I saw a new article on the Classic Rock site regarding Eddie and Vinnie Paul.. I thought I would expand on it.
Van Halen played Dallas on 9/25/04.. Vinnie says they met the night before the Dallas, but records show that Van Halen played Arkansas on the 24th. Van Halen played Lubbock on the 29th. After the gig in Dallas, Van Halen had a few days off before they played San Antonio. I am thinking the meeting would of had to of taken place after the Dallas show?? Anyway. Mike Anthony says they did shots in Wichita (November 6th), Vinnie says they met in Lubbock... Must have been one hell of a tour? Noisecreep quotes Vinnie as saying, "Pantera had a show in Boston." from what I know, Pantera disbanded in 2003. Anyway, enjoy the articles.
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SEPTEMBER 2004
SEPTEMBER 2004
VINNIE PAUL MEETS VAN HALEN
NOISECREEP – 2012 –
The parallels between Pantera and Van Halen are hard to miss. Both bands were founded by a set of brothers, each playing either drums or guitars (Vinnie and the late Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott in Pantera, Alex and Eddie Van Halen in Van Halen), and both families had a musician father supporting their efforts along the way.
“We actually got to meet Van Halen right before the horrible events that lead to my brother’s death.” Darrell was shot and killed while on stage during a Damageplan performance on Dec. 8, 2004, at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. He was 38-years-old.
Paul tells Noisecreep the fateful night he first met Eddie Van Halen: “So one night my manager calls me and tells me that Eddie is at The Clubhouse [Paul's strip club in Dallas, Texas] and that he wants to meet me. I couldn’t believe it, man! So I dropped what I was doing and went straight to the club.
“I meet Eddie and we start talking about music right away. After about 5 minutes into the conversation, he says to me, “Man, I feel like I’ve known you for a lifetime. We have so much in common!” I couldn’t believe it. Later that night, I put Eddie on the phone with my brother and they spoke for over 90 minutes.
“Van Halen were playing a show in Dallas the next day, but Pantera had a show in Boston already booked, so we couldn’t make it. Anyway, we got back from doing that and Eddie calls and tells me that they’re playing a show in Lubbock and if we wanted to come and fly out to the city, he would send a limo to the airport to pick us up. So we do it and get to see Van Halen do a sound check from the stage. Me and my brother were like kids in a candy store. I remember being on the plane, on the way back home from the Van Halen show, and my brother saying to me, “Man, if this plane crashed, and I died tonight, I would be OK with it because we got to meet Van Halen,”" laughs Paul.
During Pantera’s early years, the Abbott brothers cut their teeth playing Van Halen covers. “We also played songs from Metallica, Def Leppard, Slayer, Motörhead, Exodus – you name it. I think that’s one of the reasons Pantera got so good.”
One of the Van Halen songs Paul used to play along with was 1984′s ‘Hot for Teacher.’ The track famously starts off with a wild drum intro that sounds like the roar of a motorcycle engine. “Yeah, I played it, like every other drummer did who was around back then. But we all played it wrong [laughs]. You actually need an electronic drum kit to do it the right way. The intro part has a little jazz roll in it that has a really cool feel. But I remember playing that song in Pantera’s club days and it was always so much fun.”
Paul hopes that HELLYEAH and Van Halen can launch a tour together in the near future: “We were supposed to play with them last fall, down in Australia, but the tour got cancelled because they weren’t quite ready yet. But we’re always ready for them if they’ll have us. If Eddie, Alex, Dave or Wolfie are reading this right now – “HELLYEAH is ready!”
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2015 Classic Rock
Like Van Halen, Pantera had a core comprised of brothers who played guitar and drums. In a recent Q&A, the drummer, Vinnie Paul, recalled the time he and his brother Dimebag Darrell met Eddie Van Halen.
After talking about how Van Halen inspired the two of them, Paul said that the meeting happened around 2004 at the Clubhouse, a strip club in Dallas that he owns. Pantera had broken up and the brothers had started Damageplan.
“He was in town and I was off doing something and my brother was in Phoenix,” he said in the video above. “And my manager from the Clubhouse calls me and says, ‘Hey, man, Eddie Van Halen is in the club and he wants to see you.’ And I was, like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me! He’s in there?’ [And he says] ‘Yeah.’ I hauled ass over, walked into the club, and he’s sitting there at the table by himself waiting on me. I came in, and we gave each other a big hug [...] We’d been talking maybe 10 minutes, and he goes, ‘You know, man?! It’s crazy. We’ve only been talking, like, 10 minutes, but it’s unbelievable how much we’ve got in common — you and your brother, and me and Al[ex Van Halen].’ And it was an amazing thing that happened.”
