[edit] Pantera

Main article: Pantera

Pantera was formed in 1982 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 a year, brothers Vinnie and Dimebag eventually went on to form Damageplan, and Rebel Meets Rebel with country legend David Allen Coe.

Three of Dimebag's solos from Pantera songs ranked among Guitar World magazine's top 100 of all-time: "Walk" (#57), "Cemetery Gates" (#35), and "Floods" (#15).^[1]

[edit] 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 on the condition that Mustaine also hired his drumming brother Vinnie. Mustaine replied that he had already hired a drummer, Nick Menza, so 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 Dimebag 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 Dimebag 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 to a Dimebag guitar solo has been put in the Nickelback song "Side of a Bullet".

Shortly before Dimebag'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 Dimebag'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.^[2]

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 Dimebag on lead guitar and lead vocals^[3].

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 Dimebag and Vinnie plus Thurber Mingus and Stroker from Pumpjack. Dimebag, 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.

 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. The January 2008 issue of Metal Hammer was also dedicated to him. In the March 2008 issue of Guitar World Dimebag featured the cover story "Dimebag, The Untold Story," and interviews with Dimebag's guitar tech, Rita Haney, and Vinnie Paul Abbott as well as being voted into the Guitar World Hall of Fame.

 Influences

Among Dimebag's influences were Ace Frehley, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Ted Nugent, Eddie Van Halen, 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 (in an interview asking why he chose to become a guitar player Dime said that when he was young his father asked him if he wanted a BMX bike or a guitar for his birthday and he obviously chose the guitar). 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. Eddie Van Halen's black and yellow striped guitar was Dimebag's favorite guitar of all-time, and when Dimebag and Eddie Van Halen met, shortly before Dime's death, he let Eddie know that. That guitar is buried in Dimebag's arms, in his KISS coffin. 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 Dimebag 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.

Dimebag has stated, in various interviews, that his riffs were largely influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Tony also influenced Dimebag'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. Dimebag 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.^{[citation needed]} Dimebag cited Alice in Chains as his favorite grunge band, and Pantera frequently toured with them.^{[citation needed]} The first song Dimebag learned was said to be "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Dimebag has stated on multiple occasions that ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' bluesy, soulful playing style has, if subtly, had an influence over him.^{[citation needed]}

As with Gibbons, Dimebag frequently made use of pentatonic scales and slide guitar in both his leads and rhythms. Both guitarist employ blues scales, start / stop dynamics and pedal tones, as in Dimebag's southern style riff in "The Great Southern Trendkill", and the main riff to ZZ Top's "Tush". Randy Rhoads' style chord arpeggios can be heard in much of Dimebag's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep", and "This Love".

Darrell was also an avid consumer of alcoholic beverages. He 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.^[4]

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 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, featuring the tribute logo on the neck, razor inlay on the 12th fret, and hand-painted rusty-metal graphics. The pickups include a 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

On December 8, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed onstage by former U.S. Marine 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 'Mayhem' 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 once 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 Remington 870 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.

Dimebag's burial stone

Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have turned to violence in response to the breakup of Pantera, or the public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these were later ruled out by investigators. ^[5] 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.