Dimebag Darrell

He had an older brother, Vinnie Paul, born 1964.

Darrell Lance Abbott (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004), best known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, was an American musician.

He was the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, both of which he co-founded alongside his brother Vinnie Paul.

He is considered by many to be one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time.

Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Ennis, Texas, on August 20, 1966, the second son to Carolyn and Jerry Abbott, a country music producer.

Abbott's parents divorced in 1979, after seventeen years of marriage, but his family life remained happy.

The brothers lived with their mother Carolyn, in a ranch-style house on Monterrey Street in Arlington.

Carolyn was supportive of her sons' musical endeavors.

Their father Jerry remained in the area after the divorce and Darrell would often go on a bicycle to visit him for guitar lessons "pretty darned regular".

Abbott took up the guitar when he was twelve years old.

His first guitar was a Les Paul-style Hondo, which he received along with a Pignose amplifier on his twelfth birthday.

Influenced by Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Kiss and Van Halen, he would initially spend time in his room standing in front of a mirror holding the guitar while wearing Ace Frehley-style makeup, though he was unable to play the instrument at the time.

Jerry learned Kiss songs on guitar in order to teach Darrell how to play them.

Darrell also learned from country musicians who recorded at Jerry's studio, such as Bugs Henderson.

Vinnie had begun playing the drums before Darrell received his first guitar.

Darrell had previously tried to play the drums; Vinnie later said: "I just got better than him and wouldn't let him play them anymore."

The Abbott brothers' first jam session consisted of six hours of "Smoke on the Water".

Pantera was formed in 1981.

Vinnie was asked to join a band alongside his high school classmates Terry Glaze (guitar), Tommy Bradford (bass) and Donny Hart (vocals).

Vinnie accepted the invitation, but on the condition that Darrell would also join the band.

Glaze later recalled that they were unsure about this request, as Darrell "wasn't very good" and, two years their junior, "was a little skinny, scrawny dude", but they ultimately agreed.

A son of country music producer Jerry Abbott, Abbott began playing guitar at age 12, and Pantera released its debut album, Metal Magic (1983), when he was 16.

Originally a glam metal musician, Abbott went by the stage name Diamond Darrell at the time.

Two further albums in the glam metal style followed in 1984 and 1985, before original vocalist Terry Glaze was replaced by Phil Anselmo in 1986 and Power Metal (1988) was released.

In 1989, Darrell made the same request when Dave Mustaine asked him to join Megadeth.

As Mustaine had already recruited drummer Nick Menza and would not hire Vinnie, Darrell decided to stay with Pantera.

The band's major-label debut, Cowboys from Hell (1990), introduced a groove metal sound to which Abbott's guitar playing was central.

This sound was refined on Vulgar Display of Power (1992), and the group's third major-label record, Far Beyond Driven, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1994.

Tensions within Pantera reduced its output after the release of The Great Southern Trendkill in 1996, and Reinventing the Steel (2000) was the band's final studio album before its acrimonious separation in 2003.

Abbott subsequently formed Damageplan with his brother Vinnie Paul and released New Found Power, the band's only album, in 2004.

While on tour with Damageplan, Abbott was shot and killed by a deranged fan during a performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2004.

Three others were shot and killed before the perpetrator was killed by a police officer.

Other works by Abbott included a collaboration with David Allan Coe titled Rebel Meets Rebel (2006) and numerous guest guitar solos for bands such as Anthrax.

Abbott was ranked at No. 92 on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011, and No. 19 on Louders list of "The 50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2018.

He placed at No. 5 on Gibson's list of "The Top 10 Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2015, and the same year was ranked as the most influential metal guitarist of the past 25 years by VH1.

They took inspiration from Alex and Eddie Van Halen, and Vinnie said in a 2016 interview that he and Darrell were "inseparable" after they began playing music together.

At age 14, Abbott entered a guitar contest at the Agora Ballroom in Dallas, in which Dean Zelinsky, founder of Dean Guitars, was one of the judges.

Abbott's mother accompanied him to the club because he was not old enough to enter on his own.

He won the competition; Zelinsky recalled that "[Abbott] blew everyone away."

Abbott won many other guitar contests in the area, and was eventually asked not to compete and instead judge the competitions so others could win.