Van Halen had such a good time with Paul that he made sure they got together again when their schedules found them in the same city shortly thereafter, and this time Darrell got to meet him. “And then we had to fly out and play this thing called Locobazooka in Boston, and they had some shows, and [Eddie] wanted us to come and see him. And Eddie sent a limo to pick us up, which was very cool. And we came in, and he brought us right up on stage and hung out at soundcheck and everything. And the show was amazing. And I’ll never forget. We got on the plane, and when we were flying back to Dallas, my brother looked at me, and he goes, ‘Man, you know what? If this plane was to go down in a crash right now, I’d be okay with it. I finally got to meet the dude that made me wanna play guitar.’ It was really special.”
Unfortunately, Darrell never got another opportunity to hang out with Van Halen. Roughly 10 weeks later, he was murdered onstage in Columbus, Ohio. Van Halen sent the guitar he was playing on the back cover of Van Halen II to be buried with Darrell.
Read More: Vinnie Paul Remembers Meeting Eddie Van Halen | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/vinni...ckback=tsmclip
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DECEMBER 2004
ED SAYS GOODBYE TO DIMEBAG
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"Several thousand fans and friends gathered at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas, Tuesday night to mourn Damageplan/ Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.
The inside of the cavernous convention center was filled with flowers and oversized magazine covers featuring Abbott, according to The Dallas Morning News. Among the musicians on hand to pay tribute were guitarists Zakk Wylde and Eddie Van Halen.
According to Rex Brown, Ed was not on top of his game.
Discussion question no. 3: Is it really possible that Eddie Van Halen could’ve behaved so poorly at Dimebag Darrell’s funeral? (I have never read Sammy Hagar’s Red.)
You haven’t read the Hagar book? You need to end this book club meeting and purchase a copy of Red stat. You won’t find a better instance of reportage/character assassination concerning EVH’s vampiric “wilderness” years in the ’00s. Official Truth, 101 Proof is a mere hors d’oeuvre, containing a short vignette from Abbott’s funeral where Eddie exhibits an “Eruption” of inappropriate, drugged-out behavior:
There were a huge number of Dime’s musician friends there, and Eddie Van Halen and Zakk Wylde were asked to give speeches. I was sitting in the second row behind Eddie, who was just totally out of line, really disrespectful actually. I told Eddie on numerous occasions to shut the fuck up but there was no point. Zakk was always one of Dime’s best friends, as well as being, like Dime, a great guitar player, but on this occasion he was in the bizarre situation of having to keep Eddie Van Halen — who was coked out of his head and acting like a complete idiot — in line.
“Fuckin’ shut up,” Zakk told Eddie after he had rambled on for a while, while he was giving his eulogy — something about his ex-wife if I remember it right — but that didn’t stop him, he just kept going. It was really disrespectful.
Having to bury his partner in crime was tough enough, but Wylde also had to contend with the bizarre behavior of one of his guitar heroes, Eddie Van Halen, at Dimebag's funeral and memorial service. "I don't know what the hell happened to Ed," he lamented. "He hasn't just gone off the deep end — he's living in Atlantis! I couldn't get in a word without being interrupted by him. If I mentioned God, he'd say, 'There is no God or Jesus, only yes or no.' It was like he thought the whole thing was about him. He wasn't thinking about Dime, or even Vinnie and Dime's old lady, Rita, for that matter. He did put his original black-and-yellow guitar in the coffin with Dime, though. That was cool."
"I'm here for the same reason as everyone else, to give some love back," said Van Halen, who, along with Wylde, reportedly downed shots of booze as he spoke.
"This guy was full of life. He lived and breathed rock and roll." Van Halen held his cell phone up to the microphone and played a profanity-laced message left by an excited Abbott after a concert he played with Van Halen.
"I just wanted to give you a ... call to tell you thank you so ... much, man, for the most awesome, uplifting, euphoric, spiritual rock and roll extravaganza ever," Abbott said in the message to Van Halen, according to reports.
"A whole part of my life is gone," said Wylde, described as red-eyed and visibly upset.
Former Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell was among the performers at the event, which also featured tributes from Abbott's ex-Pantera bandmate Rex Brown and the guitarist's brother, Damageplan/ Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul.
Paul took the stage, patted a cardboard cut-out of his brother holding a guitar and encouraged the fans to yell "Dimebag!," according to an Associated Press report. He told the crowd that Abbott gave it his all during every show and "went down" doing what he loved.
