I know that I have not posted anything on this blog page for many months. I was going to post something about this day on Twitter but there was no way 144 letter would convey my feelings.
7 years ago today was the darkest day in rock. Legendary guitarist Dimebag Darrel of Pantera/Damageplan was murdered on stage. I won't go into the details of the story because you probably know it and I would rather focus on the good stuff and with Pantera there was a lot of good stuff.
I have a lot of great memories with the band and Dime. A few of these stories I should probably keep to myself but I will share a few here.
I met Pantera in early 1991. It was Phil and Dime. MTV insisted that I call him Diamond on camera not Dimebag due to the drug reference . They had a great time correcting me every time I said Diamond.* for all the idiots that loved to post on message boards that I didnt even know his name. He used to be referred to as Diamond . I was a huge fan of Pantera and still think of them as one of the top 5 metal bands period.....hmmm maybe top3. The other thing I appreciated was that hanging with the guys was pretty much like hanging with my bro's at the time. It was wild wreckless and we always had a blast.......ALWAYS. We ended up shooting several specials with Pantera on Headbangers . We would go on the road with them, hang out in the studio even spent a week in Texas which to this day was one of the craziest, decadent and by far most ummmm entertaining of shoots on MTV.
If you ever go back and read any interviews I've done in the past I always mention Pantera and Alice in Chains as my favorite guests on the Headbangers Ball because they never took it to seriously and were always down for a party.
Dimebag in particular was one of the most unpretentious rockers I've ever worked with. He could shred on stage for 2 hours in front of 15,000 people then be sitting in the back of a van pounding beers with fan's.No he really was that guy. D.D was the peoples rock star and never copped an attitude. He was upbeat very down to earth and exactly what we want a rock star to be which is not acting like a rock star.
In Texas we hit up a few bars, kicked a football at Dallas Cowboy stadium and even kicked it at his mothers house. That whole band,every member of Pantera was good people. That's who you wanted to party with.
I played in a punk rock band called "Battery Club" for a few years. One night we played in Dallas. Dime and Vinnie were there bought our tape and a t-shirt. I don't even think they liked the band they were just supporting the group. After the show they asked us all to go back to the studio to listen to some new stuff and of course "party" with them. Take note my band was made up of various musician's from punk bands like Social Distortion,DI etc and really didnt know much about metal at all. I also don't think the guys in my band understood that when it came to having fun and getting fucked up these Dime and Vinnie were professionals. The drinks flowed as I'm sure the weed did too.
I remained sober so was able to observe
Several hours later a few of the guys in my bad were so drunk they were fighting each other,quitting the band and telling the van driver to just leave without them. The Battery Club Boys could not party on the Pantera level. Few could.
It sounds cliche for me to tell you that Dimebag ws good people or how he really cared about his fans but it's true. As much as he was the guy with one of the most unique guitar tones in metal he was also the guy doing shots of Jack talking to fans about Kiss. He was honestly one of the realest mother fuckers there was.
He didnt od or do something stupid. He was taken away from us by some asshole with a gun.
WHAT WAS DIMEBAG LIKE ?
If you want to hear something nice said about the dude all you need to do is ask ANYONE that met hin
