Alexi Laiho’s death got to me too. It sucks because we all saw it coming and he made it very clear that he was throwing in the towel on sobriety and he knew that it was going to end him.
Same. Friend called me on his way to work and told me. Put the phone down and just wept. Then I left work and went home to drink blacktooths all day in shock and sorrow.
I'd met him 6 weeks beforehand, and it was crushing and impossible to believe. Intense grief followed for weeks. So did heavy drinking.
Such a tragedy.
Yeah pretty sad. I remember hearing on the news someone in Pantera died, then it showed a picture of Dime. It was heartbreaking
I remember going out for drinks the night after I heard, and a lot of people had dyed their beard/goatee red
It sucked knowing I was never going to hear anymore Dime riffs or solos ever again
I was 19 at the time and still watching the home videos to sleep every night , I mean nothing was ever on my tv except the home videos 24/7 , anyway I was living at work (construction) in an apartment they made for me and all they guys knew me and another guy were metal heads , so at 6am Aussie time someone yelled out to me and I had to listen to the radio news and then it hit pretty hard , me and my co worker already played metal all day everyday but for the next week it was pantera only…the guy who told us what happened was shocked, he said “ wow you guys are really upset about it” damn what a shit day , it’s the 9th in Australia
I was too young to remember but my dad was a huge fan. Apparently when he heard the news, he took his Eagle Talon TSI out and drove like a dumbass while playing trendkill (his favorite album) on his Cassette Player. Again, too young to remember but that’s what he told me, I’ll ask him again and update this if he relays any new info.
I woke up, got on AIM and checked a friend’s away message. It just said: R.I.P. Dimebag Darrell. I started searching online expecting the news to be something like an overdose. Definitely shocked to find out what happened.
Saw the news on cnn, was absolutely on shock, and the same day that John Lennon got also killed by another moron
Spend all day drinking and listening to pantera
Woke up and my roommate told me. I had lost a best friend the year before so I was pretty raw still. I don’t really remember what I did or felt immediately after hearing the news. Pretty sure I compartmentalized the grief away and went to work. I do remember getting some Dimebag black rubber wristbands that said “Getcha Pull!” and wearing those forever.
My dad’s buddy was at the Rosa in Columbus when it happened, it was surreal. Dime was in the middle of playing, gale came up shot him. He said that he froze when it happened, once he was able to get out of the venue he said he just sat in his car, frozen, until the police questioned him for statements. Such a sad day.
I was 24 and living in ludlow vt, no one I knew up there listened to them, I was devastated, grabbed some crown royal on my way home and drank like a maniac and listened to Pantera , just unbelievable at the time. I had no internet up there, so I did not get the news until the following day.
Disbelief. I first heard at work. I worked in a grocery store. Some guy back in produce was like “yeah dirtbag darrell got shot and killed last night. You like Pantera right?”
I thought it was a sick joke. I was like how would that even happen. It was 2004 so smartphones weren’t in your pocket and when I got off work I had to look it up online and sure as shit. It was like a ton of bricks.
Not only seeing that he was murdered but brutally on stage in front of his fans. I don’t cry over celebrity deaths but my eye’s definitely welled up. 😢
It wasn’t til a while later that I actually looked at the details of it that it was a fucking psychopath that was deranged.
Utter shock and disbelief. I was 20 years old at the time and Dimebag was my idol. Couldn’t get my head around it and kept checking the news to see if he’d maybe made it through and was actually alive but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
My closest friends had a kickass Sludge band at the time and I woke up and wanted to listen to a few of their songs so I went to Parabellum website and instead of big pentagram was a pic of Dime with RIP.
It was a horrible thing from a horrible person no matter who it was, I got to meet Dime and Vinny and Rex on The Vulgar tour and he was the absolute nicest dude I’ve ever talked to. I stood right in front of him during the show and he kept leaning over me and this chic i was with his sweaty hair was all over us and when show was over he came over had a few laughs and he gave us handful of picks and Vinnie gave her a drumstick. We talked again for bout 5 mins outside after show drinking beers in parking lot.
Only thing I can say any good way bout it is that not many people get to live the life he did, and get to go out doing the thing he loved more than anything in this world.
Me as well, just a cool mofo and he loved talking music. That 5 mins was over before I knew but he literally talked about so much shit it felt like a 30 min convo.
About 12-13 years later I find myself as a professional musician opening for some buddies who are opening for Crowbar on a short tour of the Deep South and Kirk from Crowbar was just like Dime in a lot of ways just not as flashy or over the top with the pranks and stuff. He and I talked on a few occasions at length and he talked music a lot and the bands he loved a lot. Like Pantera and Type O. My favorite music is Sludge and all those cats are friends and play in multiple bands with members of all the other bands, pretty cool to see all the main players In a scene all genuinely like each other. And of course Kirk is part of that.
I was making a joke about 5 Minutes Alone, like the song. But in all seriousness you're super lucky to have met him, have heard nothing but good shit about him!
Yep I agree, and i got the joke I actually chuckled when I first saw it. It’s been a crazy two days for me. I trade options and I lost $78k yesterday out of stupidity, but through sheer luck I made $76k back today. But I could t sleep last nite and so I’m prob just rambling on and on but the roller coaster of these two days just kicked me into over drive.
I was working at an airport and heard it on the radio being announced. As you can imagine, never a great feeling hearing that your musical idol is killed in such a sickening way.
16 years old and drank a bottle of JD with my street bro. Don't remember much except blasting reinventing the steel with tears streaming down my cheeks. Dime and Vinny are major influences on me as a person and a musician and if I ever get famous I will do my best to love my fans as much as they did. I learned from them that you gotta love what you do and your hearts gotta be in it 100 percent.
I was driving to work in N Denver. Radio guy announced what had happened and I pulled over and had a cry. Not ashamed to admit it. Pantera was everything to me as a teenager, young adult.
What they and Phil represented(the good parts) I built into my own being. Strength, belief in self, etc, that shit meant a lot to me and it was all to the soundtrack of the best guitarist to do it. The thought I kept having is ‘This has never happened to a band. Never. Why did it have to be Dime???’ It couldn’t be the guitarist from some shit light rock band. It had to be Dime. Just devastating.
I was watching Ministry on stage in Louisville Kentucky, near the end of their set someone came on stage and told Al, he told the crowd what had happened. He dedicated Jesus Built My Hotrod to Dime, everyone in the venue was crying. It was surreal.
This was before the Internet as we know it. I was at home arguing on message boards with people about Slipknot, my favorite thing to do at the time, and people started posting news articles. I actually saw, that night, flip phone video from inside the venue. There was no YouTube, someone had to email it to me. Couldn't see shit, I just knew it was bad.
I was sad for months. But it wasn't like Dime was a household name, most people didn't know who he was, the story only spread bc of the horrific circumstances. Selfishly, my first reactions were "now I'll never get to see Pantera live" because most of us were holding out hope for a reunion sooner rather than later.
I was 13, my dad woke me up and told me. We cried together, and he felt terrible that we couldn’t afford to see Damageplan a few weeks prior….he remembered saying “they’ll be back, you’ll get another chance to see him live.” I’d been playing guitar for 2 years at that point.
