Dimebag Darrell

"Dimebag" redirects here. For the quantity of marijuana sometimes referred to as a Dimebag, see Dime (slang) § Narcotics.

Dimebag Darrell

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.

Early Years

At a very young age Darrell won a series of local guitar competitions where he won his first Dean ML guitar. Incidentally, his father had bought him a cherryburst 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 two staples of his style and sound. By the age of 18 he had already won all the guitar contests in that area of Texas and was banned from all competitions(due to winning them all), but was asked to return as a judge. [1]

Bands

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, and Rebel Meets Rebel with country legend David Allen Coe.

Other projects

Shortly before singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, Dimebag Darrell was invited to join Dave Mustaine's Megadeth. 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 - http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/online_downloads/very_rare_dimebag_track_surfaces.html

Dimebag and his Brother Vinnie-Paul along with Rex (during the Pantera Era) and Bob Zilla (Damageplan Era) performed at their New Years 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.

Press

Magazine appearances

Dimebag frequently appeared in guitar magazines, both in advertisements for equipment he endorsed and in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal guitarist spots. In addition, Dimebag wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness (ISBN 0-7692-9101-5). Total Guitar frequently featured him and wrote about him in the months leading up to his death. One year after his death, they also made a tribute issue.

Equipment

In his early career as a musician, Dimebag used Dean ML guitars and Bill Lawrence L500XL pickups, which he would install in a reversed position to have the "hot" blade facing the neck. His main guitars were an ML guitar customized by Buddy Blaze, painted with a unique lightning bolt design and was equipped with a 'Floyd Rose tremolo bar called the "Dean From Hell", and a Braziliaburst ML. He used Dean guitars from 1983 - 1995. When Dean guitars went out of business, he ended up going to numerous other guitar companies. Failing to get an endorsement from BC Rich guitars (which his fellow guitar playing friend Kerry King used), he then went to Jackson Guitars for a short period of time (about four months to be exact) before he switched to Washburn. Dimebag used Washburn guitars from 1996 – 2004 endorsing various signature models such as the Dimebolt and the Stealth. His main guitars at this point were the Dime 3, the Stealth, and the Culprit (a unique model designed by Washburn which varied greatly from the ML). Seymour Duncan manufactures a signature pickup co-designed by Dime, called the Dimebucker. Dimebag endorsed Seymour Duncan, but continued to use Bill Lawrence pickups in most of his personal guitars. Several months before his death, Darrell ended his long relationship with Washburn guitars, and again became a Dean endorsee, coinciding with Dean Guitar founder Dean Zelinksy's return. Dean guitars built him a brand new signature guitar, called the Dime O' Flame, which he began using live. As a tribute to him, in 2005 Dean Guitars released the new Dime Tribute line of ML guitars. These guitars come in various models, ranging from lower end ones that have a stop tail piece, a bolt-on neck, Basswood Body, and lower quality pickups, to higher end models with Dimebuckers, a Floyd Rose bridge, and set neck construction. In his last few weeks with Dean Guitars, Dime helped design a guitar he called the Razorback. After his death, Dean continued with the Razorback project and dedicated them to the memory of him. During the height of Dimebag's fame, he also worked together with MXR and Dunlop to produce the MXR Dime Distortion and the Dimebag "Crybaby from Hell" Wah respectively.

When Dime left Washburn a few weeks before his death, he also left Randall Amps. Dimebag had always sworn by his solid-state Randall's through the years, but in late 2004 he switched to Krank amplifiers, which were purely tube driven. He planned to redefine his very own sound by developing the "Krankenstein". He used the MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive with the Krank amps.

Influences

Among Dimebag's influences were Kiss, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Angus Young, 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 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.

Dimebag 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.

Darrell co-designed a guitar with Dean just months before his death. Called the Razorback, it was a modified version of the ML. It is more pointed and has extra barbs on the wings. This design spawned various variations, such as a 24-fret version, different paint jobs including a flamed maple top with natural finish, EMG pickups, and also helped with the design of the V-shaped version, the Razorback V (lacking the neck-pointing front wing). Dean issued a tribute guitar to honor Darrell's death. It features the tribute logo on the neck, razor inlay on the 12th fret, and hand-painted rusty-metal graphics. The pickups are 1 Dimebucker at the Bridge and a standard "zebra" Dean pickup at the neck, the tremolo is a Floyd Rose double-locking, and the knobs are the Dimebag Traction knobs. All of the Dean Razorback guitars feature black hardware, and almost all of them feature 22 frets, a Floyd Rose tremolo, Seymour Duncan pickups (including the SH-13 Dimebucker), and set-neck construction.

Death

File:In memory.jpg

Black ribbon sticker that appeared on vehicles in honor of Dimebag Darrell.

