| Dimebag Darrell | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Darrell Lance Abbott |
| Also known as | Diamond Darrell[1] |
| Born | August 20, 1966 Ennis, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | December 8, 2004 (aged 38) Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Genres | Heavy metal, groove metal, thrash metal, southern metal, glam metal |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass, drums |
| Years active | 1981–2004 |
| Labels | Atco, Big Vin, Elektra |
| Associated acts | Pantera, Damageplan, Gasoline, Anthrax, Rebel Meets Rebel |
| Notable instruments | |
| Signature "Dimebag" models issued by Dean and Washburn. | |
Darrell Lance Abbott (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004), also known as Diamond Darrell and Dimebag Darrell, was an American guitarist. He was best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. Abbott also contributed to the album Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaboration between Pantera and David Allan Coe. Darrell is considered to be one of the driving forces behind groove metal. Abbott was shot and killed while on stage during a Damageplan performance on December 8, 2004, at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.[2]
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Darrell Abbott was born to Carolyn and Jerry Abbott, a country musician and producer.[3] He took up guitar when he was 12, and his first guitar was a Hondo Les Paul he got with a small amp. Winning a series of local guitar competitions, most notably held at The Agora Ballroom in Dallas, where he was awarded a Dean ML which he sold to Buddy Blaze who put a Floyd Rose bridge on it and gave it Dimebag's signature lighting bolt paint job and then gave it back to him years later. Coincidentally, his father had bought him a cherryburst finish Dean ML standard the morning before the competition.
Abbott formed Pantera in 1981 with his brother Vinnie Paul on drums. The band played with acts such as Slayer, Megadeth, Venom, and Metallica, as well as traditional metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Judas Priest. Pantera subsequently became a key formulator of the post-thrash subgenre of "groove" metal. It would not be until nine years after forming that Pantera saw its first piece of commercial success in its 1990 major label debut, Cowboys from Hell. Pantera's "groove" style came to fruition in its breakthrough album Vulgar Display of Power, released on February 25, 1992, which saw the replacement of the power metal falsetto vocals with a hardcore-influenced shouted delivery and heavier guitar sound. In 1994, Abbott dropped the nickname "Diamond Darrell" and assumed the nickname "Dimebag Darrell." Pantera began to suffer from mounting tensions between band members in the mid-1990s, largely due to vocalist Phil Anselmo's rampant drug abuse. In 2003 the group went on an extended hiatus but never formally broke up.[4] Anselmo left the band for other projects, such as Superjoint Ritual and Down.
After a year, brothers Vinnie and "Dimebag" formed Damageplan, a heavy metal band which also used the Pantera-style groove metal sound. The Abbott brothers recruited former Halford guitarist Pat Lachman on vocals, and Bob Zilla on bass. Damageplan released its debut album New Found Power in the United States on February 10, 2004, which debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200, selling 44,676 copies in its first week. When writing music for the new group, "Dimebag" said that "we wanted to stretch out and expand our capabilities to their fullest."[5]
Shortly before singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, Abbott was invited by Dave Mustaine to join thrash band Megadeth. Abbott was willing to join, but on the condition that Mustaine also hired his brother Vinnie on drums. As Mustaine had already hired drummer Nick Menza, Abbott stayed with Pantera.
In 1992, Pantera teamed up with Rob Halford (of Judas Priest) for a track called "Light Comes Out of Black". Abbott played all the guitar parts, Rex Brown played bass, Vinnie Paul played drums, Rob Halford sang lead vocals, and Philip Anselmo sang backing vocals. This song was released on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack on July 28, 1992. In 1996, Abbott contributed the Ace Frehley song "Fractured Mirror" to the Ace tribute album Spacewalk: A Salute To Ace Frehley. Then in 1997 a new Ace Frehley tribute album called Return Of The Comet: A Tribute to Ace Frehley was released. The two Abbott brothers covered Ace's song "Snowblind" on track 7. On and off between 1996 and the formation of Damageplan, the Abbott brothers and Pantera bassist Rex Brown teamed up with country singer David Allan Coe for a project called Rebel Meets Rebel. The album was released May 2, 2006 on Vinnie's Big Vin Records label.