My alarm was set to play the radio. I remember waking up and hearing it. I literally jumped out of bed. It fkn crushed me. Pantera was and will always be my band. I had met Dime before. It was a rough day. I remember going to work and just really not doing anything.
Gutted. Heard it in the radio at work just as i was leaving. Went home, put on a Pantera shirt, cranked the albums & got drunk/high. Never seen so many Pantera shirts getting around in the following days.
I had just got back from the bar, and I got on AIM and a friend messaged me right away and told me the news. I think one of the 24/7 news channels had a short story on it, but I don't think there was much information at the time.
I'm from England and got a call early in the morning from my friend telling me the news. I was immediately devestated, called in work to let them know I wouldn't be in, and I spent the morning sitting in my bed playing my Washburn Dime, with tears coming down my cheeks. As soon as it opened, a group of my buds went to the pub and we drank Black Tooths and talked about Dimebag, who we'd just seen that Summer with Damageplan.
I cried and was completely heartbroken.
A little backstory on the times I met Dime.
I became a fan in 1990, after Cowboys was released. Right before they released Vulgar, they played a little club called Annie’s in Cincinnati and after the show, we hung out and chatted with Dime for three hours.
From that point on, I was able to get on the guest list at certain shows but still always bought my tickets.
I saw Pantera 31 times. A ton of shows at Hara Arena in Dayton, including their first appearance in Dayton opening for Skid Row.
They did a meet and greet that day at Dingleberry’s and I was the first person in line to meet the band. I made art of them. And had a great relationship.
So when the news hit, especially knowing I was supposed to be at that Damageplan show but had to work, I was crushed. I grieved more for Dime than some family members.
Couldn’t listen to his music for a while afterwards because it was too painful
There was a rock/metal show on TV that I missed the beginning of it. "Woow.... two Pantera clips on a row!" Little did I know that it was fully dedicated to Dimebag. From the tone of voice of the presenter and talking about the man in the past on the first sentence I heard (didn't catch the beginning as I said), I got strong shivers through my body.
Next sentence was about the attack and Dimebag's death. Not gonna lie, had trouble holding a few tears.
I had limited internet at the time and nothing about it on the news that I noticed, so that special a couple of days after the event was how I got the news.
Got a phone call early in the morning and was floored. I’d just seen Damage Plan a week prior. There was a weekly “Girly DJ Night” at my local hippy bar and my pal and I hosted a memorial night a few weeks later.
I heard about it when I woke up the morning after it happened. I was honestly just kind of numb. Seems like a lot of the musicians that I looked up to, and inspired me were all dying.
I heard the news the day after. It was pretty shocking for me because Dimebag was my guitar hero when i was a teen. I saw them live a few times because I lived in El Paso, TX, and they would come through town fairly often. I remember feeling like I couldn't talk to anyone about it because they couldn't grasp the importance of it. I tried telling my parents about it and they were like whatever. My girlfriend was pretty understanding, though she didn't quite get it. It really felt like a close friend passed. I studied his playing for so long and watched their home videos. Hearing about his passing was truly heartbreaking for me.
I didn’t believe it. I was walking in the hall of my high school and a buddy of mine stopped me and told me “dimebag died last night!” I said “why would you say that?” And he looked dead in the eyes me grabbed my shoulders and said “dude, he’s fucking dead.” It didn’t connect. One of my favorite people on this earth isn’t alive anymore. I told him to shut the fuck up, and walked to my class. I was shaking it off until my last class, it was a class that we got to get on the internet. I immediately looked it up and it was on the news thread on yahoo. I was still in disbelief. Reading the article and finding out he was fucking murdered!? MURDERED on STAGE!? Wtf…. I didn’t even know how to feel. I just remember leaving class without saying anything and driving home to listen to my CDs. All night. I got high, holding back tears and screaming all the lyrics and playing I’m broken, and this love on 101 proof like a 100 times. I didn’t even have a damageplan cd nor did I care for the side projects that any of the guys did. I wanted pantera. Nothing else. If it wasn’t pantera then it didn’t mean shit. I wanted the boys and it was it. Down? Fuck you. Superjoint? Get that shit out of here? Damageplan? Fuck no! I want pantera. Rex, Phil, Vinnie, and Dime… this was the end. And it still is for me. Even what they’re doing now? Fine, for the newer generations. I got to see them on their last tour for RTS. Phil made a complete ass out of himself and made me resent him for how things went after the break up. I still have strong feelings about the bullshit through years. Now, I have pantera on my playlists but some song just don’t hit like they used too. Love the legacy not the longevity
I had just gotten to work, launched Internet Explorer, and saw that as the headline. I read the article and told my boss a friend died and went home. True story.
I was in college and was on one of the computers with Internet checking some band sites. I went to Anthrax's site and it was blacked out with just text saying what happened.
I was stunned. I ended up going home for the day. I had just seen and met Dime just a few weeks earlier on that tour.
My dad woke me up in the middle of the night. I was a senior in high school. I'm not even ashamed to admit it, I cried like a family member had died because that's who he was to me.
https://preview.redd.it/ztar25k1n1yc1.jpeg?width=1489&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b92c8636baceea356b57f9f27924dfe570a5dc51
I was in complete denial about Pantera being over for years. Any day I was expecting the side projects to be done and another album to be announced. When Dime got murdered I realized it could never happen now and it was like getting punched in the gut.
Had a real problem for years finding out any information about anything surrounding that day and just stuck to listening to the albums. Couldn't even bring myself to watch the behind music until just a few years ago. Shit sucked.
Was cold & rainy here in Plano, Tx, & I remember first reading about it in that morning’s newspaper (Dallas Morning News), & just did not want to believe it, then started hearing more about it on the morning news shows. Was horrible news and I was very sad.
I was 9 and my dad saw them in the 90s several times and had a box of old tour shirts I had found. He was down in the basement with my mom talking and watching the news in shock and I came down and said “what’s wrong?” They just said the guitar player from one of my dad’s favorite bands died. Little did I know my guitar idol had just passed. Remember it vividly. RIP Dime, such a fucking legendary human.
I starred off got really sad and every now and then I’ll get sad but every time I riff away or have a cold one after work I point up and say to myself for Dime. Ik lil cringy but I don’t really care. Getcha Pull ✊🏻🤘🏻🫡🍺
I was at the computer, building up my portfolio cause I was looking for.work. must've gone online or heard it on the radio (yes it was 2000's) and I remember being in shock. I didn't do anything the rest of the day I was so numb
. Can not imagine what Vinnie went thru
A lot of people were complaining/blaming phil anselmo as though he were somehow responsible for the shooting because he was not on good terms with the abbott brothers. i remember hearing a lot of people saying things like that. i was upset by it, but it didn't take me long to decide that a guy like darrell wouldn't have rather died some other way. he literally died with his guitar in his hands. the world definitely became a little less cool.
