Very first song I ever heard was Mouth For War on cassette in my '87 Ranger 4x4 with the crappy stock tape player, (I had it up as loud as it would go, and my cheap ass factory speakers were just rattling from all of Dime's bass in his eq, and Vinnie's cutting/punchy kick drum), and it's easily still in my top 5 all time Pantera favorites. I bought VDOP the day it came out after seeing the tab for CFH in GPFTPM, and thought the opening riff was really interesting from a visual standpoint. To me it looked like a mix of metal, blues, and country. I played it as close as what I thought it should sound like, and that's what I ended up thinking about it. I also thought WOW I can't play the main rhythm part cleanly where the intro drops down an octave to the first position, so this dude must be really good! The interview and pics of Dime were interesting as well, but I couldn't find a copy of CFH anywhere, so I watched for the release date of VDOP. Anywho, as soon as I heard MFW, I drove 40 miles to PDX while listening to the thing, and searched everywhere until I found CFH. I loved it as well, but it was almost like hearing the band from VDOP mixed with a slightly more 80's style metal band. I am a big Halford/Priest fan though, so it was all good in my book. When By Demons Be Driven came on, (pretty sure it's the last track on VDOP yes?), I was like OMFG! Don't hold nothing back dude! Most metal up to that point that I was exposed to eluded to the darker side of music, partying, PTSD/childhood/anger crap, but that song came right out and said it! Dimebag's playing really changed the way I looked at the instrument we all love, share, and talk about. Not to offend anyone, but I suddenly was like, Vai/EVH/Satriani who??? THEY ARE SO GHEY!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! Most dudes I know around here that are Gen-X peeps like me moved on to either country or classic rock/blues crap when the whole 90's/Seattle/Pantera thing happened, but not me. Dimebag's playing/Pantera's music/etc., made me start looking for music that was heavier than anything I had other heard, yet they still were groovy and catchy enough that the new stuff had to have that as well. I searched long and hard, and while I had some good finds like Prong/Cleansing, Machine Head/Burn My Eyes, White Zombie/La Sexorcista Devil Music Volume 1, Ministry, etc...... none of them were Pantera, and none of the guitarists could write and play like Dime.
In conclusion, even though hearing Neal Schon play Don't Stop Believing, (first solo I ever learned, and the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place), in the 8th grade, listening to The Eagles Live album over and over again in the 6th grade, and having my Dad introduce me to The Mama's and The Papa's Greatest Hits before that........ Dime's playing is what made me say, "screw sucky bar cover tunes!" I decided from that point on that I would only play music that I wanted to play, and started doing my best to write some heavy original music. In fact, since I thought I could never solo like someone like Dimebag, I totally quit doing scales, and soloing exercises. I instead would sit for hours in front of the TV with a guitar, not plugged in, and do rhythmic/riffy picking exercises, and I would go out of my way to try and not play in key. I instead started looking at the entire guitar chromatically, but made sure that I would hit the root note of the basic key of the song enough to keep that pedal note thing intact.
I may not be a great guitar player, or even a good one by technical standards. My song writing may be average and even sucky to some peeps, but because of the influence, I try to be a better, meaner, more passionate, and creative player even as I get older. I'm self taught, so I don't really know much about music theory etc., but in the end, I almost prefer it that way.
I assume he does it because he has a lot of guilt around all the trash talking he did about Dime during the 11th hour, and prolly doesn't know how else to deal with it, but I still see it as being on the selfish side.
Maybe we can do a Phil appreciation thread on his b-day or something instead?