Abbott played guest guitar solos on several Anthrax songs during their John Bush era: "King Size" & "Riding Shotgun" from Stomp 442, "Inside Out" & "Born Again Idiot" from Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box" (with a voice intro from Dimebag as well) from We've Come for You All. In a recent interview, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said "Darrell was basically the sixth member of Anthrax". Abbott also performed a solo on the titular track of King Diamond's Voodoo album. A sample from a guitar solo by Abbott was used in the Nickelback song "Side of a Bullet", and he also played guitar on Nickelback's cover of Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting along with Kid Rock.
In 1999, Pantera recorded a theme tune for their favourite ice hockey team, The Dallas Stars, called 'Puck-Off'. The song was eventually released in 2003 on the album 'Dallas Stars: Greatest Hits'. In 2000, Abbott played the guitar solo on Believer for the new Randy Rhoads tribute album. Vocals were by Sebastian Bach, rhythm guitars by Kane Roberts, drums by Michael Cartellone, and bass by Mike Bringardello. This was the only track that Abbott contributed to on this album.
Shortly before Abbott's death, he went into the studio with a band named Premenishen to do a guest solo on a track titled "Eyes of the South."[6] He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy.[7] Abbott's musical roots were in country western music; he supported the local music scene in Dallas and sometimes recorded with local musicians. He played in a country band called Rebel Meets Rebel with country performer David Allan Coe.
In December 2006, a rare track of one of his collaborations was discovered. Abbott had sat in on a recording session with local Dallas musician "Throbbin Donnie" Rodd and recorded "Country Western Transvestite Whore". It features Dimebag on lead guitar and lead vocals.[8] Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul along with Rex (during the Pantera Era) and Bob Zilla (Damageplan Era) performed at their New Years party every year under the name "Gasoline", originally the name of a group featuring Dimebag and Vinnie plus Thurber T. Mingus of Pumpjack. Stroker of Pumpjack also played with Gasoline on several occasions. Dimebag, Vinnie and Rex also recorded a cover of the ZZ Top song "Heard It on the X" under the band name "Tres Diablos" for ECW wrestling's Extreme Music soundtrack.
On December 8, 2004, Abbott was shot to death onstage while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. The gunman, Nathan Gale,[2][9] shot Abbott four times in the head using a 9mm handgun;[10] the fourth shot killed him instantly. Gale continued shooting, killing three others and wounding a further seven. Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, stopping to reload once and remaining silent throughout the shooting.
Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, the band's head of security, was killed tackling Gale, as was Alrosa Villa employee Erin Halk. Gale has long been speculated to be a mentally unstable man, at times claiming to be from an African-American family, as well as being African American himself, despite being white. Audience member Nathan Bray was killed while trying to perform CPR on Abbott and Thompson. It was rumored that one crowd member leapt in front of the gunman, saving the lives of several band members.[11] Damageplan drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks, was shot three times as he attempted to get the gun away from Gale, but was overpowered and taken hostage in a headlock position. Tour manager Chris Paluska was also injured.
Seven police officers came in the front entrance, led by Officer Rick Crum, and moved toward the stage. Officer James D. Niggemeyer came in through the back door, behind the stage. Gale only saw the officers in front of the stage; he never saw Officer Niggemeyer, who was armed with a 12 gauge Remington 870 shotgun. He approached Gale from the opposite side of the stage to avoid hitting the hostage and fired a single shot, striking Gale in the face with eight of the nine buckshot pellets, and killing him. Gale was found to have had 35 rounds of ammunition remaining.
Nurse and audience member Mindy Reece, 28, went to the aid of Abbott, and she and another fan administered CPR until paramedics arrived, but were unable to revive him.
