Dimebag Darrell

Darrell Lance Abbott, also known as "Diamond Darrell", and "Dimebag Darrell" (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004) was an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. He also performed in the southern rock band Rebel Meets Rebel.

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. He was praised for his tone and was included in "The 50 Greatest Tones of All Time" by Guitar Player magazine. Remembered for his amiable nature and rapport with fans, Abbott was described by Allmusic as "one of the most influential stylists in modern metal." On December 8, 2004, Abbott was murdered on stage during a Damageplan performance at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.

Biography
Early years

Darrell Abbott was born to Carolyn and Jerry Abbott, a country musician and producer. 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. Coincidentally, his father had bought him a cherryburst finish Dean ML standard the morning before the competition, so he only had a few hours of playing time on it. Eventually, according to friend and family interviews in Guitar World Magazine, Abbott was barred from competing in guitar competitions because he gave the other contestants no chance to win. These contest prizes, including his first Randall Amplifier, started a long-term relationship with the brands.

Pantera and Damageplan

Abbott formed Pantera in 1981 with his brother Vinnie Paul on drums. The band played with acts such as Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica, as well as traditional metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Venom, 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. 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."

Other projects

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 br
others 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 (not the Ozzy Osbourne 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." He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy. 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. Three of Abbott's solos from Pantera songs ranked among Guitar World magazine's top 100 of all-time: "Walk" (#57), "Cemetery Gates" (#35), and "Floods" (#15). 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. 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.

Death

On December 8, 2004, Abbott was shot onstage while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.

The gunman was Nathan Gale, who shot Abbott three times in the head, the third of which killed him instantly. Gale then 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. Audience member Nathan Bray was killed while trying to perform CPR on Abbott and Thompson. It was rumored that one crowd member leaped in front of the gunman, saving the lives of several band members. 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. 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. Another theory was that Gale believed Abbott had stolen a song that he had written. 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. 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."

Influences and guitar skills

Abbott once said in a Guitar World interview that if there was no Ace Frehley, there would have been no "Dimebag" Darrell - he even had a tattoo of the "KISS" guitarist on his chest. Ace signed the tattoo in pen ink upon meeting him, at Dimebag's request, and then the autograph was painstakingly tattooed over soon after, so as 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 also 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."

He also cited thrash giants Anthrax, Metallica and, despite a sometimes vicious feud, Megadeth as primary influences. He was also a great 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 Dimebag'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 Dimebag's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep", and "This Love". He also stated that "Eddie Van Halen was heavy rock and roll, but Randy was heavy metal". Eddie Van Halen, whom Abbott had recently befriended, placed his origin

al black with yellow stripes guitar (commonly called "bumblebee") into the Kiss Kasket. Abbott had mentioned to Van Halen that he liked that color combination the best of the latter's guitars (this 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 also credited Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups. 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 against 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. This 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).

Pete Willis of Def Leppard was also 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."

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.

Equipment

Guitars

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".

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.

Amplifiers and cabinets
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.

•    Randall RG100es/RG100HT heads and cabinets

Glam-era (1981–1988) Cowboys From Hell (1990), The Great Southern Trendkill (1996)

•    Randall Century-200 heads and cabinets

Vulgar Display Of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994)

•    Randall Warhead 1st Generation heads and cabinets

Reinventing The Steel (2000), New Found Power (2004)   

•    Modified Krank Revolution (prototype to the krankenstein) heads and cabinets

(late 2004)

•    Dime used Celestion speakers and occasionally vintage Jaguar Speakers in his cabs, while using krank, he used the Eminence Speakers Texas Heat's in his cabs.
•    Dime Constructed his signature amp the Warhead With Randall in 1999. He used a prototype to record Reinventing The Steel (2000) and the 1st Gen for New Found Power (2004). He carried on using the Warhead until Switching to krank in mid 2004 .

