Last Friday, a friend e-mailed, asking what I thought about the shooting death of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan. He was killed during a gig in Ohio on Dec. 8.
My friend knew I was a fan.
Here is my reply, with a few revisions to make it suitable for a family newspaper.
. . . I am having such a hard time with Dime's death. When I first heard about it, I went into denial. I hoped it wasn't him who was shot.
But it was.
When I got to work Thursday, I was devastated. I looked up all the stories I could find on the news wires and the Web sites, and I felt a high-octane mixture of sadness and mostly anger. I immediately played Damageplan's "New Found Power" and listened to it over and over again.
I e-mailed Dime's publicist at Elektra Records and conveyed my condolences to the band.
After work I went home and dug out my Pantera CDs and played them one after another. Then I put in the "Best of Pantera" DVD and watched it until 4 a.m. Then I went to bed and just laid there. I guess I dozed a bit because I jolted awake around 5:30 a.m.
I got into work today on Friday around 9 a.m. And sadness has replaced most of my anger.
I interviewed Abbott's brother Vinnie Paul every time Pantera came to town. He was always a straightforward guy and I loved talking with him. I was suppose to talk to Dime last November, the last time Damageplan came to Salt Lake City, but we never hooked up. Instead, I talked with vocalist Patrick Lachman. And the last thing he told me was that Damageplan was looking to solidify its own identity.
Apparently the gunman was yelling that Dime broke up Pantera, and then shot him four or five times in the head at point-blank range. I heard that Vinnie was whisked backstage for protection and was crying because he didn't know if Dime was alive or dead. To hear about Vinnie crying made my heart break. Vinnie's a tough man but he loved his brother.
Anyway, I know the police who shot and killed the gunman saved more people. The problem is, we may never know the actual reason why ex-Marine Nathan Gale took out Dime.
Right now, I'm thinking about the Abbott family, and the families of the others who were killed. They will feel anger and sadness and have all those questions that will never be answered. And that's too bad because there will be no closure for anyone.
If, in fact, Gale was mad that Pantera had broken up, his actions were ridiculous because now the band will never, ever be able to regroup, even if Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul wanted to.
There is also resonance about when John Lennon was shot and killed. Abbott was killed exactly 24 years to the day that the former Beatle was murdered, and it was also a fan who did that crime.
Rest easy, Dimebag.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com