In May 2005, Officer Niggemeyer testified before the Franklin County grand jury, which is routine procedure in Franklin County after a police shooting. The grand jury did not indict Niggemeyer, finding that his actions were justified. Niggemeyer received a commendation from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission for his outstanding police work in a time of crisis as well as the National Rifle Association award as 2005 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The five other officers that were first on the scene received Ohio distinguished law enforcement medals for their efforts. In 2006 James Niggemeyer penned the foreword to a book written about the event A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa.
Early theories of motive suggested that Gale might have turned to violence in response to the breakup of Pantera, or the public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these were later ruled out by investigators.[12] Another theory was that Gale believed Abbott had stolen a song that he had written.[13] In the book, A Vulgar Display Of Power, several of Gale's personal writings, given to the author by his mother, suggest that the gunman was not angry about Pantera's breakup or a belief that Pantera had "stolen songs"; instead, the documents suggest that Gale's paranoid schizophrenia caused delusions that the band could read his mind, and that they were "stealing" his thoughts and laughing at him.
Abbott's grave is located at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas. He is buried alongside his mother. He was buried with Eddie Van Halen's black and yellow-striped Charvel electric guitar (sometimes referred to as "Bumblebee"), which was pictured with Van Halen on the inner sleeve and back cover of the album Van Halen II.[14] Dimebag had asked for one of these guitars in 2004, shortly before he was shot. Edward Van Halen originally agreed to make Darrell a copy of the guitar, but upon hearing of Abbott's death, offered to place the actual guitar in his casket. Dimebag was buried in a KISS Kasket. Inspired by the rock 'n' roll group KISS, he requested in his will that he be buried in one of the famous coffins. Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons said, "There were a limited number made and I sent mine to the family of 'Dimebag' Darrell. He requested in his will to be buried in a Kiss Kasket, as he sort of learned his rock 'n' roll roots by listening to us for some strange reason."
Abbott once said in a Guitar World interview that if there were no Ace Frehley, there would have been no "Dimebag" Darrell - he even had a tattoo of the "KISS" guitarist on his chest.[15] Frehley signed the tattoo in pen ink upon meeting him, at Dimebag's request, and then the autograph was later painstakingly tattooed over, to never to be washed off. In an interview asking why he chose to become a guitar player Abbott said that when he was young his father asked him if he wanted a BMX bike or a guitar for his birthday and he chose the BMX but after listening to a Black Sabbath album for the first time he went to his father to try to trade the bike for the guitar.
In the late 1980s, around the time of Power Metal, Abbott often covered songs by guitarist Joe Satriani, such as "Crushing Day". He also incorporated elements of Satriani songs like "Echo" into his live solos as well. Abbott stated in various interviews, that his riffs were largely influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Iommi influenced Dimebag's tunings, which often went down to C# or lower. Pantera covered Black Sabbath songs "Planet Caravan", "Hole In the Sky" and "Electric Funeral."
Abbott cited thrash giants Anthrax, Metallica, and despite a sometimes vicious feud, Megadeth as primary influences. He was also a fan of Slayer and a good friend of Kerry King. Dimebag mentioned in an interview with Guitar World that the clean chord passages in the intro to Cemetery Gates were influenced by the clean chordal passages found in much of Ty Tabor's (King's X) playing. As with Billy Gibbons, Abbott frequently made use of pentatonic scales and pinch harmonics in both his leads and rhythms. Both guitarists employ blues scales, start / stop dynamics and pedal tones, as in Abbott's southern style riff in "The Great Southern Trendkill" and the main riff to ZZ Top's "Tush". Randy Rhoads-style chord arpeggios can be heard in much of Abbott's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep" and "This Love". Three of Abbott's solos were ranked in Guitar World magazine's top 100 of all-time: "Walk" (#57), "Cemetery Gates" (#35), and "Floods" (#15).[16]
Abbott stated that "Eddie Van Halen was heavy rock and roll, but Randy was heavy metal".[15] Eddie Van Halen, whom Abbott had befriended, placed his original black with yellow stripes guitar (commonly called "bumblebee") into the Kiss Kasket Abbott was buried in. Abbott had mentioned to Van Halen that he liked that color combination the best of the latter's guitars (the guitar appears on the back sleeve of Van Halen's second album Van Halen II) and Van Halen was going to paint one that way for him. Abbott credited Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups.
