite artists' albums.

At a very young age Darrell won a series of local guitar competitions where he won his first Dean ML guitar, (the lightning/Dean From Hell). Incidentally, his father had bought him a cherrybust finished Dean ML standard the morning before the competition, so he only had a few hours of playing time on it. These and another contest prize, his first Randall Amplifier, are the 2 staples of his style and sound. By the end of the winning streak, it has been said that he was banned from competing ever again, but was asked to return as a judge.

Pantera

Main article: Pantera

Pantera was formed in 1981 with Dimebag's brother Vinnie Paul on drums. The band officially split in 2003 due to conflicts between members. Phil Anselmo, in the throes of a heroin addiction, started lashing out at other members. Anselmo left the band for other projects, such as Superjoint Ritual and Down. After 1 year, brothers Vinnie and Dimebag eventually moved on and went on to form Damageplan.

Other projects

Shortly before singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, Darrell was invited to join the pre-Rust in Peace Megadeth by Dave Mustaine. According to both Darrell and Mustaine's telling, Darrell was willing to join, but insisted on Mustaine also hiring his brother Vinnie. When Mustaine found out that Vinnie was a drummer and replied that he had already hired Nick Menza, Darrell turned down his offer and stayed with Pantera.

On and off between 1996 and the formation of Damageplan, the Abbott brothers and Pantera Bassist Rex Brown teamed up with country singer David Allan Coe for a project called Rebel Meets Rebel. Vinnie's favorite recorded Dime solo is on this album, part of the track "Get Out Of My Life". The album was released May 2, 2006 on Vinnie's "Big Vin Records" label.

Dimebag played guest guitar solos on several Anthrax songs from their John Bush era: "King Size" & "Riding Shotgun" from Stomp 442, "Inside Out" & "Born Again Idiot" from Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box" (with a voice intro from Dime as well) from We've Come for You All. In a recent interview Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said "Darrell was basically the sixth member of Anthrax". Dimebag also performed a solo on the titular track from King Diamond's Voodoo album. Additionally a sample of a Dime guitar solo has been put in the Nickelback song "Side of a Bullet".

Shortly before Dime's death, he went into the studio with a band named Premenishen to do a guest solo on a track titled "Eyes of the South," which coincidentally is the title of one of the songs featured on the debut album by Anselmo's project Down. The band consists of two of Dime's cousins (bassist Heather Manly and guitarist April Adkisson).

There was speculation that Dimebag and close friend Zakk Wylde would collaborate with Kerry King; however, nothing was confirmed. He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy.

Dimebag's musical roots were in Country Western music; he supported the local music scene in Dallas and would sometimes record with local musicians. On December 2, 2006 a very rare track of one of his collaborations was discovered. Dimebag sat in on a recording session with local Dallas musician "Throbbin Donnie" Rodd and recorded "Country Western Transvestite Whore". It features Dime on lead guitar and lead vocals.

Dimebag and his Brother Vinnie-Paul along with Rex (during the Pantera Era) and Bobzilla (Damageplan Era) performed at their new year's party every year under the name "Gasoline", which was originally and previously a project involving Dime and Vinnie plus Thurber Mingus and Stroker from Pumpjack. Dime, Vinnie and Rex also recorded a cover of the ZZ Top song "Heard it on the X" under the band name "Tres Diablos" for ECW wrestling's "Extreme Music" soundtrack.

Influences

Among Dimebag's influences were Kiss, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Kal Edmondson, Rusty Burns (Point Blank), Jimi Hendrix and Pat Travers. Dimebag once said in an interview that if there was no Ace Frehley, there would have been no Dimebag Darrell - he even had a tattoo of the Kiss guitarist on his chest. Ace signed the tattoo in pen ink upon meeting him, at Dimebag's request, and then the autograph was painstakingly tattooed over soon after, so as never to be washed off. In addition, he cited many of his contemporaries among his influences, including Slayer's Kerry King, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, Metallica's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, Prong's Tommy Victor and Helmet's Page Hamilton. He also credits Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups. According to an interview with Dino Cazares then of Fear Factory Dime told him that during the recording of Reinventing the Steel he A/B'd his guitar tone with Dino's (incidentally during the making of Fear Factory's Demanufacture Cazares A/B'd his guitar tone against that of Vulgar Display of Power).

In the late 80's, around the time of "Power Metal", Dimebag often covered songs by guitarist Joe Satriani, such as Crushing Day. He also incorporated elements of Satriani songs like "Echo" into his live solos as well.

Dime has stated, in various interviews, that his riffs were largely influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Indeed, Tony's influence can be heard in many Pantera songs, Dime often emulating his style. Tony's influence can occasionally be heard in Dime's soloing as well, with his fast, manic pentatonic licks. Tony also influenced Dime's tunings, which often went down to C# or lower. Pantera covered Planet Caravan, Paranoid, Hole In the Sky and Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath.

He has also cited thrash giants Anthrax, Metallica and, despite a sometimes vicious feud, Megadeth as primary influences. He was also a great fan of Slayer and a good friend of Kerry King. Dime mentioned in an interview with Guitar World that the clean chord passages in the intro to Cemetery Gates were influenced by the clean chord passages found in much Ty Tabor's, of King's X, material. Dime cited Alice in Chains as his favorite grunge band, and Pantera frequently toured with them. The first song Dimebag learned was said to be "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Fistful of Metal-era Anthrax can clearly be heard in Dimebag's guitar playing. The frantic, out of control feel of both Anthrax's leads and rhythms are common place in Dimebag's playing. Dimebag has stated on multiple occasions that ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' bluesy, soulful playing style has, if subtly, had an influence over him.

