When I heard that Dimebag Darrell Abbott was murdered while on stage, all I could think about at the time was then I met him when I was 15 at Zia Records by my house in Phoenix, AZ. I waited some hours to get my poster autographed by all of Pantera, most importantly my favorite metal guitarist of all time. Years later, I had the privilege to talk to him at an adult level about 3 months before this tragedy happened, at the age of 22. With a beer in my hand at the famous Rainbow Room Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, I ran into Dime by the cigarette machine and asked him if I could speak with him. We talked about a lot of things for about 5 min, like when he played Mesa Amphitheater in Mesa, AZ on The Great Southern Trendkill tour in 1996. He was real responsive and friendly, and I wished him much future success in his new band Damageplan which I was impressed by with the work he did on their debut album New Found Power. When I thought about how we said goodbye, what happened was Dime and I hit both our fists together, and I said, See ya at the Damageplan show in Tempe, AZ and his typical saying he said to me was You know it brother, I basically cried the second I heard the news and reminisced on that great moment.
He was such a down to earth guy, and influenced my life as a guitar player all throughout my teenage years. It was spiritual to get ready for a Pantera concert and to hear the man play live growing up. This affects all the metal communities worldwide, it will affect me for the rest of my life, and he will go down in history as a guitar legend and as a lifestyle. As a musician, I am not afraid when I perform on stage, even if a band doesnt have any security, there is that sense of decency at least for a human not to harm another human over music. For this person with mental illness or whatever it was that triggered the murder, the stalker like obsession for musicians or any celebrity should be reported immediately to authorities. I dont think this has ever happened before in the history of music, as far as someone getting on stage and executing someone while they are still handling their instrument. I will never forget this tragic event, to me it hit harder than 9/11.
We dedicated our show to Dimebag Dec 10th, 2004 at The Marquee Theater at the same venue Damageplan performed about a month prior from the show. The show started out as a local metal bands fest, but it was declared a memorial for Dimebag with about 800 in attendance. Channel 5 news did a coverage story about the issue of violence at metal shows with me and some of the Motive members. Our vocalist Nathan Gearhart did guest vocals with a thrash metal band from Phoenix, called Motive, they performed Fucking Hostile by Pantera. R.I.P. Dimebag, shred some licks with Chuck Schuldiner in the spiritual world, and we will meet again. My deepest condolences go to the family and friends of the victims in this berserk asinine shooting. John from Vehemence
