“AFTER DIME, THE WORLD CHANGED”
Dave mustaine, Sebastian Bach and chuck Billy discuss how the aftermath of Pantera’s implosion didn’t just affect metal, but the culture of music itself
Dimebag Darrell’s tragic murder onstage at the alrosa Villa in columbus, ohio on December 8, 2004 during a gig by his band Damageplan, was a pivotal moment for metal. as well as robbing the scene of a figurehead – and, more personally, Vinnie Paul of a brother – it marked a definitive full-stop on the career of one of the greatest bands of them all.
Until that point, there had always been a hope that the abbott brothers and Phil anselmo could reconcile their differences. Dimebag and Vinnie had dealt with the fall-out from that band’s unseemly demise by forming Damageplan, though they never came close to their old outfit’s success. Phil could be found juggling several bands at any given time, from Down to Superjoint ritual, seemingly happier at home in metal’s underground. But Pantera’s dissolution, while bitter and rancorous, never seemed quite final.
“I know Vinnie Paul was upset when Pantera split up,” says former Skid row singer Sebastian Bach, who brought the Texans out on the road with his former band in 1991 and also opened for them as a solo artist in 1998. “him and Dime were from a musical family, and Pantera was a family, too. There’s no way he would have ever started Damageplan if Pantera had kept going.”
Dave mustaine, another old friend of Pantera, sees it quite differently. “There are always three sides to every story,” says the megadeth frontman. “There’s my side, your side and the truth. The guys had their own thing and it felt like they were happy.”
Dimebag Darrell’s death changed that. In Vinnie’s eyes, Phil had been indirectly responsible for his brother’s death due to controversial quotes he had made to
Metal Hammer only a few weeks earlier, in which he suggested the guitarist should be “beaten severely”.
Despite all that, rumours continued to swirl that the band would one day reunite – although they were more based on hope than any concrete proof. But even if Vinnie had eventually forgiven Phil – something he showed no sign of doing right up until his death – no-one wanted to resurrect Pantera without Dimebag Darrell. In every interview he did, Vinnie ruled out the prospect. It was one of the few things he and his former singer still agreed on. “No,” insisted Phil. “Will never be done.”
Dimebag’s death prompted another, unforeseen change as venues began tightening up security. Today, precautions against violent attacks – whether deranged lone gunmen such as Dime’s murderer Nathan Gale (who also killed three other people at the show) or premeditated acts of terrorism such as the massacre at the Bataclan in Paris – include everything from mandatory bag searches to full-scale, airport-style body scanners. It has undeniably altered the psychology of gigs, not least for the people up onstage.
“The world changed after that event,” says Testament frontman chuck Billy. “You have to be more aware and more alert. You have to look at each exit to see where you would escape if something like that were to go down again. We live in a very different world now. But there’s still a lot of holes in it, because you get someone who can speak well and get a phoney pass and they can get in anywhere.”
“maybe I’m living in a bygone era, but what happened to Darrell changed my life,” says Dave mustaine. “Now I don’t go anywhere without a security guard. People can look at me and say, ‘oh, look, he has to have his security guard with him!’ Well, yeah, I do.
You never know when people are going to take something you say wrong.”
In the years following Dimebag’s death, Pantera’s legacy grew even stronger, though the distance between Vinnie Paul and Phil anselmo remained as wide as ever. In 2015, the singer found himself at the centre of a storm of controversy after performing a Nazi salute and yelling “White power!” during a tribute show to Dimebag in la. after initially refusing to apologise for his actions, he soon rowed back. “It was ugly, it was uncalled for and anyone who knows me and my true nature knows that I don’t believe in any of that,” he said in a video statement. “I am 1,000% apologetic to anyone that took offence to what I said, because you should’ve taken offence to what I said.”
Vinnie Paul offered no sympathy for his former bandmate. “I can’t speak for him,” said the drummer in 2017. “he’s done a lot of things that tarnish the image of what Pantera was back then and what it stood for and what it was all about. and it’s sad.”
When Vinnie passed away on June 22, the pair remained estranged. The question of whether they would have ever made up, let alone eventually reformed Pantera, will forever remain unanswered. But what they achieved, alongside their bandmates rex Brown and Dimebag Darrell abbott, will stand forever.
“Since Dime’S Death, i Don’t go out without a Security guarD”
DAVE MUSTAINE SAYS DIME’S MURDER CHANGED HIS LIFE