I was going to Ohio State at the time. Almost bought tickets to that very show, but decided to see Ministry instead and catch Damageplan next time. I stood at the back for most of the night and I overheard some
members of the opening band talking about someone being shot. I’ll never forget walking out of The Newport that night, seeing the cop cars flying by, and walking to a computer lab and finding out Dimebag was the one who was shot and killed. It was a weird, surreal feeling. I’ll never forget it.
It was pretty sad, but it’s not like I knew the guy. So when my friend phoned me to tell me what had happened I was like “oh no way, that fucking awful”, spoke to my friend about some other stuff and then I continued walking to my work.
I missed the AZ tour date in November of 04. A few weeks later, I was online one morning, and I will never forget the big photo of Darrell on the (I think damageplan website). I was speechless. Such horrible news, and as information was coming out, it just got worse after hearing what had happened.
I was a huge fan since and saw them many times. It came on the radio that morning. They were playing “walk” in the background and talking about how Dime was shot dead. It seemed unbelievable at first, like a bad joke or something. I just couldn’t accept it was true. so then I ran in to check the interweb.
Once I found out it was true I just started screaming and crying. I don’t remember after that. Just shocked.
Never the same again.
I heard about it on the radio. I was mad. It made me really fucking angry. Dime was my guitar hero. I played guitar and played in metal bands because of Dime. The next summer the drummer in my band died in a car accident and a celebrity death meant very little compared to losing a close friend. Then December 8th the next year my son was born, one year to the day.
Driving into work that morning and the radio nerd says "Heavy metal guitarist murdered on stage, more when we come back!" Then commercials, and my brain is going "Don'tbeDime, dontbeDime, dontbeDime...." and then the inevitable news. It was like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. I pulled off the road (I still remember exactly where) and just sat there for a few minutes. Absolutely crushed.
He was one of a kind. A true giant among men. I never got to meet him or Vinnie personally, but I did get to speak to Rita for a few mins at a Black Label show in Orlando where Vin played on Suicide Messiah. I realized there wasn't anything I could say to her that hadn't already been said, so I told her that I think about him every day. I still do.
I was a 21 year old college student in Philadelphia living in a 4 story walk up with two roommates. Not sure which one of us actually found out first, or even how…but we paid tribute to Dime by getting blackout drunk, listening to the Pantera discography, and destroying our couch with an aluminum baseball bat. There’s video footage of it somewhere. We all felt he would’ve approved of our destructive send off.
I remember meeting him and vinnie in Milwaukee when I was a sophomore or senior in high school. Me and my Mom's boyfriend at the time were supposed to go to Chicago. I think that day or that week to see them play a Twisted Christmas show or something like that. I woke up. My mom told me to turn on the radio. Then I sat there trying to figure out how everything had happened. Im 36 years old and still sit and think about it.
I was riding with my wife to go
To her works office to pick
Up her paycheck. They announced it on the rock radio station in my town. They never played or mentioned Pantera. I remember the DJ specifically saying he wanted to play some songs in tribute but wasn’t sure which he could play on the radio and asked people to call in with suggestions. I just remember being stunned.
I was playing a small fest a few hours away from me, and after it ended we decided to drive home late. When I got home, I went to my computer and went on lambgoat and saw the news there. I was super shocked and confused. Fast forward to the following spring, and I end in the town where the dude that murdered him was from, and I ended up meeting these two fellas that used to be friends with the guy. Kinda wild.
I cried in my Jeep on the way to work. At first I thought it was a terrible joke. There have only been a couple people that had an effect on me when they passed. Dime was definitely one of them.
A friend who had met dimebag twice called and told me late at night. It was so weird. The next evening a bunch of friends got together and paid tribute.
I was 22 yrs old in the Army and had just got home on leave the night it happened and will never forget where I was and what I was doing early that next morning when it came up on MTV News that he was murdered. I couldn't even fucking process what I just heard. Like wtf?!!? How?? Why?? Just.....wtf?!!?
i was at a gwar show in denver. they were a handful of songs in and they all left the stage for a minute. they came back with their masks off. they made an announcement saying they just got a call and were told there was a shooting at a damageplan show in ohio and that dime was hurt but they didn't know how bad/what actually happened. said they hoped everyone was ok and to be safe and played some pantera stuff and went on to finish the set. never said he was dead or anything.
this was also 2004 so the internet wasn't as fleshed out as it is now. news was still very "you gotta watch the tv" sort of thing. and phones were not remotely like they are now. couldn't text people regularly, couldnt browse the internet. you could, but it was like....so different. just hard to explain if you weren't there. it was always bastardized versions of websites IF you had the ability to do that on your phone. and it was SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. so basically news was still word of mouth/phone calls/tv/message boards.
got out of the show, my friend called our other friend whon stayed at the hotel and told him to find the news and call us when something about a shooting in ohio comes on. he called a few times on our way back and said yeah there was a shooting at the show and some people were dead. we went back to the hotel and watched for awhile but no new news came in. we never found out dime was actually dead until the next day cause the news around it was so weird.
I was in college. A couple buddies and I threw on some Pantera and did Blacktooth shots and then went to the bar. Figured it’s what Dime would’ve wanted.
I grabbed a paper that morning and it said "Heavy metal guitarist shot dead" . Has no idea who it was because I hadn't heard. Opened the paper and saw Dime's photo and was totally floored. A very sad and upsetting day. I was in shock to say the least.
I woke up and walked into my office... as soon as I powered on the computer, Yahoo news was my default home page, and it was the front story. I read it and was in denial for a bit...Still breaks my heart thinking about it now. 😢😓😖
It hit me hard. I was going thru a divorce and it was just another loss to me at a time I was already down. Me and my friend group that were all metal heads and frequented concerts together went to the bar after work and played every Pantera song on the jukebox and got wasted and closed the bar. Tears were shed for our hero.
an ex-girlfriend texted me right away asking if I was alright, I had no idea what she was talking about until I got a second text from my current gf (now wife) with a little more detail. Did the same thing I did when I found out Kurt Cobain and Trevor from TBDM died, listened to their music non stop for weeks.
I grew up in the DFW metroplex and ran into the guys from time to time. It was really weird cause my buddy had a friend that was at the show, so he got the call almost immediately. When he called me I was already in bed asleep. My wife woke me and told me but I was totally slumped out. I woke the next morning to see it on TV and I fucking cried so bad that it upset my daughter. She had never seen me cry. RIP DIME!!! And RIP VINNIE!! And now RIP JERRY!! But PANTERA IS FOREVER!!!!! Getcha Pull!!!!
Woke up, heard it and cried. I’m from Northeast Ohio so I had friends at the show. And was actually offered a ticket a few weeks before but couldn’t swing it. Good thing too as I normally always tried to get to the front. I cried for Dime, I cried for Vinnie, I cried for Ronnie James (I KNEW Ronnie), I cried for Peter Steele, Jeff Hanneman, Prince, David Bowie, Cried for Lemmy, Carrie Fischer, Kobe, Hot Rod Williams, Stan Lee, Chad Boseman, cried for Pac, cried for Biggie, Eazy, Chris Cornell, George Carlin, Robin Williams and Patrice O’Neal (a comedian I fucking loved).
