Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day Dimebag Darrell's life was cut tragically short.
While Dime may be gone, one thing he most certainly will never be is forgotten. Revolver recently caught up with Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford, who shared some memories of when he first met the guitar legend.
"Priest was in Canada rehearsing for the Painkiller tour. I was doing an interview from the hotel room and I turned the telly on to [Canadian music-video channel] Much Music. The sound was turned off, and I saw this guy and he’s got a British Steel T-shirt on. So I quickly finished the interview, and I turned the volume up and he’s just talking about his band, Pantera, and Cowboys From Hell. And just watching him and listening to him on the television, you just felt like, This is a great guy. Firstly, I saw a clip of the band. I was like, My God, this guitar player is fucking phenomenal, besides the rest of the band. And then just hearing him talk I thought, I really would like to meet this guy. So I called up Much Music and I said, 'Was that Darrell? Is he still there?' It wasn’t Dimebag in those days, it was Diamond Darrell. They said, 'Yeah, he still is' And he was like, 'Oh my God, I can’t believe it, I’m wearing a Priest shirt.' And I said, 'Yeah, I’ve just seen you on the Much Music.' He said, 'Oh man, I’d love to see you. We got a show tonight at the club in Toronto.' I’m pretty much sure that it was Pantera and Stryper. So I went down there, and we had a great time together, and we just talked about metal, this, that, and the other. I think jammed 'Metal Gods' with them. It’s a bit blurry, it should be more significant than this, but this is 1991. I was clean and sober then, but you know how things get jumbled up in your brain. So that was the start of that.
"And I told [Judas Priest guitarists] Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing specifically after that, 'I’ve seen this band. They’re absolutely fucking amazing and they are going to be huge. They are going to be huge!'"
Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.
