Matthew LaVelle’s weblog

Darrell Abbott was apparently shot by a lunatic fan. Darrell Abbott, his brother Vinnie Paul, and bassist Rex were all part of the heavy metal band Pantera. I first read it this morning. What at first was a link off of Blogdex that was part of my almost daily readings, quickly turned to shock when I read this:

Darrell Abbott, who was known as “Dimebag Darrell,” was pronounced dead at the scene, NBC 4’s Kyle Anderson reported.

The video from local CBS news afiliate (Internet Explorer with Windows Media Player only) confirms that Darrell and one other band member were shot and killed. An eye witness said that he saw the shooter arguing with Darrell shortly, then pulling a gun and shooting him five times. He then turned the gun on other band members before he was shot and killed by a local police officer.

I was in shock. I told some other friends at work but nobody knew Pantera or Darrell like I did. I grew up listening to these guys play in clubs in Arlington, Ft. Worth and Dallas. We were in a garage band because of these guys. We looked up to them as metal gods. I flipped off the camera because of these guys, especially when it was my mother or an authority figure. We bitched about the system. We mocked our local culture and society. I dreamed and drooled over the always present 3 or 4 Dimebag Darrell Signed Slimeball series Washburn guitars on display at the local Guitar Center in Arlington where Pantera once played a free concert. When I played guitar, I used a B.C. Rich because Kerry King did, a Metal Zone pedal because half of the guitarists I listened to demanded it, and blasted it through a Randall full stack. Why Randall? Because I wanted to be like Dimebag.

We Generation Xer’s loved to glom onto these attention beckoning bands like Pantera, Metallica, G’nF’nR, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura and others. I grew up hearing stories about Darrell. He was ten years older than me. I would hear how he would enter every major guitar competiton he came across. He would get to the point where he won so many competitions that the company’s putting on the competition began barring him from entering and eventually let him judge other contestants.

Darrell owned a nice big house in north central Texas where he partied all the time. In 1999 or 2000 I remember hearing rumors about a party held with the Dallas Stars one evening. At one point during the party you could view members of the hockey team out in the pool riding the Stanley Cup like it was a horse. They hung a giant Rebel flag outside the front of the house. Was it racist? Did it mean Southern Pride? I don’t think that he cared on eway or the other. He just did it to piss everyone off. To buck the system. We respected bands that steadily extended their middle finger at pretty much everyone who crossed their path. Bands like Pantera, Rage Against the Machine and Sepultura gave us a reason to stand up for nothing more than our rights to party. There were mixed political messages but overall these bands were just using their unique rights to free speech that you would only find in America. So what happened to these bands?

The last I heard Zach de La Rocha of R.A.T.M. is still working on a solo release, but Rage Against the Machine is gone. Sepultura front man Max Cavalera went of to form Soulfly several years ago which has aquired much recognition, but Sepultura lives on as a shadow of the once great band under a pale gray sky down in Brasil. Two great brothers in Max and Igor once together have now been separated. Pantera had recently broken up too.

It happened a couple of months ago but I had no idea about it until I did more reading today. Apparently, Darrell and Vinnie went out to form a band called Damage Plan. They were touring through Columbus Ohio last night when a crazed fan jumped up onto the stage and started screaming things to the tune of “Why did you break up Pantera man! They were my favorite, yada yada yada!” and then walked up to Darrell, argued with him about the recent demise of the metal band and then proceeded to shoot him point blank in the head. No sooner had the guitarist hit the floor when this guy turned and opened fire on the other members of the band and then the crowd. From what I’ve gathered off of www.pantera.com and several other metal related websites is that two of the band members were shot and killed along with two audience members. The officer on the scene then shot and killed the gunman. So the death count stnds at five at this moment.

I will always respect Pantera for being a band that stuck to their guns, shunned all the media and marketing and just played and loved the music. They never compromised their heaviness for money or power and never felt the wrath of the RIAA in any case scenario. There’s a small montage up on the front page of Pantera.com currently. I’m sure that there will be more to come. This blog is my way to get my thoughts down and share them with my friends and family. But if you happen by this listing due to a search for ‘Pantera shooting’ I wanted to be able to throw in my two cents. Darrell Abbott was an excellent guitarist and at the age of 38 was taken from this Earth far too early. He will be missed and not forgotten.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2004 at 11:38 pm and is filed under FYI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.