Indeed Dime frequently made use of pentatonic scales and slide guitar in both his leads and rhythms. Another playing characteristic Dimebag shares with Rev. Gibbons is stomping, aggressive, and yet still grooving rhythms. Both guitarist employ blues scales, start / stop dynamics and pedal tones. A good example of each style would be Dime's southern style riff in "The Great Southern Trendkill", and the stomping main riff to ZZ Top's "Tush". Randy Rhoads' eerie, clean, dissonant chord arpeggios can be heard in much of Dime's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep", and "This Love". It is also possible that Dimebag developed his love for the wah pedal, which can be heard on nearly all his leads on Vulgar Display of Power, through listening to Metallica's Kirk Hammett, whom he has in fact cited as an influence.

Although most of Dimebag's influences were from music, he had other influences too, especially if they were people he trusted the most. Contrary to popular belief, Darrell did not always like being called "Dimebag". He felt that marijuana was wrongfully placed with narcotics made through a chemical synthesis (example: cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine), because of marijuana's derivations to organic life. Since he could not change this political fallacy himself, he just wanted his most trusted influences to simply call him "Darrell". Darrell was also an avid consumer of alcoholic beverages. He himself invented a cocktail, known as the "Black Tooth Grin", named after a lyric in the Megadeth song "Sweating Bullets". The drink consists of one shot of both "Seagrams 7" and "Crown Royal" whiskey, with a splash of just enough Coca-Cola to darken the whiskey's color.

Relationship With Dean Zelinsky

Darrell first met Dean Zelinsky when he was only 16. Dean had come to Spirit Music in Dallas, the store that Darrell often went to after school. There was a huge crowd surrounding the table at which Dean sat, and Darrell had trouble getting up to the front. To get Deans attention, he plugged his guitar into a big amplifier stack and began to play as loud and as best he could. After a few minutes of shredding, a man tapped Darrell on the shoulder. Expecting to be told to stop, he spun around to see Dean standing with a huge smile on his face. He said "thats pretty damn good son." When Darrell asked for a signature on his guitar, Dean turned it over to see the huge hole that had been drilled to make room for the Floyd Rose that Darrell put in. Dean stopped making guitars only a few years after he had started, but restarted in 2004. This ended Dimebag's relationship with Washburn.

Death

On December 8, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot a total of five times, at point-blank range in the back of the head. He was 38 years old.

Three others were killed in the shooting: concert attendee Nathan Bray, 23 of Columbus; club employee Erin Halk, 29 of northwest Columbus; and Damageplan security guard Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, 40 of Texas.

The band's drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks, and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were also injured.

According to police, Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, taking the time to reload once, remaining silent throughout the shooting. When security staff tried to stop him, Gale fired at them, wounding Paluska, and killing Halk, who had attempted to stop the gunman with a beer bottle as a weapon. Damageplan head of security Jeffery Thompson fought with Gale for a short time, stopping him from killing Vinnie Paul Abbott and John Graham, as well as knocking off Gale's glasses (preventing him from seeing Officer Niggemeyer just minutes later), before being fatally wounded by Gale. Audience member Nathan Bray, who jumped onstage to try to give CPR to Dimebag and Thompson, stood up and took a single step towards Gale before being shot a single time in the chest. Brooks was scuffling with Gale onstage but was overpowered and taken hostage in a headlock position. Brooks was shot several times (once in the right hand, his right leg, and his right side) while attempting to get the gun away from Gale.

Police then arrived on the scene. Five officers came in the front entrance led by officer Rick Crum, and moved toward the stage. Officer James D. Niggemeyer came in through the back door, behind the stage. Gale only saw the officers in front of the stage; he never saw officer Niggemeyer. When the hostage moved his head, Officer Niggemeyer shot Gale in the face with a police-issued 12-gauge shotgun. Gale was found to have 35 rounds of ammunition remaining.

During the rampage, nurse and audience member Mindy Reece, 28, went to the aid of Abbott. She and another fan administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Dimebag Darrell was buried at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.

In May 2005, Officer Niggemeyer testified before the Franklin County grand jury, which is routine procedure in Franklin County after a police shooting. The grand jury did not indict Niggemeyer, finding that his actions were justified.

Niggemeyer received a commendation from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission for his outstanding police work in time of crisis as well as The National Rifle Association award as 2005 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The five other officers that were first on the scene received Ohio distinguished law enforcement medals for their brave work. In 2006 James Niggemeyer penned the foreword to A Vulgar Display Of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa.

Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have acted based on the Pantera breakup, or a public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these were later ruled out by investigators. Another theory was that Gale believed Abbott had stolen a song Gale wrote. In the A Vulgar Display Of Power book, several of Gale's personal writings, given to the author by Gale's mother, show that the motive of Pantera's breakup or the idea of stolen songs is false, and that due to his condition, paranoid schizophrenia, he believed that the band could read his mind, were stealing his thoughts, and laughing at him.

Rock Walk

On May 17, 2007 Dimebag Darrell was posthumously inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk, the only sidewalk gallery dedicated to honoring those artists who have made a significant impact and lasting contribution to the growth and evolution of rock 'n' roll.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimebag