13 Things You Might Not Know About Dimebag Darrell

I've always said, "if Nickelback was good enough for Dimebag, then they're good enough for me".  Dime had at least one drunken night with Chad Kroeger and contributed a solo to the bands cover of "Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting".

Pantera contributed the track "Pre-Hibernation" to the Spongebob Squarepants album (the one that went along with the t.v. show. The track starts with Spongebob and Patrick saying "Jellyfishin', Jellyfishin', Jellyfishin'" which leads into a trademark Dimebag screech.

Dimebag used to make regular trips to Lubbock whenever there was a show he wanted to see. One year he showed up at our FMX Birthday Bash to hang with Sevendust.  We had one club with new, hard bands and another with retro bands. I watched Dime, watch April Wine with about a hundred other people while everyone was packed into the other side.

Like many things, the legend of the "Blacktooth Grin" grew. Most recipies now say 1 1/2 ounces of Crown, 1 1/2 ounces of Seagrams 7 and a splash of Coke. Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Dimebag had not time for this kind of mixing b.s. A real, original Blacktooth grin is a shot of whiskey and just enough Coke for color. Don't believe me? Here it from Dimebag himself.

It all seems so easy to figure out now, but at the time we had to leak the news that "Cowboys From Hell" was really Pantera in order to sell out of all of the $10 tickets at the Depot Warehouse. There was just some last minute concern that the fans wouldn't "get it".   1000 Tickets were sold near instantly once the news was leaked.

I've heard this from more than a few sources. Dime was always the first to pour and the first to toast, but every once in a while you could catch him toss one (and some say every other one) into the bushes.  Dime wasn't a drunk, Dime knew how to drink. There's a big difference.

I didn't take much to get Dimebag to strap it on and get down.  He also didn't care whether the band was big or small. He was good friends with the guys in Pumpjack and the later band Gasoline. Here is a very RARE vide of Dime cover Quiet Riot with Gasoline.  He also played with Nickelback (as mentioned above) and with Anthrax.

One thing about Pantera. They were a "bands band". Every band, even the sometimes more popular ones were stoked to be in their presence. In this video, Sully Erna lives a dream by singing with Dime, Vinnie and Rex (and with Phil's blessing).  Of course they covered Walk and I have to admit, Sully gives it hell. This performance is from the "Smack This" dvd.

How is this for a story? The Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi was basically blown into the Gulf OF Mexico. Very little was recovered, but somehow a guitar from Dimebag Darrell was recovered (in fact the only guitar recovered). It is back on display with just a little water damage.

While the origin of Dimebag's pink beard tip are murky, he had no problem passing it on. Charlie Benante of Anthrax told Scott Ian that he was visiting Dimebag's house when a goat with a pink beard just walked by. Dime told him that somebody just "left the goat there" so he "had to" do it.

So you probably read the story about the guitar rescued from the Gulf. There was another one that disappeared and/or was stolen. It was then found in a storage locker that was bought for $10. Even cooler, the owner of the guitar was Robb Flynn of Machinehead. It was one of the cool blue lightning bolt Dean's.

Yeah, there's photo proof of this one over at MetalSucks. Cantrell apparently showed up at Dime's with a holiday plastic bag full of powder that had a rolled up dollar bill attached to it. I'm sure it was laundry detergent or something. The look on Dime's face is priceless.

I'm sure a lot of people at the time knew this, but for some of you up and coming metal guitarists, you may want to look into the book "Riffer Madness".  It looks like it's still available on Amazon. Dime was also a regular contributor to Guitar Player Magazine.