DIMEBAG DARRELL – Murdered On The Stage Ten Years Ago!

On the evening of December 8, 2004, Dimebag Darrell Abbott, 38, legendary ex-guitar player of platinum selling Texas heavy metal group, PANTERA, would unleash his new band project DAMAGEPLAN on a 640 capacity sized club named the Alrosa Villa located in Columbus, Ohio. Darrell, along with his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, former drummer of PANTERA, were setting out on a new musical journey after they endured a bitter split with vocalist Philip H. Anselmo and bassist Rex “The Full Meal Deal” Brown in 2003. The date was scheduled as part of the tour DAMGAGEPLAN had booked to support their debut album “New Found Power”. The band was paid $1,500 for the show. The music business was no longer what it once was during the CFH glory days in the 1990’s – when they were selling out arenas and topping the charts – so the Abbott’s were willing to do whatever it takes to make a name for themselves once again.

What the two men were unaware of as they relaxed on their tour bus outside the cold venue was that this gig was going to be the last for one of them. A mentally ill, six foot three, two hundred and sixty pound former U.S. marine named Nathan Gale, 25, who had already been stalking the band at another venue in Cincinatti previously during that year, was planning on a murder spree to get revenge for what were ultimately delusional thoughts telling him that the Abbotts had stolen his music to use as their own. Many in the media woud speculate afterward that it was ‘violent words’ said by ex-PANTERA singer Anselmo aimed at Darrell that influenced the killer to set out on his course. In truth, the wheels were already put in motion for this horrific tragedy to occur far before Anselmo’s purported threat toward his ex bandmate got published in glossy metal magazines and posted on all the big name rock news sites.

“Whether you like it or not, we are gonna play old Pantera songs for the fans,” said Dimebag to DAMGAGEPLAN vocalist Pat Lachman, when in the middle of a heated disussion earlier before heading out on the tour dates. Lachman did not want to play that music. Dimebag shouted at him when he just didn’t seem to get it, “We are gonna rock the new ‘Damage’ tunes, brother… but dammit, them PANTERA songs are what put me and my brother on the map!”

Coming upon a high wooden fence which blocked a patio on the club’s side, Nathan Gale jumped up and grabbed hold of the top. Mitch Carpenter, a parking-lot security guard, witnessed what he was doing and began chase. Gale threw himself over and hit the pavement on the other side. He was ready to kill with a 9-mm Beretta semiautomatic, two clips and 30 extra bullets.

Once Gale entered the club by hopping a fence, people nearby, who watched all of this happen, did absolutely nothing to stop him. They chose to instead cheer the maniac on. Within a matter of moments, the killer was now in the club. The massive beast of a man sprinted through the club with security in pursuit of him. Gale has now pulled out a handgun. His mother had given it to him as a gift when he was thrown out of the military for being diagnosed ‘paranoid schizophrenic’, a very serious metal condition for which he had stopped taking meds for while now living as a civilian.

“When Pantera broke up, I think he felt some kind of personal connection, like he felt left out or betrayed,” said Mark Break, a former friend of Gale. “This kid listened to their albums every day. He was obsessed with Pantera.”

Now standing next to his idol, Gale pulled the trigger of his handgun. Blam! Blam! Blam! The crowd initially believed blanks were being fired and this was all part of the band’s act. However, others in the front row knew something terrible just happened… Dimebag has been shot and killed on the stage at point blank range right before their own eyes.

Following this, Gale spun around and turned the gun on people who had rushed the stage to stop him, killing audience member Nathan Bray and club employee Erin Halk, including Jeff “Mayhem” Thompson, a member of the band’s security. He also wounded the band’s tour manager Chris Paluska and drum technician John “Kat” Brooks.

“I wish I could have said something to somebody saying this guy could be dangerous, that this guy is just not right,” Break said. “All of us were Pantera fans, but he took it past being a fan. He took it to an obsession.”

“The tragedy left scars on me. I wasn’t hurt physically and I don’t suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but you can’t see a life taken right in front of your eyes and not feel something. You wouldn’t be human if you could.” said a fan who attended the concert that night.

Dimebag’s brother Vinnie would go on to sue the club for not having proper security that night, which is a problem that continues to go on even to this very day at local venues around the country. Most recently, shootings have continued to happen in small clubs but go mainly unreported by the mainstream media because it’s passed up for more important news items of the day. What could be more important than protecting innocent people from the unstable, such as an ex-military lunatic who should have never been allowed to have a gun in his possession?

“The central allegation of the lawsuit is that there was no adequate security provided at the music venue given the nature and size of the crowd and previous incidents at the club involving criminal activity,” stated the Abbott family attorney. He also went on to cite police and media reports about earlier incidents at the metal club involving criminal activity, fighting, handguns and the firing of weapons.

The murder of Dimebag Darrell has no doubt had a tremendous affect on everyone that is part of the heavy metal industry, and will always remain the darkest day in the history of this music. This very date, oddly enough, is shared with John Lennon’s murder by the hand of another crazy fan in 1980.

And despite the fact that many highly publicized mass shootings have occurred since Dimebag’s death around the USA, the issue of dealing with the mentally ill and soldiers returning from war with PTSD continues to grow at an alarming rate. What is it going to take for our society to realize that some drastic changes need to be made now so that this kind of thing does not ever happen again?

Dimebag will always be remembered as a good guy that never took himself too seriously or saw himself above the crowd… rather instead he was part of the crowd. The life of the party. He was willing to give anyone the shirt off his back and never forgot that his fans put Pantera on top. He and the others did not deserve to die this way.

All this said, it is best not to spend your entire day mourning the loss of brother Dimebag on this date. He would not want everyone to be sad. Instead, crank some of his music and have a few blacktooth grins in his honor. Rememeber the man, the myth, the legend. Very few rock guitar players come along that possess the out of this world talent that Dimebag did. He undoubtedly ranks at the very top with the all-time greats like Hendrix, Rhoads and Van Halen and his ‘goddamn electric’ influence will be easily felt for another hundred years plus.