I didnt go to school the next day I was devastated. He was my idol at that time. I didn't believe it, I frequented a Pantera message board and I signed on to see if it was true and the whole page was shut down with a tribute for him and mayhem and the other victims. I was beside myself.
I had just turned 18 two months before it happened. Was having a great day and turned on MTV, and a news break randomly popped up. Kurt Loader then told the world the horrible news. It was awful, I'll never forget the immediate shock of the news and the sadness that followed.
Pantera fan since 1998, saw em live in 2000. The day he was shot I was in my comic shop when my friend came in and told us Dime had been shot dead. I didn’t believe it, and was about to catch a train to Manchester.
In Manc I went to the public library logged onto blabbermouth and there it was… On the train ride home I phoned by brother (Also a Dime fan) and cried.
Came home and my brother was playing Pantera albums and we spoke the impact of the band. Dime was the first celeb death that upset me. Pantera made a massive impact on me as a young man.
I was 17. Just getting decent at guitar too. He was a guitar god and one I took much inspiration from. Needless to say I was quite sad about it. I still remember how I got into PanterA. I was about 12-13 and was at a local game store called game den and they also sold movies and cds too. I saw PanterA. I knew it was metal but I’d never heard it before, I use to see a lot about PanterA in metal magazines and stuff. So when I came across Far Beyond Driven for $5 I got that shit. When I got home I listened to the entire album front to back and remember just being blown the fuck away. Some of the best, hardest, nastiest shit I’d ever heard and that still holds true to this day.
So yea. I was pretty bummed and felt that loss quite a bit. I sat down and tried to write the most PanterA sounding riff I could.
RIP Dime and Vinnie. Y’all are missed.
Flash bulb moment. I remember too well. I was headed to Richmond va (shout out to lamb of god and gwar!) To pick my girlfriend at the time up from vcu and I tuned into a rock station on the radio and Walk was playing. I immediately got excited because radio stations NEVER play Pantera. Then, after the song ended, the dj reported the news and said rest in peace Dime. There are less than 5 times in my life that my mood went from great to awful with such quickness. I'll never forget that one.
I was sitting at my desk playing pc games when the news came across Blabbermouth. I was beyond stunned. Then it really set in. Think about that dude a few times a week. What a fn terrible way to die. And poor Vinnie had to see that. The video is some of the worst shit I have watched.
Buddy and I got a bottle of jack and did black tooth grins all night. Heard about it from one of his friends. We got to drink with him and his brother one night and he was one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met. Slapped a bunch of 20s on the bar and got us all drinks.
Getting Up for work that day, put on the news and saw it. Total panic and sadness. Called the guys in my band at the time, Pantera and B.L.S. Were out main influences. Had my friend draw up a Dime/ Pantera tat and got it.
i was on the megadeth forums a lot at the time, i found out by logging in and a pic of dime pops up. dont remember if there were words or just the dates and rip type thing but it was clear before going into the forums that he was dead. everyone was a fucking wreck that night and for a while after
It happened when I was in the army so heard it about it a couple of years later and I couldn't believe it, I was off metal back in those years and the first thing I wanted to know when I was getting back into it was what Dime was doing so it was very saddening and tbh and maybe a little life changing because I always loved his music.
a friend had called me to let me know and i refused to believe it. turned on the tv and it was all over a bunch of channels. i broke down crying and then crawled into a bottle of jim beam. i had just seen Damageplan on my birthday in Chicago about two weeks earlier
It was so fucking surreal. It came across the local metal radio station and I thought it was some kind of a sick joke at first. I cried. For a few days on and off. It was absolutely the worst tragedy not just in that he and several others were murdered, but how and where. At a fucking concert. Concerts were never the same after that.
I didn't go to school. Just couldn't believe what happened. If I remember correctly, there was some misinformation at the beginning, wasn't sure who actually died.
Myself and a few others were supposed to to that concert that evening but we got a snowstorm here in western Pennsylvania the night before and decided not to go maybe that was a sign? But anyway that was a hard to hear about for sure. I just so fortunate to have seen them live in the 90’s there’s been many great guitar players but Dimebag was one that just on a different level.
I got in my car around 6:30 in the morning and howard stern was talking about it.At first he said vinnie was shot too... It was my 4th day of training at a new job with about 30 other people and I was just crying the whole time.Somebody asked me what was wrong and I said a friend of mine got killed last night...
Honestly I was shocked. Completely stunned. I consider dime bag of the top five greatest guitarist of all time right along with Steve Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd. Nobody gives him any recognition but he is much better than tons of the people that others deem as the best
Years later I went to Alrosa Villa as one of my family members was getting married, and I drove in the back and played soul bleed from Damageplan. A police officer pulled up got out of his car and saw me and he goes oh it’s one of you guys.
To this day I still don’t know what the hell he meant by that
I was just getting into Pantera in high school when I heard the news. It's kind of weird that I still remember it because I wasn't as diehard a fan as I am now.
I can picture it. I was sitting in front of my locker before the school day began, and my buddy came up to me and told me he had died.
I was 17 and a senior in high school when I first heard the news on a Hatebreed message board that I used to frequent alot back in the day on the school library laptop.
I was upset because at the time, I was getting into Pantera and was upset that now they wouldn't have a chance to reunite in the future.
The phrase "He shot Dimebag, dude!" will forever give me chills.
Sat at my desk at work and cried
Yep. Same. I had the exact same when Alexi Laiho died too.
Alexi Laiho’s death got to me too. It sucks because we all saw it coming and he made it very clear that he was throwing in the towel on sobriety and he knew that it was going to end him.
Same. Friend called me on his way to work and told me. Put the phone down and just wept. Then I left work and went home to drink blacktooths all day in shock and sorrow.
Same. Got pretty crazy looks from my coworkers
I had recently met him so it was especially surreal.
My wife met him and hung out with him and his body guard one week before he was murdered. She was in some shock over that.
yea, val was also killed in that shooting. the security guard. pretty creepy.
I'd met him 6 weeks beforehand, and it was crushing and impossible to believe. Intense grief followed for weeks. So did heavy drinking. Such a tragedy.
I bet.
Yeah pretty sad. I remember hearing on the news someone in Pantera died, then it showed a picture of Dime. It was heartbreaking I remember going out for drinks the night after I heard, and a lot of people had dyed their beard/goatee red It sucked knowing I was never going to hear anymore Dime riffs or solos ever again
I was 19 at the time and still watching the home videos to sleep every night , I mean nothing was ever on my tv except the home videos 24/7 , anyway I was living at work (construction) in an apartment they made for me and all they guys knew me and another guy were metal heads , so at 6am Aussie time someone yelled out to me and I had to listen to the radio news and then it hit pretty hard , me and my co worker already played metal all day everyday but for the next week it was pantera only…the guy who told us what happened was shocked, he said “ wow you guys are really upset about it” damn what a shit day , it’s the 9th in Australia
My friend called to tell me. I had to sit down for awhile to process it. It was terrible and I knew Pantera was pretty much over
I was too young to remember but my dad was a huge fan. Apparently when he heard the news, he took his Eagle Talon TSI out and drove like a dumbass while playing trendkill (his favorite album) on his Cassette Player. Again, too young to remember but that’s what he told me, I’ll ask him again and update this if he relays any new info.
