Dimebag Darrell

Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Ennis, Texas, on August 20, 1966, the second son to Carolyn and Jerry Abbott, a country music producer. He had an older brother, Vincent Paul Abbott, born 1964. Abbott's parents divorced in 1979, after seventeen years of marriage, but his family life remained happy. The brothers lived with their mother Carolyn, in a ranch-style house on Monterrey Street in Arlington. Carolyn was supportive of her sons' musical endeavors. Their father Jerry remained in the area after the divorce and Darrell would often go on a bicycle to visit him for guitar lessons "pretty darned regular". Abbott took up the guitar when he was 12 years old. His first guitar was a Les Paul-style Hondo, which he received along with a Pignose amplifier on his twelfth birthday. Influenced by Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Kiss and Van Halen, he would initially spend time in his room standing in front of a mirror holding the guitar while wearing Ace Frehley-style makeup, though he was unable to play the instrument at the time. Jerry learned Kiss songs on guitar in order to teach Darrell how to play them. Darrell also learned from country musicians who recorded at Jerry's studio, such as Bugs Henderson. Vinnie had begun playing the drums before Darrell received his first guitar. …

Abbott grew up in the same neighborhood as his long-time partner Rita Haney, whom he first met at the age of eight. They began dating in 1984. The couple never married. Haney said in a 2006 interview: "We didn't believe in the marriage thing. ... Why have someone you don't know tell you it's OK to be with someone you do know? We didn't need the middleman! We had a one-on-one with the man upstairs ourselves." In 1995, Abbott bought a house with Haney in Dalworthington Gardens, Texas, a short distance from his hometown Arlington. Abbott kept a pet goat on the residence, and dyed its goatee like his own. He was remembered by his neighbors as approachable. One neighbor said he "was a hick with an attitude, and I say that respectfully. We'd talk conservative politics. He was a big, big supporter of George Bush." Darrell and Vinnie opened the Clubhouse, an all-nude strip club in north-west Dallas, in 1996. Vinnie's original idea was a rock-and-roll-themed golf course, with "a strip club at the nineteenth hole", but the construction of a golf course was prohibitively expensive. …

On December 8, 2004, Damageplan was performing at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. Nathan Gale, a deranged fan, rushed onto the stage as the band played the first song of its setlist and shot Abbott multiple times with a Beretta 92FS, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, killing him instantly. The band's head of security, Jeffrey "Mayhem" Thompson, then tackled Gale, but was fatally shot in the ensuing struggle. A fan, Nathan Bray, was also killed as he attempted to aid Abbott and Thompson, as was Erin Halk, an employee of the venue who tried to disarm Gale while he was reloading. Three others were wounded before Columbus police officer James Niggemeyer entered the club and shot Gale once in the head with a 12-gauge Remington Model 870, killing him. Abbott was pronounced dead at the scene, aged 38. Thousands of fans attended his public memorial, and the guest list included artists such as Eddie Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, Corey Taylor, Jerry Cantrell, and Dino Cazares. Abbott was buried alongside his mother Carolyn at the Moore Memorial Gardens cemetery in Arlington, Texas. Gene Simmons donated a Kiss Kasket for the burial, and Eddie Van Halen donated his original black-and-yellow-striped 1979 Charvel "Bumblebee" guitar, which was featured on the back cover of Van Halen II, to be included in the casket. …