R.I.P. Dimebag

As you may already know, today marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was shot to death on stage by a crazed fan while he was performing with Damageplan in Columbus, Ohio. He was and still is one of my all-time favorite guitarists and is undoubtedly one of the best there ever was. Damn, that was one mofo who could play.

I first got into Dimebag and Pantera after their “Vulgar Display of Power” album came out in 1992. It was the first metal album I had heard in a long time that really kicked me fully in the nuts and got me excited about metal again. I was lucky enough to see Pantera a bunch of times while they were still together and even got the chance to meet Dimebag once after a show. He was a super nice guy and took the time to have a word with everybody and make sure anyone who wanted a drink had one. You might not expect that right away since- as you can probably tell by looking at the photo above- he is kind of scary looking upon first glance.

Pantera remains one of my favorite bands to this day (and is one of the few metal bands that make it into regular rotation among my admittedly much whimpier favorites). If you haven’t already, you should check their sh*t out. In fact, today would be an especially good day to do it (I would recommend the “Best of Pantera” CD and DVD that Rhino put out a few years ago as it gives you a little bit of everything). Dimebag would be proud.

Dave Hill