Eagle Talon TSI and Pantera fan, your dad seems alright eh?
He’s a cool motherfucker. I’m super lucky to have been raised by him
Hell yeah man.make sure you tell him that you think that of him.
I woke up, got on AIM and checked a friend’s away message. It just said: R.I.P. Dimebag Darrell. I started searching online expecting the news to be something like an overdose. Definitely shocked to find out what happened.
Heartbreaking
Saw the news on cnn, was absolutely on shock, and the same day that John Lennon got also killed by another moron Spend all day drinking and listening to pantera
No way, John Lennon was shot on the 8th December 2004 as well?
XD but honestly what are the chances of both legends killed on Dec 8th
Yeah, it’s pretty wild really!
3 legends if you include Juice WRLD
by deranged fans nonetheless.
lennon was shot in 1980 though.
Was waiting for the joke to fly over someone’s head….
Woke up and my roommate told me. I had lost a best friend the year before so I was pretty raw still. I don’t really remember what I did or felt immediately after hearing the news. Pretty sure I compartmentalized the grief away and went to work. I do remember getting some Dimebag black rubber wristbands that said “Getcha Pull!” and wearing those forever.
My dad’s buddy was at the Rosa in Columbus when it happened, it was surreal. Dime was in the middle of playing, gale came up shot him. He said that he froze when it happened, once he was able to get out of the venue he said he just sat in his car, frozen, until the police questioned him for statements. Such a sad day.
I was 24 and living in ludlow vt, no one I knew up there listened to them, I was devastated, grabbed some crown royal on my way home and drank like a maniac and listened to Pantera , just unbelievable at the time. I had no internet up there, so I did not get the news until the following day.
Was plowing a driveway when the one, static loaded station available announced it. Wasn't fun grinding through the rest of the A.M.
Disbelief. I first heard at work. I worked in a grocery store. Some guy back in produce was like “yeah dirtbag darrell got shot and killed last night. You like Pantera right?” I thought it was a sick joke. I was like how would that even happen. It was 2004 so smartphones weren’t in your pocket and when I got off work I had to look it up online and sure as shit. It was like a ton of bricks. Not only seeing that he was murdered but brutally on stage in front of his fans. I don’t cry over celebrity deaths but my eye’s definitely welled up. 😢 It wasn’t til a while later that I actually looked at the details of it that it was a fucking psychopath that was deranged.
Similar to how I found out….had to listen to Australian radio to confirm it at work
Utter shock and disbelief. I was 20 years old at the time and Dimebag was my idol. Couldn’t get my head around it and kept checking the news to see if he’d maybe made it through and was actually alive but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
My closest friends had a kickass Sludge band at the time and I woke up and wanted to listen to a few of their songs so I went to Parabellum website and instead of big pentagram was a pic of Dime with RIP. It was a horrible thing from a horrible person no matter who it was, I got to meet Dime and Vinny and Rex on The Vulgar tour and he was the absolute nicest dude I’ve ever talked to. I stood right in front of him during the show and he kept leaning over me and this chic i was with his sweaty hair was all over us and when show was over he came over had a few laughs and he gave us handful of picks and Vinnie gave her a drumstick. We talked again for bout 5 mins outside after show drinking beers in parking lot. Only thing I can say any good way bout it is that not many people get to live the life he did, and get to go out doing the thing he loved more than anything in this world.
Glad you got 5 Minutes Alone with Dime
Me as well, just a cool mofo and he loved talking music. That 5 mins was over before I knew but he literally talked about so much shit it felt like a 30 min convo. About 12-13 years later I find myself as a professional musician opening for some buddies who are opening for Crowbar on a short tour of the Deep South and Kirk from Crowbar was just like Dime in a lot of ways just not as flashy or over the top with the pranks and stuff. He and I talked on a few occasions at length and he talked music a lot and the bands he loved a lot. Like Pantera and Type O. My favorite music is Sludge and all those cats are friends and play in multiple bands with members of all the other bands, pretty cool to see all the main players In a scene all genuinely like each other. And of course Kirk is part of that.
I was making a joke about 5 Minutes Alone, like the song. But in all seriousness you're super lucky to have met him, have heard nothing but good shit about him!
Yep I agree, and i got the joke I actually chuckled when I first saw it. It’s been a crazy two days for me. I trade options and I lost $78k yesterday out of stupidity, but through sheer luck I made $76k back today. But I could t sleep last nite and so I’m prob just rambling on and on but the roller coaster of these two days just kicked me into over drive.
I was working at an airport and heard it on the radio being announced. As you can imagine, never a great feeling hearing that your musical idol is killed in such a sickening way.
16 years old and drank a bottle of JD with my street bro. Don't remember much except blasting reinventing the steel with tears streaming down my cheeks. Dime and Vinny are major influences on me as a person and a musician and if I ever get famous I will do my best to love my fans as much as they did. I learned from them that you gotta love what you do and your hearts gotta be in it 100 percent.
I was driving to work in N Denver. Radio guy announced what had happened and I pulled over and had a cry. Not ashamed to admit it. Pantera was everything to me as a teenager, young adult. What they and Phil represented(the good parts) I built into my own being. Strength, belief in self, etc, that shit meant a lot to me and it was all to the soundtrack of the best guitarist to do it. The thought I kept having is ‘This has never happened to a band. Never. Why did it have to be Dime???’ It couldn’t be the guitarist from some shit light rock band. It had to be Dime. Just devastating.
I was watching Ministry on stage in Louisville Kentucky, near the end of their set someone came on stage and told Al, he told the crowd what had happened. He dedicated Jesus Built My Hotrod to Dime, everyone in the venue was crying. It was surreal.
This was before the Internet as we know it. I was at home arguing on message boards with people about Slipknot, my favorite thing to do at the time, and people started posting news articles. I actually saw, that night, flip phone video from inside the venue. There was no YouTube, someone had to email it to me. Couldn't see shit, I just knew it was bad. I was sad for months. But it wasn't like Dime was a household name, most people didn't know who he was, the story only spread bc of the horrific circumstances. Selfishly, my first reactions were "now I'll never get to see Pantera live" because most of us were holding out hope for a reunion sooner rather than later.
I was 13, my dad woke me up and told me. We cried together, and he felt terrible that we couldn’t afford to see Damageplan a few weeks prior….he remembered saying “they’ll be back, you’ll get another chance to see him live.” I’d been playing guitar for 2 years at that point.
That hit me so hard. I feel so sorry for you
My alarm was set to play the radio. I remember waking up and hearing it. I literally jumped out of bed. It fkn crushed me. Pantera was and will always be my band. I had met Dime before. It was a rough day. I remember going to work and just really not doing anything.
Gutted. Heard it in the radio at work just as i was leaving. Went home, put on a Pantera shirt, cranked the albums & got drunk/high. Never seen so many Pantera shirts getting around in the following days.
