My dimebag story
In Mesa Arizona, we have an outdoor venue that isn't too hard to sneak backstage.
Pantera plays.
I sneak in the back where the busses are.
I see a local D.J. who I know, and i walk up to him, to add 'credibility' to my being there and lack of a Laminate around my neck.
There is Rex,Dime,and Phil.
They have set up a little P.A. system of 2 12's and have Van Halen CRANKED.
This is back before iPhone and such, so the feed of the music is coming from a long cable from their bus.
Dime walks up to me and says '
Bro, why haven't you called me?"
I shift my eyes- nobody behind me, he IS talking to ME?
'Man do you need my number again?"
At this point, i litterally am speechless, saying nothing, and the very popular D.J. is looking at me like 'wtf, you KNOW dime like THAT?'
He clearly mistook me for somebody.
He writes his number down and hands it to me with a guitar pick.
I finally say something like '
sorry, I was busy' to finally answer Dime.
At this point everybody back there is looking at me like 'who the f is this guy'
Phil, then sees some kids allllllllllllll the way in the back of the back, shouting at Phil through chain link fence.
Since I now have 'street cred' in Phil's eyes, thanks to Dime, I say 'Hey Phil- some kids back in the bushes are calling you'
There is a chain link fence surrounding the buses, and its completley overgrown with 7foot thorny bushes. So the fact that fans are there, meant they were far beyond driven, to get a glimpse.
Phil walks over out of his way with me, and sticks like 3 fingers through the little chain-link rectangles to 'shake hands' with these kids.
Epic.
And yes, I called DIME's number, but only a few days after he was shot. It was clearly him on the voicemail.
His girlfriend
RITA, still pays to keep his cell phone active.(or did for years)
I just ran into Rita a few months ago at a Sebastian Bach Show.
Part of me wants to bang her, just so I know my cock filled the same hole as Dime's THATS HOW BIG A FAN I AM!
All in all I saw Pantera 3 times i think.
Near the end, DIME was working with KRANK amps, which is located a few miles from my house, and he would be at the bar alot after 'testing' the amps.
He gets shot 2 weeks after this video.