
By now everyone has heard that “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was brutally murdered in a Cleveland nightclub Dec 9th. Dimebag was an amazing talent and, as I’ve found out only too late for it to matter, an amazing person as well. When it was first released I picked up Far Beyond Driven while in the college bookstore - I was on a ‘pick-the-random-cd-case-up-and-buy-it’ kick then, and found mostly lumps of coal; interspersed with flawless diamonds. I rode my mountain bike everywhere and “5 Minutes Alone” was blaring in my headphones one afternoon coming back from class. It’s just an amazing song - I always described Dimebag’s sound as ‘crunchy’ and I think this song demonstrates that by not only his technical skill, but more importantly his amazing natural talent. From his creative mind, out to his fingers, then stored digitally and reconstructed by my CD player, through the headphones and mainlined into my mind, Dimebag and I connected. Although it was one-way communication, and he derived no psychic reward from me directly, he gladly filled the pipeline with all the passion and fury I could handle. When the solo started I got a shot of adrenaline and took my bike down a path in the woods I had never been through because it normally looked too steep, full of jumps, and tight chicanes. As the solo crescendos, Dimebag shakes the notes in a vibrato that has more soul than any one note should have. I choose this moment to launch myself from a small vertical drop and for a brief moment I was there with Darrell, helping hold and hang on to that note as long as we could. Then I went end-over-end in a pretty bad spill as the deep nuclear explosion goes off in the song. I lay there, stunned more by Dimebag than the crash, and looked up at the tree-branches. All I could say was, “Wow".
When my friend left voice-mail telling me what happened, I was just in disbelief until I could see it on the news for myself. Ever since then I’ve been listening to my Pantera collection, watching the new Pantera DVD and in general trying to channel Dimebag in some small way. I can’t help but think that the best was yet-to-come for Dimebag and what a horrible senseless tragedy this is. I guess we should be grateful that he was willing share that talent and now I can take him with me everywhere I go.
RIP Dimebag - and Thank You!
MTV Coverage with a nice history. MTV still sucks.