Metal Martyr

Another Interview About Dimebag Darrell W/ Vinnie Paul And Rita Haney

by Scott on January 27th, 2008

Here are a few excerpts from an interview with Rita Haney (Dimebag Darrell’s ex-girlfriend) and Vinnie Paul (If you don’t know who Vinnie Paul is then you shouldn’t be here). Anyway It came out of Metal Hammer’s January Issue. Three years later you’d think people would stop asking the same damn questions to the same people.

Metal Hammer: Do you think that had Darrell not been murdered that he and Vinnie might have eventually made their peace with Phil, and PANTERA might have gotten back together?

Rita: I know Darrell had thoughts about it. He was having problems with Patrick [Lachman, DAMAGEPLAN singer], who turned out totally not to be the person we thought he was. He started trying to give ultimatums about not singing PANTERA songs and Darrell goes, “Let me tell you something: this is who I am. Whether I’m called that or not, that’s my heart and soul, and yes, you will sing them. You knew it when you joined this band.”

Metal Hammer: And things with Rex [Brown, former PANTERA bassist]?

Rita: Darrell talked to Rex on [Dimebag’s 38th] birthday — August 20, 2004 — and he told Rex straight-up, “Dude, I’m not going to go out and have a steak with you today. Maybe I will in the future. The reason I’m talking to you right now is because we have a history. You lived on my couch, my mother was your mother, you were my brother. But you are just as much to blame for this whole thing, and quit blaming it all on Phil. You need to answer for yourself.” And Rex kept saying, “Well, Phil was gonna do it anyway,” and Darrell says, “I don’t care — answer for yourself. Because you know what, motherfucker? You got a free ride through this PANTERA thing. So don’t tell me it’s all Phil’s fault — you were along for the full-meal deal!” That’s why there’s a credit on “DimeVision” [the “DimeVision - Vol 1: That’s The Fun I Have” 2006 DVD tribute to Dimebag compiled largely by Rita Haney] that says, “Rex Rocker — Full Meal Deal.“

Metal Hammer: Did the pair of you turn to each other for support when Phil Anselmo [PANTERA singer] started encountering his various problems whilst in PANTERA?

Vinnie: Oh, yeah, we spoke to each other about it all the time. We’d made several attempts to reach out to Phil. In the end, we felt it had gone too far and we really needed to do something. I remember, Dime had made some demos, and Jerry Cantrell [ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist] was over. We were just hanging out, pretty depressed. Dime took Jerry out in the car and played him the demos — which later became DAMAGEPLAN — and Jerry said, “You need to move on and do your own thing.” Dime came back into the house and said, “Fuck this shit, we’re not waiting around anymore. Let’s just start our own band and do our own thing.” And that’s how DAMAGEPLAN came about.

Metal Hammer: This is obviously a very sensitive area, and I hope you don’t mind me asking the question, and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but what memories do you have of that tragic night?

Vinnie: Ah, man, the last thing that really matters to me is the last thing we said to each other before we went on stage. We were warming up on the side of the stage like we always did and we were both really excited — we only had two shows left and we were gonna be going home for Christmas and to begin work on the second [DAMAGEPLAN] record. Our code word to let it all hang out and have a good time was “Van Halen,” man. And that’s the last two words we ever said to each other. I said “Van Halen” and he said “Van Halen” and we high-fived each other and went on the deck to do our thing… and a minute and a half later I’ll never see him again.

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POSTED IN: Pantera