Dimebag Darrell Abbott and his favorite comedian.
This is my favorite pic of Dime. Something about him holding the peace sign above his brother's head while he sleeps and toasts his sleeping. That is how I picture Dime.
These were taken the night after Thanksgiving, November 28, 2003. It was the end a night filled with my comedy show, drinking, bowling, partying and puking. I had not drank in over two years. I didn't have a drinking problem, I just became bored of drinking and stopped. This was my first return to drinking! It was to celebrate the life and TIME I got to spend with probably my BIGGEST fan, Dimebag Darrell.
In 2003, I could not have identified a Pantera song if it would have bit me in the ASS and I was in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since I was 9! This rockstar was right in my backyard and I wasn't even familiar with his work.
Apparently, he had seen my comedy show 5 times, and this time after my show, he asked if I wanted to go bowling with him and his crew from DamagePlan. I said, that sounded like a blast and told them I would meet them at the Bowling Alley 20 minutes away, after I got my paycheck. Ten minutes later, I was talking to the manager and there was a knock on the door. It's one of his security crew.
"Hey, uh, Dime was wondering if you were still gonna go bowling with us?"
"Yeah, I'm just wrapping up getting paid, I'll meet you there. I know which bowling alley it is, it's the one with the plane embedded in the building! I've lived here my whole life!"
He leaves... The manager and I resume talking and he's telling me these guys have headlined all over the world and how he can't believe I don't know who these guys are. We must have talked another 10 minutes and there was a knock at the door again. Same security guy.
"Hey, uh, Dime doesn't think you're gonna show up, so he sent me here to make sure you just came with us. That way you don't have to drive and we will make sure you get home okay."
So, I hopped in their Escalade, riding shotgun with a world renown Rockstar who made ME feel like I was the Rockstar! Dime rode behind his security guy, and Pat Lachman (who I later found out was the lead singer for their new band DamagePlan) rode behind me. I remember this, because while Pat was sitting behind me he said, "Hey, did you know there's a hole in your haircut!?" I LOST MY SHIT! That was one of THE funniest hands down lines I've ever heard for my type of "male pattern baldness"! And I USED THAT SHIT in my NEXT DVD, "That Ninja's Crazy!"
Here we are AFTER BOWLING at doing, whatever the hell guys who have had over 10 shots each do when they are trying to bond!
This was my FIRST night to hang with Rockstars! It was so surreal I remember thinking, "Rockstars bowl?". I remember at the bowling alley doing WAY WAY WAY too many shots for someone who had not had a meal that night! I remember Dime's brother, Vinnie Paul being way quiet, as he is around strangers, and buying PLENTY of shots for everyone! I remember some drunk asshole barging his way into the middle of them all at the bar, and their security surrounding him and grabbing him to take him outta the circle.
"Hey, hey hey, now," Vinnie said in a calm voice, "Give that boy a shot before we kick him to the curb."
He did a shot with us and then they politely escorted him back to his friends! THAT was ROCKSTAR!
Later, we ended up at Vinnie's house. The FIRST Rockstar's house I had EVER been to! I didn't have the focus from all the drinking to remember to take many pics besides drunk selfies! But here is Vinnie Paul's pool as seen thru the camera lens of a drunken comic.
It is in the shape of a Crown Royale bottle. The hot tub is the Cap of the bottle. I'm sure you google it, there are plenty of pics of his pool that a drunk guy took better than I did!
Here's the outside by the pool! And that's all the house pics I took between the 7 or so other shots at the bowling alley and Vinnie's house!
Don't worry, I have PLENTY of pics of his house to show you later in another blog, as I've decided to chronicle all my adventures with them, because there was a LOT!
While we were there, Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains just shows up! Yeah, like I said, I got PLENTY of pictures that I came across with plenty of stories to share! I DID know who he was! Well, I mean, I knew the band, I would NOT have been able to spot him in a lineup! He did not make it to the show ( and never did in the years I hung out with them). He seems like he'd be like me and have a hard time sitting still for shows.
It was also the FIRST night I met Rita Haney, Dimebag's girlfriend since Junior High School!
AAAAAAAND FINALLY.... The last thing I remember was puking in my yard and someone taking pictures of me while I puked.
Tonight, on the 13th year of the night that took away my biggest fan. I am blessed I was even able to spend the ONE year I did with my Ninja, Dimebag Darrell.
He was taken from this Earth on this night 13 years ago at a club in Columbus, Ohio. I remember I was in Sioux Falls, SD doing a gig a Nitwits when I heard the news. My whole night was spent watching the news for news of WHO the shooter had killed. When I found out it was Dime, I didn't know what to feel. I was SUPPOSED to hook up with him and the band in Washington D.C. two weeks prior, and take the tour bus back home with them. Our schedules did not match up, so it NEVER happened. He was THE FIRST person of ANY significance that I had ever lost on this Earth. Little did I know, two years later, both my parents would follow. RIP Dimebag.