Many people argue about who is the greatest guitarists of all time, but what they don’t realize is that the best guitarists may already be deceased. Now a day people say that Dan Richards, James Valentine, or any other new guitarist because that is the new top people they hear about. But what they have to realize is that the best guitarists are from the 80s and early 90s.

Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott was one of the greatest guitarists from Texas, for the band Pantera in the 80s and the band Damageplan in 2003. He played in the band Pantera along side his brother Vinnie Abbott. The band Pantera started out as just a small town band that would sooner become one of metal’s leading forces. The original singer for

Pantera didn’t have the strong metal voice that the band was looking for so they replaced former singer Terry Glaze with Phil Anselmo. Even though Dimebag was a heavy metal kind of guy he was all country because of his dad writing and producing songs. This phenomenal guitarist didn’t start out as most guitarists today which are given guitars for their first instrument, instead Dimebag’s first instrument was a drum set. After his brother Vinnie started to improve on drums Dimebag gave up and decided that he wanted to be a guitarist so he started by playing Boston and Deep Purple riffs being self taught (“Dimebag”)(“10 Things”).

The band Pantera broke up because the lead singer got into heroin and started becoming really snappy toward thing and taking anger out on the other band members. Dimebag had lots of friends because of his kind heart and loving personality. According to the article “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dimebag,” his family and friends all say that he may have looked scratchy on the outside but on the inside he was kindhearted and a genuine person. The only thing that tore these people apart was the day that Dimebag Darrell was killed. Nathan Gale was a fan of the band Pantera and became very mad that the band had split up so he went on a rampage. On Dec. 8, 2004 Gale went to the band Damageplan’s concert at a bar in Columbus, Ohio. He walked up on stage and started shooting at Dimebag and some fans. Dimebag was shot in the head five times and two were from point blank range. When the shooting had paused for a minute one police officer by the name of James D. Niggemeyer picked up a speaker to use as a bullet proof vest and charged toward Gale and shot him in the face once with a 12 gauge shotgun (Blanco).

Dimebag was buried at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas. Every year there is a big ceremony to celebrate Dimebag’s death at the rock that is outside of the bar that resembles Dimebag. Zakk Wylde is another one of Dimebag’s friends if not best friend who said that Dimebag was full of love and care and wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Works Cited

Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “Murder.” Nathan Gale | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of

    Murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Maryouellette. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott.” Loudwire.

    N.p., 20 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Prato, Greg. “Dimebag Darrell | Biography & History.” AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr.

    2017.

Wiederhorn, John. “12 Years Ago: Dimebag Darrell Slain Onstage in Ohio.” Loudwire.

    Jon Wiederhorn, 08 Dec. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.