A Dime a Dozen

April 18, 2005

He didn’t follow anyone’s footsteps, and even from his early years he was
great. I’ve seen footage of him when he was very young playing with speed
and grace that would have any virtuoso guitar player giving him props.
Later, he tuned into what made his sound original and accentuated it. He
didn’t care what anyone thought about the sound. It was his. His playing
was heavy and raw, but it had a soul to it.

His music will always be with me, and I will always strive for my own sound in
tribute to the legend. Guitar players are said to be a dime a dozen, but
Darrell Abbott was a sparkling diamond that will never fade. May his memory
live on forever in our hearts until it is our turn to pass through the cemetery
gates.

                                                                            Robert Neal Tyson
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No, he wasn’t a personal friend, and I never got
to meet him, but the music of ‘Dimebag’ Darrell
Abbott did have an impact on me on a personal
level. Some people call it strange that a person
can feel changed by someone they have never
met, but how many people say Jimi Hendrix had
an impact on them or Edgar Allan Poe or Steven
Spielberg? How many of those people actually
met them? I don’t see anything wrong with being
touched by the work of someone you don’t know
personally. If their work came from the heart, it
should make a connection with people. Dimebag
is no exception.

As great a guitarist as he was, he was also
a great person. He remained humble in his
celebrity and would never turn down a fan
or shy away from a photo opportunity. He
was the anti-rock star. He would pull you in
close for a picture and smile with real love
for his fans. I regret missing the chance I
had to meet him just months before his
death.

Pantera's breakthrough album, Cowboys
From Hell, is largely driven by the
band's powerful rhythm section and
guitarist Diamond Darrell (as he was
then known)'s unbelievably forceful
riffing, which skittered around the
downbeats to produce unexpected
rhythmic phrases and accents, as well
as his inventive soloing. Phil Anselmo
displayed a vocal range that could
switch from a growling shout to a high
falsetto -- listen to him match Darrell's
harmonic squeals at the end of
"Cemetery Gates." The album
gradually becomes more
same-sounding as it goes on, but the
first half, featuring such brutal slices of
thrash as "Psycho Holiday," "Primal
Concrete Sledge," and the title track,
pretty much carries its momentum all
the way through. ~ Steve Huey, All
Music Guide