Fifteen years – Sigh. It was five years ago today that I first reflected on an anniversary of the death of the now legendary guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott who was murdered while onstage by a crazed fan during a Damageplan performance. Back when he was killed in 2004, there was no PiercingMetal.com yet and I was still new to the game and only submitted reviews to a site over in Barcelona, Spain. That said, I remember how when I first typed those words down that it left me ill at ease and I can honestly say that it still manages to do so. Speaking frankly, I don’t like to reflect on each and every year after someone has died because I find that it gets in the way of the healing and coming to terms with the loss but in a case like Dime’s is there really any easy way to come to these places? Not really.

So a lot of my reflection here recalls my frame of mind and how the news came to me when it initially happened back in 2004. I remembered how the news came to me very early the following morning after it had happened and I was waking up to go to work and as the radio played my constantly set 1010 WINS, I heard the words “gunman”, “Metal concert” and “Dimebag Darrell”; As I said I was just only waking up but it was like a bolt that I was out of the bed and hoping for the newscaster to repeat the story to get more properly informed. I booted up my computer and launched into my email account as I was the NYC Scene Journalist for The Metal Circus site in Spain at the time. The time was only a little after 6AM and I was not seeing the story on any of the popular Metal Newsfeed sites of the day yet but as my email queue synced I began to notice messages filled with questions from my Spanish amigos to get more information on this horrible story they were starting to hear about over on their side of the Atlantic. Then the news was repeated and the reporter came back on and said the news. Guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott of Damageplan was shot during the bands concert and had died. Hearing the words left me numb because it just didn’t make sense to me at all. Why would this happen? How could this happen? Such a thing seemed impossible to happen at a Metal show. Rap maybe but Metal? Never. I typed up the words from the reporters segment and sent them to the editor of that online magazine citing how it was officially verified so they could compose something about it. I admit that it was very hard to go to work that day but since I was “the Metal guy” on the team, it became a quick topic of discussion and it was clearly sending shock waves across the world’s Metal fan base as all tried to come to grips with it and make some kind of sense out of the news. Yet there was no sense to be made from this. Dimebag was taken from us by a very ill and delusional man and there was nothing else to be said about the matter. Dime and a few others were dead and numerous people were injured. It sucked and Metal would never quite be the same again.
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