Today marks the 14th anniversary of metal legend Dimebag Darrell's murder. To remember the Pantera and Damageplan rocker and celebrate his life, here are 25 things you might not have known about him:
1. Darrell’s dad was a producer and his mom was a country musician.
2. Dimebag’s middle name was Lance.
3. Before wanting a guitar, Darrell wanted a BMX bike.
4. Darrell started playing drums at age 11.
5. Dimebag first picked up a guitar at age 12. He decided he wanted to play after hearing Black Sabbath.
6. Darrell was a natural at guitar, winning a series of local guitar competitions.
7. The first concert Darrell ever saw was Kiss.
8. Dimebag originally wanted to be a filmmaker.
9. When Dimebag first formed Pantera in 1981, he called himself Diamond Darrell Lance.
10. Darrell’s dad Jerry helped him and his brother Vinnie form Pantera. Jerry engineered their albums and released them through an independent label.
11. In 1987, Darrell was invited by Dave Mustaine to join Megadeth and he was willing to join, but only if Vinnie could play on drums. Since Megadeth already had a drummer, the job didn’t pan out.
12. It took 9 years before Pantera had their major label debut, with 1990’s Cowboys from Hell.
13. When Pantera put out their 1994 effort, Far Beyond Driven, Darrell changed his name from Diamond to Dimebag.
14. Dimebag formed Damageplan in 2003 explaining that they got together because they “wanted to stretch out and expand [their] capabilities to the fullest.”
15. Darrell is on the soundtrack to the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He plays guitar on the song “Light Comes Out of Black,” which also features Rob Halford of Judas Priest.
16. Darrell was also part of the country metal band Rebel Meets Rebel, along with country singer David Allan Coe, Vinnie and Pantera bassist Rex Brown.
17. Dimebag contributed so many guitar solos to Anthrax songs that bassist Frank Bello once said, “Darrell was basically the sixth member of Anthrax.”
18. Nickelback sampled one of Darrell’s solos in their song “Side of a Bullet.” Dimebag also played guitar on the band’s cover of Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
19. Dimebag created a drink called Black Tooth Grin. The cocktail, which features two shots of Seagrams 7, two shots of Crown Royal and a dash of Coke, became Pantera’s official drink.
20. Darrell was such a fan of Ace Frehley that he once said, “If there were no Ace Frehley, there would have been no Dimebag Darrell.” Dimebag had a tattoo of Ace on his chest. Ace signed it and Abbott then had the autograph tattooed on too.
21. Darrell said that Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen and original Def Leppard guitarist Pete Willis were among the musicians who influenced him.
22. Dimebag was buried in a KissKasket.
23. Eddie Van Halen put his original black and yellow striped guitar, known as bumblebee, into Dimebag’s casket to be buried with him. Dimebag once told Eddie how much he loved the instrument, which had his favorite colors on it, and Eddie planned to make a copy for him. Instead, he gave him the original for eternity saying, “Dime was an original and only an original deserves the original.”
24. Dimebag was also buried with bottles of Crown Royal.
25. Darrell once said the worst advice his dad ever gave him was to “play by the book.”
We miss you Dimebag.
Photo Credit: Getty