"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, 4 Years Later And It Still Hurts A Little
December 8, 2008 by Scott
“Dimebag” Darrell Lance Abbott
Aug. 20, 1966- Dec. 4, 2004
Four years ago I was still in the military and was overseas. I was going through my daily ritual of checking email, news and such before heading to work when I heard them say something about someone being killed at a Damageplan concert. I didn’t catch the whole thing so I ran a search on Yahoo! and it returned with a bunch of headlines reading “Damageplan Guitarist Murdered On Stage During Concert“, Or “Four Killed At Ohio Heavy Metal Concert“.
I thought, “This can’t be possible!” and shortly afterwards I found out that it was Dimebag Darrell that had been killed along with three others. My heart sank to my stomach and I could feel a big lump in my throat. I’d be lying to you if I said that I didn’t cry just a little bit. It was a sad day for so many people and the thought of Vinnie Paul seeing his brother shot in the head at point blank range was just awful.
Like so many others, I never knew Darrell personally, but every time you saw him in a non-performance video he always seemed to be this shining star of personality. He always seemed happy and really cool just as everyone that knew him personally described him. It’s still kind of hard to believe what happened was real even after 4 years. There’s nothing that can turn back the hands of time and restrain his murderer and the only person to blame is Nathan Gale. Nothing anyone says or does can change that so there is no use in pointing fingers anywhere else anymore.
On this 4 year anniversary of Dimebag’s death, let’s pay tribute by having a virtual Black Tooth Grin and never forget the metal masterpieces that he gave to us. Rest In Peace, Dime’.
Let’s not forget the three other people that were killed that night: Jeffrey Thompson (Damageplan crew), Nathan Bray (An audience member), and Erin Halk (Club security).
Image: Newscom.com
I remember sitting at home that night, and my friend called me and said “Dan!! The guy from Pantera just got shot man!!” I couldn’t believe it. And sure thing, I hopped online and it’s all over the place. I never met Dime, but like you said, based on what everyone has said about him, he was just a great guy to hang out with and tons of fun.
One of my favorite stories about Dime is that he had a billy goat, and he had dyed the goat’s goatee red to match his. This thing would just run around the house, inside and out, red beard swaying around.
We lost another giant that day, but imagine this: when we join him, there will be a kickass house band for our eternal party!!
I think a little piece of metal inside of every Dimebag fan died that day.
A piece of metal definitely died in me that day.
4 years later and it still hurts a lot. \m/
#RIPDimebag
#Getchapull
Talking about Dimebag i was just digging into Pantera videos this past weekend, some of this videos were just people covering pantera’s songs, and some of them are really good(fans, not Other bands like A7X)), i’m a Pantera fan and definitely Dimebag’s fan, but at least i saw him playing live with Damageplan few months before he died. And i still don’t understand how this guy end up doing this.
Isn’t Nathan Bray the guy who did it?
No, it was Nathan Gale that killed them.
it sucks that some punk shot dime he was a trus guitar god and i think people should let phil give his suport dime will live on in my home as many others
I wish they’d let Phil show more support too. I think that now that he’s sobered up that he realizes how much of a douche he had been in the past. It’s probably pretty hard on his emotions as well.
After i found out dimebag darrel has passed away a big part of my passion for heavy metal ripped away after that asshole shot him. I still honor him as the greatest guitar player ever, and considere him as a heavy metal playing guitar god. I still listen to his music, and yet still can’t get enough of on how he put his guitar riffs together. I still head bang over his kick ass music that he made over the year’s.
RIP Darrel Lance Abbot AKA Dimebag Darrel
dude you guys are awesome. i went to youtube and watched that fuck nut shoot the best guitar player on earth. made me really sad. and yah phil has as much of a right as anyone to suport the man. im only 15 and DIME compleatly changed my life. and just to think he died so close to here…..sucks…it really does… R.I.P DIMEBAG