Effects

Dimebag used a range of different effects during his career. He used both rack-mounted and pedal effects including:

•    Furman PQ4 Equalizer (1990–1995)
•    Furman PQ3 Equalizer (1996–2004)
•    MXR 6-band Graphic Equalizer (the blue one)
•    MXR Flanger/Doubler (Blue-faced rack unit)
•    MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive
•    BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor
•    BOSS CE-1 Chorus
•    Korg G3
•    Korg AX30G and AX100G
•    EBow
•    Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger/filter matrix
•    Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher compressor/sustainer
•    Lexicon Effect Modules
•    Digitech Whammy (x2)
•    Vox wah
•    Rocktron guitar Silencer
•    Dunlop Rackmount wah
•    Dunlop Octave Fuzz & Wah (prototype)
•    Whirlwind A/B Selector
•    Roland AP2 Phase ii Pedal
•    Zoom G1 Multi FX Pedal


Magazine appearances

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 Dime's dad and Pantera's manager, Walter O'Brien. The January 2010 issue of Revolver magazine contains interviews with the remaining band members of Pantera.

Tributes

•    Thrash metal band Evile did a cover of "Cemetery Gates" as tribute to Dimebag Darrell.
•    Funk metal band 24-7 Spyz paid tribute to Darrell on their album Face the Day with an instrumental song called "Blues For Dimebag".
•    Southern Metal band The Showdown often does a live medley that includes "Cowboys From Hell" and "Walk" at the end of their shows.
•    Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti has a picture under the bridge of one of his PRS guitars showing a tribute to "Dimebag" Darrell.
•    Country rock band Cross Canadian Ragweed debuted the song "Dimebag" while on tour to promote the album Garage. The band performed the song live for the first time at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio in early 2005.
•    Michael Angelo Batio, another Dean guitar endorser, arranged three of Pantera's songs into a medley for a track called "Tribute to Dimebag" in his album, Hands Without Shadows 2 - Voices.
•    A live version of Shinedown's cover of "Simple Man" is dedicated to Dimebag Darrell.
•    Trivium's album, The Crusade, says at the bottom of the final page, "Rest in peace Dimebag Darrell Abbott (1966-2004). Trivium also covered a small section of the Pantera song "Domination" during the Roadrunner United's Concert DVD.
•    Disturbed in their 2005 release Ten Thousand Fists stated: "We would like to dedicate this record to the memory of our late fallen brother, Dimebag Darrell, one of the greatest guitar players to ever walk the face of this Earth."
•    French metal band Watcha dedicated a song on the album "Phenix" called "Dimebag". Lyrics contains many titles of Pantera soundtrack.
•    Guitarist Buckethead wrote "Dime", a song paying tribute to Abbott, which was available for free download shortly after Abbott's death. The song later made it onto Buckethead's album.Kaleidoscalp, entitled "The Android of Notre Dame".
•    He Came to Rock is a DVD/book tribute to Abbott released in November 2008. Darrell's brother Vinnie Paul and father Jerry toured to promote the book's release.
•    The booklet in C.O.C.'s In the Arms of God album says "R.I.P. Dime" at the bottom of the last page.
•    The song "Side of a Bullet" by Nickelback is a tribute to Dimebag; it takes place in a world where the killer is still alive and has lyrics such as, "He hit the stage so full of rage and let the whole world know it/6 feet away they heard him say/Oh God, don't let him pull it." An unreleased solo recorded by Dimebag, intended for Damageplan, was mixed into the song.
•    Metal band Machine Head dedicated a song to Dimebag on their album The Blackening, called "Aesthetics of Hate". The song's lyrics are meant as a vicious retaliation against the Christian-conservative website The Iconoclast, which hosted an article of the same name bashing Darrell after his death. Also, on their tour with this album, they honored Dimebag during a concert by taking time to tell Dime's story. "Aesthetics of Hate" remains a mainstay on tour and is always dedicated to the memory of Darrell. Robb Flynn was a friend of Darrell's, who also took the time to remark both on how talented and how generous he was - reportedly, Robb owns a custom-made Washburn Dimebag guitar which was given to him as a replacement after Dimebag broke his touring guitar, but can't use it on stage due to contract disagreements. He used this guitar to record "Aesthetics of Hate". Machine Head have also recorded a cover of the Pantera song "Fucking Hostile" for the Metal Hammer magazine tribute CD.
