Remembering Dime

Fame has gotta be a scary thing. There's a lot of glitz and glamor to it, which is what everybody sees on the magazines and entertainment "news" shows. But in reality, there's a lot of F'd up people in this world, and being in the spotlight tends to draw them out like a moth to a flame.

While driving home tonight, a local radio station pointed out that it was four years ago tonight that legendary rock guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed in an Ohio nightclub. (If this doesn't ring a bell, get caught up with a bit of news coverage.)

After the breakup of Pantera, he and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, formed a group called Damage Plan. As I remember it (and as you can see in that video), a man with a gun stormed the stage during one of their shows and shot him several times, because he believed Dimebag had stolen songs from him. It was a bizarre and senseless murder, and it took the life of an amazing musician.

I was fortunate enough to see Dime in action a handfull of times in my younger days. Back in 1999, they opened for Black Sabbath on their reunion tour, and my high school pals and I nabbed some pretty sweet tickets. During the Sabbath performance, we looked over the side of the bleachers we were sitting in and saw Dimebag and his brother watching the show. My friend grabbed their attention and asked for their autograph. Dimebag shook his head and said "Nah man, you're missing the show" and pointed to the stage, where Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Buttler were rockin out to War Pigs. We were young and didn't really understand the significance of seeing Sabbath back together, until we saw our musical idols watching in awe of their musical idols. No ill-will was held for the lack of autographs.

The next year, we were front row for their San Jose show.

Yeah, I know, Dimebag isn't in that picture. Actually, that's just Phil singing with opening act Morbid Angel. Once Pantera came on stage, the crowd got so crazy that I had to move back from the front of the stage before I passed out or was kicked in the head. Hey, I was in high school, and wasn't exactly in the peak physical shape that I am today. It was an awesome show, although singer Phil Anselmo was getting into his 'roid-and-coke-rage-years, and wasn't quite hitting those screaming notes like he used to.

So today is a tragic day in music history. Oh, and it's also the day that John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980, but I didn't have any stories revolving around that. This is why I'm happy to settle for minor fame. The last thing I need is some crazed gunman chasing after me becasue I "stole his blog posts".

On a semi-related note, I got a good, healthy dose of "what the f*ck" today. You hear that story about that teenager that was kidnapped and tortured for a year? Yeah, that happened around here, and I got to spend the day in court with those sick bastards. Seriously, what's wrong with people?