Thursday, December 09, 2004

RIP, Dimebag

Former Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was shot and killed yesterday as he got on stage to perform with his new band Damageplan.
You can find details here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/apmusic_story.asp?category=1403&slug=Obit%20Dimebag

I've never been very good at the whole "fan" thing, so even though I do like a lot of Panera's music, the fact that a man I didn't know has been killed isn't going to shatter my world the way it might for some people. However, I did admire him as a guitarist and I feel that this is a definite loss for the music industry, and I felt it was worth mentioning here.
Years ago when I lived in Minnesota, I knew some people who worked at a music store. One of the products they sold was a line of Dimebag Darrell guitars. As a promotional tool, the store featured some life-sized cardboard cut-out pictures of Dimebag.
One of the people I knew who worked there had been able to snag one and take it home, and while visiting on a night of drunkenness, myself and several others had our pictures taken with Dimebag.
While I am saddened by the thought that he's gone, I can't help but smile when I think that somewhere in the world there may very well be a picture of a drunken Jon pretending to sodomize a cardboard cut-out of him.
Okay, so it's not exactly a touching eulogy, and it's not really the way most of us would like to be remembered, but somehow I think he'd approve...

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