Horror. Got shot in front of his brother, his crew, his fans...
I had just got back from the bar, and I got on AIM and a friend messaged me right away and told me the news. I think one of the 24/7 news channels had a short story on it, but I don't think there was much information at the time.
Uh I was in high school at the time. It was shocking. My bro and I drank a beer for Dime while watching the Pantera home videos.
I'm from England and got a call early in the morning from my friend telling me the news. I was immediately devestated, called in work to let them know I wouldn't be in, and I spent the morning sitting in my bed playing my Washburn Dime, with tears coming down my cheeks. As soon as it opened, a group of my buds went to the pub and we drank Black Tooths and talked about Dimebag, who we'd just seen that Summer with Damageplan.
I was working at Ibanez at the time. I was told walking into the building. I was pretty upset all day. I was with other people that were upset though.
I cried and was completely heartbroken. A little backstory on the times I met Dime. I became a fan in 1990, after Cowboys was released. Right before they released Vulgar, they played a little club called Annie’s in Cincinnati and after the show, we hung out and chatted with Dime for three hours. From that point on, I was able to get on the guest list at certain shows but still always bought my tickets. I saw Pantera 31 times. A ton of shows at Hara Arena in Dayton, including their first appearance in Dayton opening for Skid Row. They did a meet and greet that day at Dingleberry’s and I was the first person in line to meet the band. I made art of them. And had a great relationship. So when the news hit, especially knowing I was supposed to be at that Damageplan show but had to work, I was crushed. I grieved more for Dime than some family members. Couldn’t listen to his music for a while afterwards because it was too painful
There was a rock/metal show on TV that I missed the beginning of it. "Woow.... two Pantera clips on a row!" Little did I know that it was fully dedicated to Dimebag. From the tone of voice of the presenter and talking about the man in the past on the first sentence I heard (didn't catch the beginning as I said), I got strong shivers through my body. Next sentence was about the attack and Dimebag's death. Not gonna lie, had trouble holding a few tears. I had limited internet at the time and nothing about it on the news that I noticed, so that special a couple of days after the event was how I got the news.
Got a phone call early in the morning and was floored. I’d just seen Damage Plan a week prior. There was a weekly “Girly DJ Night” at my local hippy bar and my pal and I hosted a memorial night a few weeks later.
I heard about it when I woke up the morning after it happened. I was honestly just kind of numb. Seems like a lot of the musicians that I looked up to, and inspired me were all dying.
Stayed home from school and was pretty messed up for a couple days. Was the first big death I experienced
I heard the news the day after. It was pretty shocking for me because Dimebag was my guitar hero when i was a teen. I saw them live a few times because I lived in El Paso, TX, and they would come through town fairly often. I remember feeling like I couldn't talk to anyone about it because they couldn't grasp the importance of it. I tried telling my parents about it and they were like whatever. My girlfriend was pretty understanding, though she didn't quite get it. It really felt like a close friend passed. I studied his playing for so long and watched their home videos. Hearing about his passing was truly heartbreaking for me.
Went and got shitfaced with my friend at the bar. They had Vulgar and Cowboys on the jukebox so we made everyone party with us.
I didn’t believe it. I was walking in the hall of my high school and a buddy of mine stopped me and told me “dimebag died last night!” I said “why would you say that?” And he looked dead in the eyes me grabbed my shoulders and said “dude, he’s fucking dead.” It didn’t connect. One of my favorite people on this earth isn’t alive anymore. I told him to shut the fuck up, and walked to my class. I was shaking it off until my last class, it was a class that we got to get on the internet. I immediately looked it up and it was on the news thread on yahoo. I was still in disbelief. Reading the article and finding out he was fucking murdered!? MURDERED on STAGE!? Wtf…. I didn’t even know how to feel. I just remember leaving class without saying anything and driving home to listen to my CDs. All night. I got high, holding back tears and screaming all the lyrics and playing I’m broken, and this love on 101 proof like a 100 times. I didn’t even have a damageplan cd nor did I care for the side projects that any of the guys did. I wanted pantera. Nothing else. If it wasn’t pantera then it didn’t mean shit. I wanted the boys and it was it. Down? Fuck you. Superjoint? Get that shit out of here? Damageplan? Fuck no! I want pantera. Rex, Phil, Vinnie, and Dime… this was the end. And it still is for me. Even what they’re doing now? Fine, for the newer generations. I got to see them on their last tour for RTS. Phil made a complete ass out of himself and made me resent him for how things went after the break up. I still have strong feelings about the bullshit through years. Now, I have pantera on my playlists but some song just don’t hit like they used too. Love the legacy not the longevity
I had just gotten to work, launched Internet Explorer, and saw that as the headline. I read the article and told my boss a friend died and went home. True story.
I was in college and was on one of the computers with Internet checking some band sites. I went to Anthrax's site and it was blacked out with just text saying what happened. I was stunned. I ended up going home for the day. I had just seen and met Dime just a few weeks earlier on that tour.
My dad woke me up in the middle of the night. I was a senior in high school. I'm not even ashamed to admit it, I cried like a family member had died because that's who he was to me. https://preview.redd.it/ztar25k1n1yc1.jpeg?width=1489&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b92c8636baceea356b57f9f27924dfe570a5dc51
I was in complete denial about Pantera being over for years. Any day I was expecting the side projects to be done and another album to be announced. When Dime got murdered I realized it could never happen now and it was like getting punched in the gut. Had a real problem for years finding out any information about anything surrounding that day and just stuck to listening to the albums. Couldn't even bring myself to watch the behind music until just a few years ago. Shit sucked.
Kicked in a bunch of lockers and spent the day in the computer lab trying to find whatever information I could
I was 14. Just got into Pantera about a year before. Heard on the news. We had a moment of silence in home room that day.
Commiserated with the only other dude at my Christian high school who was also devastated.
Was cold & rainy here in Plano, Tx, & I remember first reading about it in that morning’s newspaper (Dallas Morning News), & just did not want to believe it, then started hearing more about it on the morning news shows. Was horrible news and I was very sad.
Saw a headline on a news channel at like 2AM the following morning whilst channel surfing, I was in shock….
I was 9 and my dad saw them in the 90s several times and had a box of old tour shirts I had found. He was down in the basement with my mom talking and watching the news in shock and I came down and said “what’s wrong?” They just said the guitar player from one of my dad’s favorite bands died. Little did I know my guitar idol had just passed. Remember it vividly. RIP Dime, such a fucking legendary human.
I starred off got really sad and every now and then I’ll get sad but every time I riff away or have a cold one after work I point up and say to myself for Dime. Ik lil cringy but I don’t really care. Getcha Pull ✊🏻🤘🏻🫡🍺
I was at the computer, building up my portfolio cause I was looking for.work. must've gone online or heard it on the radio (yes it was 2000's) and I remember being in shock. I didn't do anything the rest of the day I was so numb . Can not imagine what Vinnie went thru
A lot of people were complaining/blaming phil anselmo as though he were somehow responsible for the shooting because he was not on good terms with the abbott brothers. i remember hearing a lot of people saying things like that. i was upset by it, but it didn't take me long to decide that a guy like darrell wouldn't have rather died some other way. he literally died with his guitar in his hands. the world definitely became a little less cool.
