Dimebag Darrell
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Dimebag Darrell (born Darrell Lance Abbott August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004) (also known as Diamond Darrell until mid 1992) was a guitarist in the heavy metal bands Pantera, Damageplan, and Rebel Meets Rebel.
Early life
Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Dallas, Texas, to country songwriter Jerry Abbott. His father owned a recording studio, Pantego Sound Studios, in Pantego, Texas, where Darrell had seen many blues guitarists play, but after hearing Ace Frehley of KISS play, he wanted to start playing guitar himself. At first, he wanted to play the drums. However, after discovering that he wasn't as good as his brother Vincent, he decided to try the guitar instead. At an early age, Abbott began entering statewide guitar competitions and by the age of sixteen had been banned from entering because he had won too often. He often competed against guitar players who had up to twelve years more experience of playing guitar than him, yet his skills surpassed theirs and he was invited to begin judging the contests in question. It was through the prizes — including the guitar that has since become his trademark — Dimebag won at these competitions and he was able to start Pantera.Bands
Pantera
- Main article: Pantera
Damageplan
- Main article: Damageplan
Other projects
Sometime between the breakup of Pantera and the formation of Damageplan, the Abbott brothers 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 tracks from their John Bush era the songs being: Riding Shotgun from Stomp 442, Inside Out off Volume 8: The Threat is Real, and Strap It On and Cadallic Rock Box off We've Come For You All. In a recent interview Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said 'Darrel was basically the sixth member of Anthrax'.
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". 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 Eddie Van Halen, however nothing was confirmed. He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy. [link]
Musicianship
Dimebag Darrell's unique, original and versatile guitar playing was the mainmast of several bands, finally including Pantera. Not only was Dime one of the most creative, adaptable and technical players in the studio, but live he was flawless, his "tweener" solos containing some of his most experimental shreds, a la his idol, Eddie Van Halen. Pentatonic licks, finger tapping, pick tapping, wild whammy bar tricks, screaming wah and whammy pedal effects and alternate picking were some of the techniques Dime embellished upon, as well as his trademark pinch harmonics, as heard in "Cemetery Gates". Dime also made use of various effects pedals.Darrell used a variety of guitar tunings. He was one of the first guitarists to demonstrate the use of tuning every string on his guitar down 1/4 of a step, something that became part of his "signature tone". From Cowboys to Vulgar Dime tuned down 1/4 of a step, a half step and sometimes an entire step, as well as using drop-d tuning. From Vulgar onwards, Darrell's guitar tuning got lower and lower, giving more of an "edge" to the murkier, heavier feel of many Pantera/Damageplan songs. Also, Darrell made the Bill Lawrence high-output humbucker famous, which was first featured by Alex Lifeson on the Rush album, "Signals."
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 0769291015). 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 (Most notably the "Dean From Hell" that was custom painted in a lightning bolt design) and Bill Lawrence pickups, which he would install in a reversed position to have the treble blade facing the neck. When Dean guitars went out of business he switched to Washburn. Dimebag used Washburn guitars for the greater half of his career (1996-2004), endorsing various signature models. Seymour Duncan also has a signature pickup co-designed by Dime, called the Dimebucker. Dimebag proudly endorsed Seymour Duncan, but continued to use Bill Lawrence pickups in all of his personal guitars. Several weeks before his death, Darrell ended his long relationship with Washburn guitars, and became a Dean endorsee (Dean Guitars was bought and reopened by Dean Zelinsky). As a tribute to the late great, 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. Dean has also produced a unique Dime signature-design guitar, called the "Razorback", (now being used by Matt Heafy of metal band Trivium) reminiscent of Dean's classic ML design, but with a more modern twist. 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. Dimebag's rig also included Randall Century 200 heads and cabinets loaded with vintage Celestions and Jaguar speakers, Furman parametric equalizers, MXR flanger/doublers, Lexicon effect modules, Korg tuners, Rocktron silencers and Digitech Whammy pedals, amongst other gadgets in his arsenal. When Dime left Washburn a few weeks before his death, he also left Randall Amps, investing in and endorsing amps from a brand new company, Krank. He planned to redefine his very own sound by developing the "KRANKENSTEIN".Influences
Among Dimebag's influences were Judas Priest, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, and Ace Frehley. 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 upon Dimebags 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, Prong's Tommy Victor and Helmet's Page Hamilton. He also credits Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups.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 sliding, slurring, style, his odd timing, his dissonant, eerie single note riffs, his open string chugging, his use of the wah pedal on rhythm parts, his penchant for odd changes and adding funky embellishments and his frequent use of sludgy, mammoth walls of distortion. 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, Hole In the Sky and Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath.
He has also cited thrash giants Anthrax and Metallica as primary influences. 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 controll feel of both Anthrax's leads and rhythmns 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 Rhodes' 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 Dispay of Power, through listening to Metallica's Kirk Hammet, who he has in fact cited as an influence.
Abbott's murder
On December 8th, 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, twice at point blank range in 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 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 and audience members climbed the stage to try to stop him, Gale fired at them, killing Thompson and Halk, who had attempted to stop the gunman with a wooden table, and wounding Paluska. Gale then took Brooks hostage, holding him in a headlock position after the technician attempted to wrestle him to the ground. When the hostage moved slightly, Columbus police officer James D. Niggemeyer, who was the first police officer to arrive at the scene, shot Gale in the face with a 12 gauge police issue shotgun.
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. According to some reports, victim Nathan Bray was also attempting to render assistance when he was killed.
Dimebag Darrell was buried at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.
Due to insufficient seating, several members of Darrell's family were escorted out of the funeral services by security in order to make room for "distinguished guests." Later on during the services, other family members walked out due to the extreme profanity and other vulgarities by some of the speakers.
Some months before his murder, Darrell had found out from one of his industry contacts that Eddie Van Halen and Charvel guitars were going to produce a limited-edition series of guitars bearing Van Halen's trademark tape-striping. Van Halen himself would be individually taping each guitar and they would also come with a picture of him doing so and a certificate of authenticity. According to Eddie, Darrell called him on the phone and asked if he could purchase one before they became available. Eddie replied that the next time he saw Darrell, he would have one of the guitars with him and would stripe it in Darrell's presence as a gift. Before they could meet again, Darrell was murdered. Eddie recounted this story when he spoke at Darrell's funeral, then, to the surprise of those in attendance, he brought out the black and yellow tape-striped guitar seen on the back cover of Van Halen II(which Darrell had said was his favorite guitar of Eddie's) and laid it in Darrell's casket to be buried with him.
The shootings had occurred on the 24th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon, but there is no indication that this was a factor in Gale's actions.
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.
Niggemeyer received a commendation for his outstanding police work in time of crisis.
Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have acted on rumors of a Pantera breakup, or a public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these have now been ruled out by investigators. [link]
Abbott's family has now decided to sue the night club where he was murdered. They claim that if the club had employed competent security guards, this needless death would have never occurred. The club owner states that his security guards are not trained nor were ever intended to thwart gun wielding guests. The news of this lawsuit comes within days of the anniversary of Abbott's murder.
Tributes to Abbott
External links
| Pantera | ||
| Members | ||
|---|---|---|
| Phil Anselmo - Dimebag Darrell - Rex Brown - Vinnie Paul | ||
| Terry Glaze | ||
| Metal Magic - Projects in the Jungle - I Am the Night - Power Metal - Cowboys from Hell - Vulgar Display of Power - Far Beyond Driven - The Great Southern Trendkill - Reinventing the Steel | ||
| Other releases (Live albums, EPs) | ||
| [[Official Live: 101 Proof]] - [[The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!]] |
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