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. 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.

Tributes to Abbott

Many famous recording artists have paid tribute to Abbott as a performer and friend.

• One of the 3 performance stages at the 2007 Download Festival held at Donington Park (Derby, UK) was renamed "The Dimebag Darrell Stage".
• Machine Head pay tribute to Dimebag Darrell on their sixth studio album The Blackening with track number three, "Aesthetics Of Hate". This recounts the outrage felt by the music community and Machine Head's lead singer, Robb Flynn, upon reading an article called "Aesthetics of Hate: R.I.P. Dimebag Darrell, Goodbye & Good Riddance" posted on the web by William Grimm.
• Guitarist Buckethead wrote a song paying tribute to Abbott, which was available for download for a short while on his official website. The song later made it onto Buckethead's album Kaleidoscalp, entitled "The Android of Notre Dame".
• Nickelback wrote the song "Side of a Bullet" about the shooting as a tribute to Abbott. The song appears on their album All The Right Reasons. The song features a guitar solo that was composed of outtakes of Dimebag Darrell playing that had been recorded for previous Pantera albums. When Nickelback play the song live, they use the actual recording of Dimebag Darrell's solo.
• Avenged Sevenfold have paid tribute to him, through their version of Pantera's "Walk", and in their album City of Evil, the song "Betrayed" is also dedicated to him.
• Hellyeah also paid tribute to him, with their song, "Thank You."
• Zakk Wylde also wrote the song "In this River" prior to Dimebag's death but has since been dedicated to him.
• GWAR played on a live stage without their costumes on as tribute in a performance titled "GWAR Live Unmasked Dimebag Tribute Fistful of Teeth".
• Noted Seattle band IVEY immortalized Dime in their song "Bones of Contention" - its lyrics feature "They murdered God..They murdered God again.."
• Nickelback paid tribute to Dimebag at Sarnia Bayfest '07
• The Band 2 Cents wrote the song "A Song For Darrell Abbott"; the lyrics explain the influence Darrell has on their music and lives.
• Also the band Cross Canadian Ragweed wrote a song called "Dimebag" as a tribute to him.
• The band 5 Knuckle Shuffle from New Philadelphia, Ohio wrote the song "Double Double" as a tribute and toast to Dimebag.
• STEMM's song, "The Memory Remains" is about Dimebag. STEMM were the last band to share the stage with Dimebag, before his death.
• Darrel was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. A player receives the "Dimebag Darrell" award for hitting 100 or more notes in succession.
• The character Axel Steel from the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock features the likeness of Dimebag in his alternate costume.
• The band 24-7 Spyz pays tribute to Darrell in their new album Face The Day with a song called "Blues For Dimebag", the guitarist for the song is Bumblefoot.
• In late 2005, the former guitarist of the band Korn, Brian "Head" Welch, wrote a song for Darrell titled "Letter To Dimebag." Welch explains the song was written as a message to the late Dimebag using no lyrics, only guitar, and speaks of his final good bye to Dimebag who was a great inspiration and friend to him.
• Shinedown performed a live cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man with a short speech before dedicating the performance to their friend Dimebag Darrell.
• Dream Theater along with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, and Russell Allen of Symphony X performed the Pantera classic "Cemetery Gates" as a tribute to Darrell during a Gigantour show on August 2,2005 in Dallas, TX. This performance is included on the bonus disc of the 2005 Gigantour DVD.
• The booklet for Static-x's 4th studio album, Start a War, contains the message '"This album is dedicated to Dimebag Darrell, we miss you"
• The booklet for Disturbed's 3rd studio album, Ten Thousand Fists contains the message "We would like to dedicate this record in memory of our late fallen brother Dimebag Darrell, one of the greatest guitar players to ever walk the face of the earth."
• Metal Hammer is currently preparing a Dimebag tribute, expected to be included in the November 2007 issue.
• Trivium had a rest in peace message to Dimebag written in the back of the leaflet of their latest album, The Crusade.
• Nickleback paid another tribute for Dimebag Darrell at the Festival D'Été de Québec during the summer of 2007 during a live concert at which attented more than 85000 fans who all sang along for the tribute.

Curtis Larsen of Co-vex wrote a song about Darrell titled "Razorback" to pay tribute to his idol.

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.

See also

• Pantera
• Damageplan
• Dean Guitars
• Dean ML
• Dean Razorback
• Dean Razorback V
• Kiss Kasket

External links

• Official Damageplan website
• Official Pantera website
• Official Rebel Meets Rebel Site
• Dimebag Tribute site w/forum
• Obituary by Sebastian Bach
• A Night of Heroes -- The Story of Jeffrey Thompson from The Malefactor's Register
• National Rifle Association Award to Officer Niggemeyer
• Rock Walk