There are only 2 days a year that I will stray from the usual smarmy, sarcastic, arrogant Hockey chatter, and today is one of those days. Two of the biggest and most shocking tragedies music world has ever seen happened on this day. Thirty years ago John Lennon was gunned down in New York City by a lunatic, and six years ago Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot by a complete scumbag of a mental patient, whom I will not give the courtesy of even naming, as he played a show at the Alrosa Villa, in Columbus Ohio. There have been many tragedies in the music world, but only one has happened while the artist was on stage doing what he or she does best. It's cliche to say you would want to die doing what you love, but Darrell would have wanted to go out onstage, just under different circumstances. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was waiting for my friends in the band SOiL to play a secret show, their first with their new vocalist, at the Penny Road Pub in South Barrington Illinois. Just before they were scheduled to go on, one of them received the call that would change the Metal world forever. Their friend, Dimebag Darrell Abbott, had been shot during the first song of his band's set that night. No more details were given, but it was serious. The jovial mood turned somber, but my friends chose to go on with the show, and chose not to alert the crowd until after more details were available. As the show wrapped, they received word that Darrell had passed away from his injuries. My friends chose to end the show by making an announcement that Dimebag Darrell had been shot and killed just a couple of hours earlier. A crowd of usually smiling, and singing metalheads turned to looks of shock, sadness, and sobs. My heart goes out, especially, to his brother Vince Paul Abbott, because I could not imagine watching my beloved brother murdered feet in front of me, with no way to help.
As those of you that are close to me know, I'm a HUGE Metal fan, and that encapsulates 98% of all the music I like. To pay respect to maybe the most legendary guitarist the heavy metal world, I named one of the teams I played for "Cowboy From Hell" after a Pantera song, and named this blog for the Pantera song "Fuckin Hostile". Here are some videos to celebrate the life and music of Darrell Lance Abbott, please enjoy, smile and sing along! Today we celebrate his talent...