Pete Willis of Def Leppard was seen as another major influence for Darrell. In his Guitar World magazine tribute issue, Abbott was quoted as saying, "Man, that first Leppard album really jams, and their original guitarist, Pete Willis, was a great player. I was inspired by him because I was a small young dude and he was a small young dude, too—and he was out there kickin’ ass. He made me want to get out there and play. Def Leppard used the two-guitar thing much more back then than they do now."[17]
According to an interview with Dino Cazares of Fear Factory, Abbott told him that during the recording of Reinventing the Steel he compared his guitar tone with Dino's. Incidentally, during the making of Fear Factory's Demanufacture, Cazares compared his guitar tone to that of Vulgar Display of Power. Abbott co-designed a guitar with Dean just months before his death. Called the Razorback, it was a modified version of the ML. It is more pointed and has extra barbs on the wings. The design spawned variations, such as a 24-fret version, different paint jobs including a flamed maple top with natural finish, EMG pickups, and also helped with the design of the V-shaped version, the Razorback V (lacking the neck-pointing front wing).
Dean issued a tribute guitar to honor Abbott's death, featuring the tribute logo on the neck, a razor inlay on the 12th fret, and hand-painted "rusty-metal"-style graphics. The pickups include a Dimebucker at the Bridge and a DiMarzio Super Distortion at the neck. The tremolo is a Floyd Rose double-locking, and the knobs are the Dimebag Traction knobs. They use all-black hardware, and almost all of them have 22 frets, a Floyd Rose tremolo, Seymour Duncan pickups (including the SH-13 Dimebucker) and set-neck construction.
Dimebag was a major endorser of Dean Guitars since the 1980s and early days of Pantera. He is best known for playing a Dean ML guitar with Bill Lawrence L500XL pickups, which he would install in a reversed position to have the "hot" blade facing the neck. His signature guitar is called the "Dean From Hell". It was originally maroon. He sold it and then it circled back to him through Buddy Blaze who repainted. Buddy Blaze also builds guitars for sale now which is based in Hawaii. During a interview before his death, he claimed that as a kid, it was always his dream to play Dean Guitars.
When Dean Guitars went out of business, Darrell signed a 10-year contract with Washburn from 1994 to 2004. In late 2004, he switched back to Dean guitars, who were back in business. Seymour Duncan manufactures a signature pickup co-designed by Dimebag, the SH-13 Dimebucker. He proudly endorsed the pickup manufacture, but continued to use Bill Lawrence pickups in most of his personal guitars. Several months before his death, Darrell ended his long relationship with Washburn, cutting short the Washburn custom shop production of 100 Southern Cross guitars. He became a Dean endorser once again, coinciding with founder Dean Zelinsky's return. Dean built him a brand new signature guitar—the Dime O' Flame, which he began using live.
As a tribute to Abbott, in 2005 Dean Guitars released the new Dime Tribute line of ML guitars. These guitars come in various models, ranging from lower priced models to higher end models with SH-13 Dimebuckers, a Floyd Rose bridge, and set-neck construction. In his last few weeks with Dean, Dime helped design a guitar that he called the Razorback. After Darrell's death, Dean continued with the Razorback project and dedicated the guitars to his memory. During the height of Dimebag's fame, he also worked together with MXR and Dunlop to produce the MXR Dime Distortion and the Dimebag "Crybaby from Hell" Wah respectively.
