ROCKET RANT – An Open Letter To Vinnie Paul Abbott

Vinnie, I am going to ask you to stop thinking about yourself for a moment. Let’s think about what Dime would do, okay?

Let’s put the shoe on the other foot as they say. Suppose it was you that got shot dead that night in front of all those people you were just playing for moments before.

Suppose it was Dime who lived on and buried you in tragedy. What then?

Do you think Dimebag Darrell, the proudest dude in heavy metal history, would not find a way to honor you and Pantera’s great music that so many fans around the world loved and still love even long after the band has been active?

Would that mean he was disrespecting you or the music you created together?

I think we all know that Dime would not hesitate to make it happen, no matter how difficult it was to stomach the other cats in the band. You are his brother, right? Brothers look out for each other through and through. So rest assured, if it were Dime that lived, a Pantera Reunion Tour would most probably have already happened with guest appearances by guitarists such as Zakk Wylde, who umm… btw, has only gone on the record nineteen thousand times in the past year that he would be honored to take part in such an event. He also happens to be the axe shredder who has played more years at Ozzy Osbourne’s side than anyone who has ever lived. But what matters the most at this time is ‘you’ at the end of the day, huh? I mean, it was your brother you witnessed get murdered at that club in Ohio that night, nearly 8 years ago… by blood you two are as close to being the same person as it gets in all reality.

So how dare anyone bring up such an idea to you, right? That was YOUR brother and only yours.

Vinnie Paul, I can think of a thousand devoted Pantera fans that felt like Dime was there ‘brother’ too, how do you feel about that? I’m talking about the dudes who first saw your band when you were not world famous playing Joe’s Garage back in the day. Those same people helped carry this band to number one on the billboard charts, remember them?

The one thing that drew me to your band was not only the intense music itself but primarily the lyrical content that was designed to help people who had fallen to get back up and fight once again.

I should know a thing or two about fighting to survive myself. I lived homeless for two straight years on the streets of Los Angeles after abusing hard drugs for long enough. You want to talk about struggles and getting past something, there is nothing more difficult in life than beating the streets.

And when I finally made it off of them and hard drugs, I didn’t ever look back or look to blame them for
where I had been in the darkest of periods in my life. No, I don’t go back to recalling times sleeping in the rain at a park or on a rooftop… or the countless horrors I saw on Skid Row. No, I let that stuff go so that it does not control my future.

Vinnie Paul, you need to let go of what happened in the past. Stop fighting your biggest fans like me, brother, when all we want is your happiness.

Do you really think ignoring Rex and Philip until you hit the grave is going to accomplish something?

I mean, it’s done so well for you up to this point. Your new band’s record sales are totally dismal compared to where you once were when the music industry was at its height and Pantera went multi-Platinum. Those days are gone. You will never be in another band like Pantera ever again. Of the top all time heavy metal acts discussed, such as Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, etc.. always Pantera is mentioned in the top 5 by most. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Like Dime, wouldn’t you try to do everything in your power to cement that great legacy in everyone’s
minds, including the fine people over at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?

Let’s face it, a rocker’s career is not fully realized until they are inducted, whether they themselves want to admit it or not. The bottom line, Vinnie Paul, is that you, Dime, Rex and Phil deserve to be put there just as much as Metallica and GNR.



And talk about tarnished? Well, more than that… let’s talk about becoming ‘Forgotten’ for a moment, okay?

Did you ever stop to think during all these past years that you have been locked in a negative verbal war with the surviving band members that appreciation for Pantera’s music and your brother Dimebag’s guitar greatness is starting to become more and more diminished by the hour, more and more forgotten about by the new generation of music listeners?

I see it all the time when I surf the web, online via comments left on the top news sites in metal, all day long, people calling Dime ‘overrated’ and Pantera’s music as not as relevant as it once was. Sticking it in the 90’s music category, like it was just some fleeting moment that came and went. And you’re okay with that, huh?

You are okay with letting the band’s history stand on its own. Well, everybody knows that Pantera never achieved the super stardom that Metallica and Motley Crue enjoy today with hundred million dollar tours. Sure, you sold a million records almost each time out way back, but let’s be real…there was much bigger things to come for the Cowboys From Hell. I myself believe had you recorded three or four more studio albums that kept pushing the envelope that it could of been The Big Four Tour with your band headlining over Metallica. Ever stop to think about that one?

No, you think not honoring the fans wishes (nearly 4,000 who petitioned online) to perform one final set with Philip and Rex is the way to go for the rest of the time you are on planet earth?

Let me ask you something? Do you think HellYeah band has a shot at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?

Then why are you promoting it like that’s all you got in this life?

You are famous for one reason only, dude. You played drums in a band from Arlington, Texas named Pantera!

You do understand Rex has battled serious health issues lately and is $500,000 in debt
to the IRS? But that doesn’t matter, right?

And Philip’s getting cleaned up and working his ass off to repair his life means nothing?

So let’s just get right to it, how exactly is what you’re doing today celebrating what you accomplished in Pantera?

To me, and a lot of people that are listening to your present band’s latest music, it’s obvious you shamelessly rip off bits and pieces of the classic groove metal sound from Pantera that made you famous in the first damn place.

Why are you doing that, Vinnie Paul?

I thought Pantera was over. Remember? So why then are your new songs for Hellyeah being constantly compared to Pantera’s unique sound by fans and critics all over?

I will tell you why, because you haven’t let that part of you die yet. That ‘sound’ is yours and your brothers, that you honed to literal machine-like tightness and rocked the entire fucking globe with for a decade of dominance that has still yet to be matched by any other metal band.

All this said, love it or leave it, I don’t care what you think of me and my rant… but make no mistake, VP…

Dimebag is watching you from above and he believes in you forever. As a little brother would look up to his bigger brother, he is depending on you.

When are you going to show Dime, that murderous shooter, and the Pantera fans all the way from Texas to Russia and back, that Pantera’s music is truly stronger than all?



http://pantera.com/