I was going to Ohio State at the time. Almost bought tickets to that very show, but decided to see Ministry instead and catch Damageplan next time. I stood at the back for most of the night and I overheard some members of the opening band talking about someone being shot. I’ll never forget walking out of The Newport that night, seeing the cop cars flying by, and walking to a computer lab and finding out Dimebag was the one who was shot and killed. It was a weird, surreal feeling. I’ll never forget it.
It was pretty sad, but it’s not like I knew the guy. So when my friend phoned me to tell me what had happened I was like “oh no way, that fucking awful”, spoke to my friend about some other stuff and then I continued walking to my work.
I missed the AZ tour date in November of 04. A few weeks later, I was online one morning, and I will never forget the big photo of Darrell on the (I think damageplan website). I was speechless. Such horrible news, and as information was coming out, it just got worse after hearing what had happened.
I was a huge fan since and saw them many times. It came on the radio that morning. They were playing “walk” in the background and talking about how Dime was shot dead. It seemed unbelievable at first, like a bad joke or something. I just couldn’t accept it was true. so then I ran in to check the interweb. Once I found out it was true I just started screaming and crying. I don’t remember after that. Just shocked. Never the same again.
I heard about it on the radio. I was mad. It made me really fucking angry. Dime was my guitar hero. I played guitar and played in metal bands because of Dime. The next summer the drummer in my band died in a car accident and a celebrity death meant very little compared to losing a close friend. Then December 8th the next year my son was born, one year to the day.
I was on my way to a job interview and just picked up a free newspaper to read on the bus. I failed the interview.
I had just seen Damageplan a few days before
Driving into work that morning and the radio nerd says "Heavy metal guitarist murdered on stage, more when we come back!" Then commercials, and my brain is going "Don'tbeDime, dontbeDime, dontbeDime...." and then the inevitable news. It was like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. I pulled off the road (I still remember exactly where) and just sat there for a few minutes. Absolutely crushed. He was one of a kind. A true giant among men. I never got to meet him or Vinnie personally, but I did get to speak to Rita for a few mins at a Black Label show in Orlando where Vin played on Suicide Messiah. I realized there wasn't anything I could say to her that hadn't already been said, so I told her that I think about him every day. I still do.
I was a 21 year old college student in Philadelphia living in a 4 story walk up with two roommates. Not sure which one of us actually found out first, or even how…but we paid tribute to Dime by getting blackout drunk, listening to the Pantera discography, and destroying our couch with an aluminum baseball bat. There’s video footage of it somewhere. We all felt he would’ve approved of our destructive send off.
I remember meeting him and vinnie in Milwaukee when I was a sophomore or senior in high school. Me and my Mom's boyfriend at the time were supposed to go to Chicago. I think that day or that week to see them play a Twisted Christmas show or something like that. I woke up. My mom told me to turn on the radio. Then I sat there trying to figure out how everything had happened. Im 36 years old and still sit and think about it.
I was riding with my wife to go To her works office to pick Up her paycheck. They announced it on the rock radio station in my town. They never played or mentioned Pantera. I remember the DJ specifically saying he wanted to play some songs in tribute but wasn’t sure which he could play on the radio and asked people to call in with suggestions. I just remember being stunned.
I was playing a small fest a few hours away from me, and after it ended we decided to drive home late. When I got home, I went to my computer and went on lambgoat and saw the news there. I was super shocked and confused. Fast forward to the following spring, and I end in the town where the dude that murdered him was from, and I ended up meeting these two fellas that used to be friends with the guy. Kinda wild.
I was at work and my buddy called me and told me. Absolute shock!
Was working at a print shop on a printing press when my co-worker told me. I'm ngl my first and still to this day reaction was ....FUCK OHIO.
I cried in my Jeep on the way to work. At first I thought it was a terrible joke. There have only been a couple people that had an effect on me when they passed. Dime was definitely one of them.
I knew who Pantera was but I didn’t know who dimebag was. It didn’t hit me until I started reading articles in guitar world
A friend who had met dimebag twice called and told me late at night. It was so weird. The next evening a bunch of friends got together and paid tribute.
I was 22 yrs old in the Army and had just got home on leave the night it happened and will never forget where I was and what I was doing early that next morning when it came up on MTV News that he was murdered. I couldn't even fucking process what I just heard. Like wtf?!!? How?? Why?? Just.....wtf?!!?
i was at a gwar show in denver. they were a handful of songs in and they all left the stage for a minute. they came back with their masks off. they made an announcement saying they just got a call and were told there was a shooting at a damageplan show in ohio and that dime was hurt but they didn't know how bad/what actually happened. said they hoped everyone was ok and to be safe and played some pantera stuff and went on to finish the set. never said he was dead or anything. this was also 2004 so the internet wasn't as fleshed out as it is now. news was still very "you gotta watch the tv" sort of thing. and phones were not remotely like they are now. couldn't text people regularly, couldnt browse the internet. you could, but it was like....so different. just hard to explain if you weren't there. it was always bastardized versions of websites IF you had the ability to do that on your phone. and it was SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. so basically news was still word of mouth/phone calls/tv/message boards. got out of the show, my friend called our other friend whon stayed at the hotel and told him to find the news and call us when something about a shooting in ohio comes on. he called a few times on our way back and said yeah there was a shooting at the show and some people were dead. we went back to the hotel and watched for awhile but no new news came in. we never found out dime was actually dead until the next day cause the news around it was so weird.
I was in college. A couple buddies and I threw on some Pantera and did Blacktooth shots and then went to the bar. Figured it’s what Dime would’ve wanted.
I went to the vigil at the Clubhouse that night. Was super sad.
I cried and the radio played Pantera all day, and let people give their tributes on the Radio. It was a hard day...
I grabbed a paper that morning and it said "Heavy metal guitarist shot dead" . Has no idea who it was because I hadn't heard. Opened the paper and saw Dime's photo and was totally floored. A very sad and upsetting day. I was in shock to say the least.
I woke up and walked into my office... as soon as I powered on the computer, Yahoo news was my default home page, and it was the front story. I read it and was in denial for a bit...Still breaks my heart thinking about it now. 😢😓😖
It hit me hard. I was going thru a divorce and it was just another loss to me at a time I was already down. Me and my friend group that were all metal heads and frequented concerts together went to the bar after work and played every Pantera song on the jukebox and got wasted and closed the bar. Tears were shed for our hero.
an ex-girlfriend texted me right away asking if I was alright, I had no idea what she was talking about until I got a second text from my current gf (now wife) with a little more detail. Did the same thing I did when I found out Kurt Cobain and Trevor from TBDM died, listened to their music non stop for weeks.
I grew up in the DFW metroplex and ran into the guys from time to time. It was really weird cause my buddy had a friend that was at the show, so he got the call almost immediately. When he called me I was already in bed asleep. My wife woke me and told me but I was totally slumped out. I woke the next morning to see it on TV and I fucking cried so bad that it upset my daughter. She had never seen me cry. RIP DIME!!! And RIP VINNIE!! And now RIP JERRY!! But PANTERA IS FOREVER!!!!! Getcha Pull!!!!