•    Static-X's album Start A War was dedicated to Dimebag Darrell as it says in the inner booklet of the CD.
•    In Avenged Sevenfold's City of Evil album, the song "Betrayed" is labeled as "In memory of Darrell Lance Abbott-"Dimebag Darrell". Avenged Sevenfold also did a cover of the Pantera song "Walk".
•    The 2006 album Garage, by Cross Canadian Ragweed, features the song "Dimebag", which is about "Dimebag" Darrell and makes references to his songs and death.
•    Crowbar dedicated their 2005 album Lifesblood for the Downtrodden to Dimebag Darrell.
•    In 2006, Malibu punk/metal band 2Cents released Lost at Sea (Atlantic Records), which features a tribute song to Abbott titled "A Song for Darrell Abbott".
•    Finnish Metal band Kiuas´ song "Bleeding Strings" from their 2006 album Reformation is dedicated to Dimebag Darrell.
•    Phil Anselmo's band Down now dedicates the song "Lifer, from NOLA" to Dimebag Darrell when performed live.
•    Black Label Society now dedicates the song "In This River" to Dimebag.
•    Brides Of Destruction paid tribute to Dimebag Darrell on their 2005 release, Runaway Brides, with the track "Dimes In Heaven".
•    The lyrics of metal band Abnormality's 2007 song "Visions" are about Dimebag Darrel's death.
•    The song "Leave it Alone" (with Jason Bittner, David Ellefson, Tristan "1690" Grigsby, Nick Bowcott and Brian Cashmore) is a tribute to Dimebag Darrell.
•    The progressive death metal band Between The Buried And Me did a cover of "Cemetery Gates" on their album The Anatomy Of.
•    While playing in Hammersmith in 2004, Melodic Death Metal band In Flames played a cover of "Fucking Hostile" and dedicated it to the memory of Dimebag Darrell.
•    During Gigantour 2005, Dream Theater did a cover of Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" as a tribute to "Dimebag" Darrel Lance Abbott. As an added bonus, they had Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, and Russell Allen of Symphony X do guest vocals and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, do the main solo for the song.
•    Brazilian death metal band Krisiun dedicated their 2006 album AssassiNation to the memory of Dimebag and late Vader drummer Doc.
•    The 2009 album 11:11 by Rodrigo y Gabriela features a tribute track named "Atman" inspired by Dimebag.
•    Ace Frehley's 2009 solo album Anomaly is dedicated to Dimebag.
•    Slayer guitarist Kerry King drinks a shot at the end of live performances as a tribute to Darrell and usually leaves one shot on stage "for Dime".
•    Type O Negative played "Halloween in Heaven" off of the Dead Again album as a tribute to Dimebag when playing live.
•    Brian Welch (former guitarist of the band Korn) made an only-guitar song dedicated to Dimebag called "Letter to Dimebag".
•    The booklet in the Evanescence album The Open Door, in Terry Balsamo's section says "..R.I.P dimebag."
•    Detroit groove-metal band Myth Not Man ends every one of their shows with a cover of the Pantera song "Becoming" in tribute to Dimebag Darrell's influence on their guitar player Joey Davis' style and the band's music.
•    Overdriven Guitarist Caleb Fyvie has two dimes dated 1966 and 2004 on the headstock of his Signature Dean ML.
•    Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 has an achievement named "Dimebag Darrell Award", when the player gets a 100-note streak on any song.
•    A tribute album by UK magazine Metal Hammer honored Dimebag. It came along with the magazine, which went on sale December 16, 2009. The track listing is as follows:

1.    Zakk Wylde - "Suicide Note, Part 1"
2.    Machine Head - "Fucking Hostile"
3.    Malefice - "I'm Broken"
4.    Avenged Sevenfold - "Walk"
5.    Evile - "Cemetery Gates"
6.    Five Finger Death Punch - "A New Level"
7.    Biohazard - "Mouth for War"
8.    Sylosis - "Strength Beyond Strength"
9.    Chimaira - "Slaughtered"
10.    Unearth - "Sandblasted Skin"
11.    Throwdown - "Becoming"
12.    Kiuas - "This Love"
13.    This is Hell - "Rise"
14.    Nonpoint - "5 Minutes Alone"*
15.    In Flames - "Fucking Hostile/Behind Space"
16.    Between the Buried and Me - "Cemetery Gates"

Discography and filmography

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). Black Label Society - In this River was dedicated to "Dime"

Posted in: Guitarists