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