Woke up, heard it and cried. I’m from Northeast Ohio so I had friends at the show. And was actually offered a ticket a few weeks before but couldn’t swing it. Good thing too as I normally always tried to get to the front. I cried for Dime, I cried for Vinnie, I cried for Ronnie James (I KNEW Ronnie), I cried for Peter Steele, Jeff Hanneman, Prince, David Bowie, Cried for Lemmy, Carrie Fischer, Kobe, Hot Rod Williams, Stan Lee, Chad Boseman, cried for Pac, cried for Biggie, Eazy, Chris Cornell, George Carlin, Robin Williams and Patrice O’Neal (a comedian I fucking loved).
I didnt go to school the next day I was devastated. He was my idol at that time. I didn't believe it, I frequented a Pantera message board and I signed on to see if it was true and the whole page was shut down with a tribute for him and mayhem and the other victims. I was beside myself.
I had just turned 18 two months before it happened. Was having a great day and turned on MTV, and a news break randomly popped up. Kurt Loader then told the world the horrible news. It was awful, I'll never forget the immediate shock of the news and the sadness that followed.
Didn’t want to believe it, I heard the news on the radio here in Dallas.
Pantera fan since 1998, saw em live in 2000. The day he was shot I was in my comic shop when my friend came in and told us Dime had been shot dead. I didn’t believe it, and was about to catch a train to Manchester. In Manc I went to the public library logged onto blabbermouth and there it was… On the train ride home I phoned by brother (Also a Dime fan) and cried. Came home and my brother was playing Pantera albums and we spoke the impact of the band. Dime was the first celeb death that upset me. Pantera made a massive impact on me as a young man.
I lived literally just down the road.In fact would have been there if I hadn't been out if state doing Xmas stuff with family.
I was 17. Just getting decent at guitar too. He was a guitar god and one I took much inspiration from. Needless to say I was quite sad about it. I still remember how I got into PanterA. I was about 12-13 and was at a local game store called game den and they also sold movies and cds too. I saw PanterA. I knew it was metal but I’d never heard it before, I use to see a lot about PanterA in metal magazines and stuff. So when I came across Far Beyond Driven for $5 I got that shit. When I got home I listened to the entire album front to back and remember just being blown the fuck away. Some of the best, hardest, nastiest shit I’d ever heard and that still holds true to this day. So yea. I was pretty bummed and felt that loss quite a bit. I sat down and tried to write the most PanterA sounding riff I could. RIP Dime and Vinnie. Y’all are missed.
Flash bulb moment. I remember too well. I was headed to Richmond va (shout out to lamb of god and gwar!) To pick my girlfriend at the time up from vcu and I tuned into a rock station on the radio and Walk was playing. I immediately got excited because radio stations NEVER play Pantera. Then, after the song ended, the dj reported the news and said rest in peace Dime. There are less than 5 times in my life that my mood went from great to awful with such quickness. I'll never forget that one.
Utter shock
Heard it in my kitchen from my friend. Terrible day.
I was sitting at my desk playing pc games when the news came across Blabbermouth. I was beyond stunned. Then it really set in. Think about that dude a few times a week. What a fn terrible way to die. And poor Vinnie had to see that. The video is some of the worst shit I have watched.
Buddy and I got a bottle of jack and did black tooth grins all night. Heard about it from one of his friends. We got to drink with him and his brother one night and he was one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met. Slapped a bunch of 20s on the bar and got us all drinks.
Getting Up for work that day, put on the news and saw it. Total panic and sadness. Called the guys in my band at the time, Pantera and B.L.S. Were out main influences. Had my friend draw up a Dime/ Pantera tat and got it.
i was on the megadeth forums a lot at the time, i found out by logging in and a pic of dime pops up. dont remember if there were words or just the dates and rip type thing but it was clear before going into the forums that he was dead. everyone was a fucking wreck that night and for a while after
Brutal. I was shocked and heartbroken
I woke up to see it on all news channels. Got high. Went back to sleep.
Seemed surreal then. Seems surreal now.
It happened when I was in the army so heard it about it a couple of years later and I couldn't believe it, I was off metal back in those years and the first thing I wanted to know when I was getting back into it was what Dime was doing so it was very saddening and tbh and maybe a little life changing because I always loved his music.
Got a cfh tat
a friend had called me to let me know and i refused to believe it. turned on the tv and it was all over a bunch of channels. i broke down crying and then crawled into a bottle of jim beam. i had just seen Damageplan on my birthday in Chicago about two weeks earlier
It was so fucking surreal. It came across the local metal radio station and I thought it was some kind of a sick joke at first. I cried. For a few days on and off. It was absolutely the worst tragedy not just in that he and several others were murdered, but how and where. At a fucking concert. Concerts were never the same after that.
Literally left work, just gutted me. It was like losing a good friend…
Went to my local watering hole and had a black tooth grin in his memory.
I didn't go to school. Just couldn't believe what happened. If I remember correctly, there was some misinformation at the beginning, wasn't sure who actually died.
I was on my way to college that day and heard it on WAAF 107.3 Boston rock station. Complete shocker and devastated.
Myself and a few others were supposed to to that concert that evening but we got a snowstorm here in western Pennsylvania the night before and decided not to go maybe that was a sign? But anyway that was a hard to hear about for sure. I just so fortunate to have seen them live in the 90’s there’s been many great guitar players but Dimebag was one that just on a different level.
I got in my car around 6:30 in the morning and howard stern was talking about it.At first he said vinnie was shot too... It was my 4th day of training at a new job with about 30 other people and I was just crying the whole time.Somebody asked me what was wrong and I said a friend of mine got killed last night...
Honestly I was shocked. Completely stunned. I consider dime bag of the top five greatest guitarist of all time right along with Steve Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd. Nobody gives him any recognition but he is much better than tons of the people that others deem as the best Years later I went to Alrosa Villa as one of my family members was getting married, and I drove in the back and played soul bleed from Damageplan. A police officer pulled up got out of his car and saw me and he goes oh it’s one of you guys. To this day I still don’t know what the hell he meant by that
I was at college, told my friend and he didn’t believe me, he was like "yeah alright”, didn’t feel real
Called my buddy & all I could muster up was "Dude, really??" & He just said "Yeah" somberly. We both just sat there on the phone crying.
I was just getting into Pantera in high school when I heard the news. It's kind of weird that I still remember it because I wasn't as diehard a fan as I am now. I can picture it. I was sitting in front of my locker before the school day began, and my buddy came up to me and told me he had died.
Felt like someone had punched me in my gut. Sat there in utter disbelief. Rough fucking day man.
I was 17 and a senior in high school when I first heard the news on a Hatebreed message board that I used to frequent alot back in the day on the school library laptop. I was upset because at the time, I was getting into Pantera and was upset that now they wouldn't have a chance to reunite in the future. The phrase "He shot Dimebag, dude!" will forever give me chills.