Throughout his career, Darrell has used a range of different amplifiers. For the majority of his time in Pantera and Damageplan, he used Randall amplifiers and cabinets, with occasional effects.
A few weeks before his death, Darrell left Randall Amplifiers. Dimebag had always sworn by his solid-state Randalls, but in late 2004 he switched to Krank Amplifiers, which were purely tube driven. He planned to redefine his very own sound by developing the Krankenstein. He used the MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive with the Krank amps.
Glam-era (1981–1988) Cowboys From Hell (1990), The Great Southern Trendkill (1996)
Vulgar Display Of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994)
Reinventing The Steel (2000), New Found Power (2004) |
(late 2004)
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Dimebag used a range of different effects during his career. He used both rack-mounted and pedal effects including:
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Abbott frequently appeared in guitar magazines, both in advertisements for equipment he endorsed and in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal guitarist spots. He wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness (ISBN 0-7692-9101-5). He has been voted into the Guitar World Hall of Fame.
Total Guitar frequently featured him and wrote about him in the months leading up to his death. One year after his death, they published a tribute issue. The January 2008 issue of Metal Hammer was also dedicated to him. In the March 2008 issue of Guitar World, Abbott was featured on the cover story "Dimebag, The Untold Story," and interviews with his then-guitar techs Grady Champion, Rita Haney and older brother Vinnie Paul Abbott. The January 2010 Guitar World commemorative issue features interviews with Abbott's father and Pantera's manager, Walter O'Brien. The January 2010 issue of Revolver magazine contains interviews with the remaining band members of Pantera.
Abbott frequently appeared in guitar magazines and in readers' polls, and wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which was compiled into the book Riffer Madness.[18] He was praised for his tone and was included in "The 50 Greatest Tones of All Time" by Guitar Player magazine.[19] Remembered for his amiable nature and rapport with fans, Abbott was described by Allmusic as "one of the most influential stylists in modern metal."[20]
listing is as follows:
| Getcha Pull: A Tribute to Dimebag Darrell track listing | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Cover Artist | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Suicide Note, Part 1" | Zakk Wylde | 5:34 | ||||||
| 2. | "Fucking Hostile" | Machine Head | 2:53 | ||||||
| 3. | "I'm Broken" | Malefice | 4:19 | ||||||
| 4. | "Walk" | Avenged Sevenfold | 5:20 | ||||||
| 5. | "Cemetery Gates" | Evile | 7:11 | ||||||
| 6. | "A New Level" | Five Finger Death Punch | 3:57 | ||||||
| 7. | "Mouth for War" | Biohazard | 3:59 | ||||||
| 8. | "Strength Beyond Strength" | Sylosis | 3:45 | ||||||
| 9. | "Slaughtered" | Chimaira | 4:02 | ||||||
| 10. | "Sandblasted Skin" | Unearth | 3:30 | ||||||
| 11. | "Becoming" | Throwdown | 3:20 | ||||||
| 12. | "This Love" | Kiuas | 7:15 | ||||||
| 13. | "Rise" | This is Hell | 4:36 | ||||||
| 14. | "5 Minutes Alone" (online bonus song) | Nonpoint | |||||||
| 15. | "Fucking Hostile/Behind Space" | In Flames | |||||||
| 16. | "Cemetery Gates" | Between the Buried and Me | |||||||
Abbott performed on Anthrax albums, including Stomp 442 (1995); Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998); the Inside Out EP (1998) and We've Come for You All (2003). With Damageplan, Abbott played on the Devastation Sampler (2003) and on the album New Found Power (2004). With Pantera, Abbott recorded a number of albums, EPs, singles, and videos, including Power Metal (1988); Cowboys from Hell (1990); Vulgar Display of Power (1992); and Hostile Moments (1994). He also recorded albums under his own name, including Country Western Transvestite Whore and Supercop Soundtrack (1996) and he recorded a country music album entitled Rebel Meets Rebel (2004).
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