When you're a little kid, you have nerve. I'd always squeeze in there and try to check their shit out. A Pantego radio station used to sponsor local talent, and the bands would cut tracks in my dad's studio. Do you have any memories of those early visits?Sure. So I started going to his recording studio and I really dug it. And like most fathers, occasionally he 'd let me visit where he worked. My old man was a musician - that's what he did for a living. Did he have any impact on your decision to pick up the guitar?Absolutely. GUITAR WORLD: I understand that when you were a kid, your father was a musician, and that he owned a recording studio, in Pantego, Texas, where you grew up. "'I've also had my volume knob sliced up."When asked why, he answers with a demented grin, 'They're sweat-proof!"And, like their owner, a little rough around the edges. ("All the latches are rusted or broken from touring," he explains.) After rifling through its contents, he produces a pick that appears to have been hacked with a rusty pocket knife."Check the grooves," Darrell says, shoving the scarred plectrum in my direction. More surprising still is Darrell and his band' s sensitive acoustic reading of Black Sabbath's psychedelic chestnut, "Planet Caravan."In person Darrell is, in his own words, "a spazzer." Before our interview begins, he hyperactively bounces over to a battered guitar case that is held shut by three strips of heavy-duty duct tape. By cleverly manipulating bursts of dissonant white-hot feedback on several tracks, he has added yet another startlingly abrasive dimension to his already distinctive approach. In addition to his usual wicked rhythm and lead work, the guitarist has introduced a noisy, new industrial slant into his playing. When he heard 'Fucking Hostile ' on Vulgar Display Of Power, he absolutely freaked! He told me, "Son, people are going to think somethin' is wrong with the record and take it back."On Pantera's latest release, Far Beyond Driven, Darrell continues to ignore his bookish dad's advice. He owned a recording studio in our hometown of Pantego, and if something was a little too hot on tape or was distorted, he'd say, 'Don't do that Darrell -do it by the book.' My sound didn't develop until I started ignoring the recording manual."It's funny, because he still doesn't really understand what we do. Although he didn’t do it on purpose, he really held me back in the beginning. “My old man used to flip out whenever I would try to branch out and do something different.
And like Van Halen, the key to the Texan’s large talent is his healthy disregard for rules and regulations.“The worst advice I ever received from my dad was to play by the book,” explains Darrell. But his bone-rattling rhythm work, inventive soloing and distinctive razor-sharp “Darrell tone” is what has made him a legend among a whole generation of guitarists searching for a new Edward Van Halen. His trademark crimson goatee, custom guitar and colorful command of good ol’ boy slang has made him a hero among hard rock fans. By combing the rawest elements of thrash, Texas blues and hardcore, the band has created a new form of metal - one that is rhythmically aggressive, sophisticated in construction, and, yes, even hip.At the epicenter of Pantera’s musical mosh pit is the band’s larger-than-life guitarist, Dimebag Darrell. It kills me when I see some metal band trying to pass themselves off as an ‘alternative band.’ Well, dude, they can join the pack, but we’ll remain true to our roots while shit keeps twisting around us.”And twist it does.While the rest of the rock world continues to be preoccupied with the next big Lollapaloser, Pantera has been steadily reinventing and reinvigorating metal for the Nineties. “I know it’s not fashionable, but I’m proud to say that’s what we are and that’s what we do. It’s obvious that he has something urgent on his mind.“I grew up a heavy metal kid and we are a heavy metal band,” he growls in a rapid-fire Texas twang. Cradling it like a sawed-off shotgun, the self-proclaimed “cowboy from hell” begins to frown. His eyes narrow as he slowly picks up his metallic blue Dean guitar. Dimebag Darrell Abbott, Pantera’s high priest of six-string destruction, is feeling ornery.
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