One of metal's finest guitar players in history, Dimebag Darrell Abbott was honored on May 17th by Hollywood's Rockwalk with a posthumous induction ceremony that lined Sunset Blvd with hundreds of Dimebags adoring fans. On hand for the ceremony was non other than Ace Frehley of KISS, Kerry King of Slayer, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Aaron Lewis of Staind, Scott Ian of Anthrax, Zakk Wylde, Shinedown, Queensryche and Dimebag's brother and fellow bandmate in Pantera, Vinnie Paul Abbott.
In 1981,
Dimebag Darrell along with his brother, drummer
Vinnie Paul formed Pantera, which would turn out to be one of the most popular heavy metal bands of the 1990s. After Pantera broke up Darrell and Vinnie went on to form Damageplan, releasing New Found Power in 2003. During a Damageplan performance in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2004, Dimebag was fatally shot at the age of 38.
At the Rockwalk induction each person took the mike and explained why they loved Dimebag so much and how much of a nice person he truly was and how he would always put other people before himself. Vinnie Paul, Jerry Cantrell and Ace Frehley all spoke at length about how much they miss their fallen brother.
Watch video: Vinnie Paul Ace Frehley Jerry Cantrell On Dimebag
[Vinnie] (applause) "I'd like to thank everybody that were close and still are close personal friends of Dime for coming up and sharing their experiences, and helping me get through this, because trust me, this is really tough. I just wanted to say that Dime gave you guys everything he had everyday. He never said 'no' to anything. He was all about entertaining people, and the thing that got him off the most was putting a smile on somebody's face, whether he did it with his guitar, his kindness, everything, so... I guess I'm going to leave it at that." [Frehley] "The first time I met Dimebag we were doing a photo shoot for the cover of Guitar World, and I've heard a lot about this crazy guitar player who is a big fan of mine. He's got my face tattooed on his chest and all this crazy stuff. And we really ended up hitting it off. He's just a really, genuinely a good guy -- a great musician." [Cantrell] "I remember seeing him and the band and being blown away. And the thing that a lot of people will... Of course he's an amazing guitar player, and innovator, and a better guitar player by far than I'll ever be, what I'd like to say is about him as a man. I spent a lot of time with Vinnie and Dime at their mother's house in the early, early days. We came out at about the same time. There was nothing false about him. We went through a lot of triumphs, and a lot of lows as well and I consider them family and I'm proud to be in the family."
Scott Ian of Anthrax and Kerry King of Slayer also spoke with the crowd about old memories of Dimebag just before Zakk Wylde, who was extremely close with Dimebag as well, thrilled the crowd with a solo piano song dedicated to his friend.
Watch video: Scott Ian Zakk Wylde Kerry King On Dimebag
[Scott Ian] "Today is a celebration, and being inducted into this RockWalk is such a cool thing because it celebrates the beauty of the art that Dime was unarguably a master of. The perfection and the power of his music, the music that he created, I mean the legacy is going to last for eternity. I mean we're all here for a reason and that is that Dime was just one motherf--kin hot guitar player. Bottom line." [Zakk Wylde] "...and the bottom line is Dime will never die. Just like Randy Rhoads, Just like Hendrix.. .the bottom line is he's in all of us. So give it up for the Dimebag and it's an honor to be here for him." [Kerry King] "Some of you die hard fans already probably know this from the time when I did the lead for 'Goddamn Electric'. Thank you. It was fun in my life too. We're on OzzFest '99 in Dallas, and I come from my dressing room, I was on the tour, I come from my dressing room into Pantera's dressing room -- and by Pantera I mean Vince and Dime. They're in there and their dressing room is bigger than mine, and they're not even on the tour. I don't know how that happened."
We also caught up with Dimebag's long time girlfriend Rita Haney to talk about the Rockwalk induction.
Watch video: Long Time Girlfriend Rita On Dimebags Rockwalk Ceremony
"You know what? It's been just very overwhelming, just the fans and the respect that the loyalty, the hugs, and all the big metal guys getting all soft and just showing the love. It's good. It put a good smile on my face. You know Ace is the reason Darrell picked up a guitar, and that's why it was just so awesome that he wanted to come and do this, you know? He did spend a lost weekend at our house and it was a lot of fun."
Later that night, The Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute Auction held their benefit for the Little Kids Rock Foundation which included Dimebag's Black Tooth Jam! The night featured performances by Vinnie Paul Abbott, Scott Ian, Aaron Lewis of Staind, Ace Frehley, Brent Smith and Jasin Todd from Shinedown, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins, Matt Byrne of Hatebreed and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park along with an art auction. Dimebag Darrell Abbott will always be remembered as one of the most influential guitarists in modern metal music.
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