UFC welterweight contender Matt Brown recently spoke to Fox Sports about attending the concert that resulted in the tragic death of PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitar legend "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.Abbott was shot dead on December 8, 2004 while performing with his band DAMAGEPLAN at Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. The shooting that night claimed three other lives and seven more were injured as the mad gunman opened fire on the crowd at the small club north of downtown Columbus.Brown tells Fox Sports he ended up at the show after being suspended from his job earlier that night. Not even knowing that DAMAGEPLAN was playing, he saw the spotlight for the show and decided to buy a ticket and see the concert.As the shots were fired that took Abbott's life, Brown stood just a few feet away in the second row of fans who witnessed the tragic incident.Dimebag was co-founder and lead guitarist for PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, Dimebag and Vinnie Paul formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. He was 38 years old.Since his brother's murder, Vinnie Paul has released several Dimebag-related items through his Big Vin Records label, including DVDs and the paperback book "He Came to Rock". Asked about criticism from people on the Internet, questioning why the proceeds from these various posthumous releases weren't being earmarked for charitable causes, instead going to him, Vinnie Paul told the nationally syndicated radio program "Rockline" in a 2008 interview: "I don't even know where to go with that other than, you know, [my critics are] not in the same position I'm in or had to go through what I've gone through here. It's really none of their business where it goes, so I don't know how else to address it I really don't even think about it. It doesn't cross my mind."Vinnie Paul added that the Dimebag-related releases weren't an attempt to cash in on his brother's tragic end but rather a way to keep Dimebag's legacy alive and well."I'm doing this for the fans and for them to enjoy what Dime was all about and give them more than what they already had to increase his legacy and to make him larger than life forever," he said. "And he'll outlive all of us. I'm beyond letting things like that pick at me or irritate me. I just have to look past them and keep rolling."
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