Today (August 20) marks what would have been Dimebag Darrell’s 43rd birthday. In tribute to Dimebag, I wanted to write a post honoring his life and his contributions to not only metal, but to his friends, family and all of us fans.

A Vulgar Display Of Power: Courage And Carnage At The Alrosa Villa is a fairly fast read and hard to put down. This isn’t a book about the life and death of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, but a book about the life and death of everyone that died that gruesome night in December, 2004.
It starts off by telling you about the first time Nathan Gale made an assault at a Damageplan concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. A lot of people didn’t know or hear about this incident in April of 2004. That night nobody died and the only person that …read more

“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“.

According to Blabbermouth.net, a Dimebag Darrell picture book is in the works:
A picture book celebrating the life of late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abott compiled by his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott (HELLYEAH, PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN) and father, Jerry Abbott, is scheduled for release this summer. Also in the works is the follow-up to the DVD “DimeVision – Vol 1: That’s The Fun I Have”.
Now I’m all about the fact that for the past 3 and a half years manufacturers, magazines and just about anyone are still milking his name and death and at some point, someone has got to say enough …read more

Dimebag Hardware, a small clothing line dedicated to the memory of Dimebag Darrell Abbott is up and running at dimebaghardware.com. By clicking on the pictures of the t-shirts on the site it will take you directly to Guitarcenter.com where you can purchase the t-shirts at very fair prices. This is just the beginning of the clothing line and I expect more accessories and camouflage cargo shorts soon. A lot of people are going to say it’s another way to make money from a deceased metal icon. But I think it’s more of a way to pay tribute and show …read more

Damn, it’s been over three years and every other day we are still seeing news about Dimebag’s death and Rita Haney bitchin about Phil Anselmo and trying to point fingers for his murder. Enough of all this “He Said-She Said” BullShit already. You can call Phil what you want, you can blame anyone you please but it’s still not going to bring your boyfriend back, Rita. We would ALL like to believe that this is all a bad dream…but it’s not. Dimebag is gone and it’s time to move on.
We all say shit we regret every now and then and …read more

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?

According to Revolver magazine, a bunch of Texas Dimebag Darrell Abbott fans want to erect (Hu-Hu, He said “erect”) a Dimebag Memorial statue. I say why not? Hendrix and Elvis have one. Why note Dime? You know what Vinnie Paul said about the “Hell Yeah!”. This is a great idea. I think this would be the only reason for me to ever go to Texas…and to maybe visit a friend.
The picture is not of an actual statue but of a sculpture you can buy at Knucklebonz.com, but I think it would make for a good pose for a statue.
Image Source

Image Source

Do you ever think about things and ask yourself, “What If_____?”
Like What if there Dave Mustaine was never kicked out of Metallica and there was no Megadeth. What would Metallica be like these days. Or perhaps what would Heavy metal be like if there was no Metallica in the first place. Now I know metal does not revolve around Metallica but there are so many bands that were influenced by them. Or even, what would Metallica sound like today if Cliff hadn’t be killed?
What if Black Sabbath never booted Ozzy? What would have Sabbath evolve into? Or what if Randy …read more