Dimebag Darrell public memorial pictures

[estranged4life]

Vinnie Paul Abbott

--------------------------------------
What was really cool was that admission for fans was one unwrapped toy that were to be collected and given to local charities in Darrell's name, Since he was such a giving & caring person.

Saddest part is seeing his older brother Vinnie Paul up on stage with a life-sized cutout of Darrell...It's reported there wasnt a dry eye in the house when Vinnie Paul spoke...How could there have been, Losing your brother has to be heartbreakingly brutal

Brian j.

[estranged4life]

Jerry Cantrell





Zakk Wylde & Edward Van Halen



Zakk Wylde & Edward Van Halen

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by estranged4life

--------------------------------------
What was really cool was that admission for fans was one unwrapped toy that were to be collected and given to local charities in Darrell's name, Since he was such a giving & caring person.

Saddest part is seeing his older brother Vinnie Paul up on stage with a life-sized cutout of Darrell...It's reported there wasnt a dry eye in the house when Vinnie Paul spoke...How could there have been, Losing your brother has to be heartbreakingly brutal

Brian j.

I hope I never experience what that is like. At least not for a very long time. This is just so needlessly tragic.

[estranged4life]

Vinnie Paul Abbott

[BTFLCHLD]

Brian,

Thank You For Posting

[estranged4life]

The following report is courtesy of Bobby Ross Jr. from the Associated Press

Fans chanted "Dimebag, Dimebag, Dimebag" and guitarists EDDIE VAN HALEN and ZAKK WYLDE delivered profanity-laced tributes at a public memorial service Tuesday night (held in Arlington, TX) for slain rock star "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

"I'm here for the same reason as everyone else, to give some love back...," Van Halen told the crowd of several thousand people, many wearing concert T-shirts.

"This guy was full of life. He lived and breathed rock 'n' roll...." Van Halen said.

Fans began lining up late Tuesday afternoon to get into the memorial at the Arlington Convention Center. Guards screened grieving fans with security wands as they came to pay tribute to Abbott, former guitarist for the heavy metal band PANTERA.

Abbott, 38, was shot to death last week in Columbus, Ohio, while performing with his new band, Damageplan. Three others also were killed before police killed 25-year-old gunman Nathan Gale.

Wylde and Van Halen shared the stage, downing shots of liquor and talking about their fellow guitarist.

"A whole part of my life is gone," Wylde said. "It's all about family. It's all about God." The crowd saved its loudest applause for Abbott's brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, who patted a life-sized cardboard cutout of his brother holding a guitar and encouraged the crowd to chant his brother's name, a chant he said he hadn't heard in five days.

Vinnie Paul said his brother gave everything he had every night and "went down" doing what he loved.

Messages such as "RIP Dime" and "Honk, honk for Dimebag, Peace in the after life" were scrawled on cars in the convention center parking lot.

Before the memorial, a high-pitched guitar solo blared from 19-year-old Jennifer White's pickup. White, a "Pantera" button on her shirt, said Abbott was a legend.

"He's just as big as JIMI HENDRIX but in a different way," she said.

Her friend Skyler Smith, 18, added: "A legend died on Wednesday night. I guarantee I'll be telling my kids about this day and the day that he died. ...My heart was broken."

"Today's really been the start of the healing process. The service was beautiful," said singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell of the 1990s rock band ALICE IN CHAINS, referring to a private funeral earlier in the day.

Cantrell said he was heartened by the fans who packed the public memorial service.

"It makes me feel a lot better," he said.

Fans braving the near-freezing temperatures cheered the arrival of flower arrangements in the shape of guitars and a display with the words "Crown the Moment, Crown Royal," a reference to Abbott's favorite brand of whiskey.

Michael Schaefer, 21, of Garland, and his wife, Raedene, 20, both wore black Pantera concert shirts.

"It's still a real shock, the fact that it actually happened and the fact that someone would want to hurt him," Michael Schaefer said.

"It's terrible, man. He was the nicest fella you would ever want to meet," said Rick Cunningham, 48, of Euless.

Cunningham was one of the few of the thousands waiting in line who wore a suit and tie to the service. Cunningham, a former lead singer for a Dallas band called "Rage" and strip club manager said he'd known Abbott for 20 years.

Abbott had formed Damageplan with his brother and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott after they left Pantera.

Abbott attended Arlington High School and lived in nearby Dalworthington Gardens.

The memorial service was put together by Vinnie Paul Abbott along with Paul Bassman Management Company, Pinnacle Entertainment and AEG Live, South, said Paula McElheney, who is with AEG, a promoter.

[estranged4life]

Phil Anselmo-"I Never Got A Chance To Say Goodbye ... And It Kills Me"

The following report is courtesy of Nola.com's Keith Spera:

The onstage killing of former bandmate "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott has left ex-PANTERA vocalist and north shore resident Phil Anselmo distraught and questioning his own future.

In a transcript of a videotaped statement released to the media Tuesday, Anselmo said: "People want my reaction to what happened. This is about Dimebag Darrell, purely Darrell. It's not about me or some . . . psycho that happened to destroy the most beautiful person, one of my best friends in the world."

Abbott, 38, was shot and killed Dec. 8 while performing with the hard rock band DAMAGEPLAN at a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub. Three other people, including Damageplan's chief of security, died after Nathan Gale, 25, opened fire with a handgun. Gale was an ex-Marine and metal fan reportedly angered by the band Pantera's breakup. He was shot and killed by a police officer responding to 911 calls.

Anselmo and Abbott spent 15 years touring the world together in Pantera.

Pantera didn't achieve widespread success until Anselmo, a New Orleans native, joined about 1989. Pantera sold more than 10 million albums, collected two Grammy nominations and inspired legions of aspiring hard rock bands. But by 2002, Anselmo, Darrell Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul Abbott, the band's drummer, had become estranged as Anselmo devoted more time to other projects.

In 2003, they confirmed that Pantera had disbanded, as the two camps exchanged accusations in the hard rock press. Anselmo was at home on the north shore last week when Abbott was killed. As OZZY OSBOURNE, Paul Stanley of KISS, Brian May of QUEEN and other rock icons memorialized Abbott, a devastated Anselmo made no public comment until Tuesday.

Anselmo's statement says that "the heavy metal media destroyed Pantera." He laments that he "never got a chance to say goodbye (to Abbott) in the right way and it kills me, and I'm so sorry."

Anselmo traveled to Dallas for Abbott's funeral. But he ended up not attending "to respect the (Abbott) family's wishes, and they do not want me there. I believe I belong there, but I understand completely. I wish his family the least grief they could ever have, and I know it's impossible. Just bless his family, bless his friends. I love him like a brother loves a brother. . . . I'm so sorry to his family and everyone else who was senselessly killed in Columbus, Ohio."

His statement hints at an uncertain professional future.

"This has changed the entire world, and this is the last you'll be seeing of me for a long time."

[Merf]

Thanks for posting those, Brian. What a senseless loss. So tragic. My thoughts are with his family and fans.

[gldstwmn]

The photo of his guitar just there all by itself really hits home. It really hurts to lose a brother. You can understand parents, that's the natural order of things. And to be murdered around the holidays...I truly feel for these families.