 Dimebag (also credited as Diamond Darrell) was the lead guitarist in the heavy metal band "Pantera".
His father, a country-western songwriter - Jerry Abbott -, owned a recording studio, where Darrell watched many blues guitarists play.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Dime grew up with a lot of country influences in his life.
He was always exposed to music and musical instruments, and he began playing the guitar at a very young age.
He took lessons from country legends, and picked it up easily. Darell Dimebag was considered a virtuoso at an early age, and by the time he was sixteen years old, he had already won all of the local talent competitions and band contests, and was no longer allowed to enter.
Darell spent many years playing clubs and bars around Dallas before getting any national recognition, but nowadays "Darell Dimebag"'s known as a guitar hero.
Dimebag began entering statewide guitar competitions at an early age.
By the age of 16 he was banned from entering, having won too often.
It was through the prizes — including the guitar that has since become his trademark — Dime won at these competitions that he was able to start "Pantera".
Among his other influences were Eddie Van Halen, to whom he was frequently compared, and Ace Frehley.
In addition, Dime cited many of his contemporaries among his influences, including Slayer's Kerry King, Zakk Wylde, "Metallica"'s James Hetfield, and "Helmet"'s Page Hamilton.
Dime frequently graced the pages of guitar magazines, both in advertisements for equipment he endorsed and in the reader's polls, where he frequented the top 10 metal guitarist spots.
He authored a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness (ISBN 0769291015).
His brother, Vinnie Paul, played drums in "Pantera". The brothers teamed up with country singer David Allan Coe in a project called "Rebel Meets Rebel" and started a new band, "Damageplan", in the aftermath of the "Pantera" breakup.
Their debut album, "New Found Power", reached No. 38 on the charts in 2004.
Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage December 8, 2004 at a "Damageplan" concert at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio when a gunman opened fire after making a statement about the breakup of "Pantera".
Three others, including audience members Nathan Bray and Erin Halk, were also killed in the shooting, while another was seriously injured.
According to Columbus TV station NBC4, the gunman was a Nathan Gale (25) of Marysville, who came from the back of the stage around 10pm, just after the gig started, first fired at Dimebag around four times (who was pronounced dead at the scene), at point-blank range.
According to the article Gale also shot and killed another member of the band before turning on the crowd.
Gale was killed when a nearby police officer, James Niggeman, was sent to the scene and shot him.
|