A private funeral for Abbott — who was among four people shot and killed during a Damageplan concert at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8 (see "Dimebag Darrell, Four Others Killed In Ohio Concert Shooting") — was held earlier in the day; Cantrell also reportedly performed at the funeral. Much as they did at a vigil outside Alrosa Villa, fans gathered in the parking lot of the convention center before the memorial to drink beer and crank out Pantera and Damageplan tunes, according to the Morning News report.
"Let us remember his happiness," Nick Bowcott, former guitarist with the metal band Grim Reaper, told the crowd. "He never lost sight of where he came from. He started as a fan, and he was always a fan." The ceremony also featured screenings of music videos and home movies.
Former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo — who publicly feuded with Abbott for the past few years and is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Metal Hammer saying that Darrell should be "severely beaten" in an interview conducted before the guitarist's murder — was apparently barred from the service, though he expressed his condolences in a statement (see "Dimebag's Former Bandmate Phil Anselmo Says He's Devastated, Plans To Disappear"). Other attendees included former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez, ex-Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares and Slipknot members Jim Root, Corey Taylor and Paul Gray."
There is a rumor currently circulating the Net that Edward offered "the guitar he was holding on the cover of Van Halen II" at the memorial service with the words "It's yours now, Darrell." In apparent reply to Darrell's lifelong wish to hold that treasure. The Van Halen News Desk has not been able to confirm or deny this or the assertion that Darrell was then buried with it, or even to clarify precisely which guitar this might have been as there is no guitar pictured on the front cover of VHII. We will post further details as they become available.
Darrell’s life partner, Rita Haney, spoke with Billboard today about Edward’s gift to her longtime companion:
What was the story of Eddie Van Halen bringing the guitar to Dimebag’s funeral?
I remember talking with Vinnie, trying to decide what guitar to bury him with. Three hours later, Eddie called to see if he could do anything for us and for Dime. We’d met him just a few weeks earlier for the first time, and Dime was ready to cut him a $30,000 check that night for one of his striped guitars, but Eddie told him he’d do one special for him. So I asked him if he’d stripe up a guitar for Darrell. He said, “One of the red, white and black ones?” And I said, “No — Darrell always said that the yellow and black was your toughest guitar!”
When he came for the funeral, he brought his original yellow and black from 1979. He said, “An original should have an original.”
We were walking down the hallway of the funeral parlor, me, Eddie and John “Bushman,” who had been out with Damageplan as a tech — he’s the one who dragged Vinnie off the drum stand and threw himself on top of him to protect him. We got to the room where Dime was, and you could see [Abbott's] feet through the doorway. Eddie said, “I can’t go in there, I can’t see him like that — I want to remember him like he was that night I met him.” I said, “That’s okay, Eddie — we’ll take it to him,” so John and I went in and placed it with him.
In an interview with Metal Monthly, Rita explained further: “We had just seen Van Halen in Midland, Texas, a few weeks earlier, and that was the first time Dime ever got to meet Eddie. They hung out before and after the show. Dime even got to play Eddie’s rig at soundcheck. He was like a kid in a candy store — the way his eyes were lit up. He told me later in the limo — which Van Halen provided — ‘How cool is that? Anyway, he leaned over and looked me right in the eyes and said, “If I died tonight, it wouldn’t matter, ’cause I’ve done everything now, I’ve met Eddie Van Halen!” and he had the biggest smile on his face… he was so happy!
“When Ed came in at the viewing, he had the guitar, but it wasn’t the guitar we expected… he told Vinnie and I that “Dime was an original and only an original deserves the original!” He popped open the case and there it was… his original ’79 still with the rusted set of strings on it! It was so amazing!!! I took it in to Dime and I said, “See, baby, you didn’t get a replica! You got THE one,” and I gave him a kiss on the forehead and place it in there with him… Ed was awesome and I thank him still!”
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Dimebag’s last words
Van Halen’s impact is further felt as the words “Van Halen!” were actually Dimebag’s last words spoken before he was tragically murdered. “Van Halen” was something Dime would say to his brother Vinnie before a live performance to inspire them both to play a fun, lively, rocking show.
Metal Monthly: Many people do not know that Eddie Van Halen buried one of his guitars with Darrell. This is true, right? And like 20 bottles of Crown Royal?
Rita: [Laughs] There’s a few bottles of 7 up in there too! My boy loooves Seagram’s! But yeah, Vinnie and I were trying to figure out which guitar, and about that time Ed called… he asked me on the phone if there was anything he could do, and I said, “Yes, as a matter of fact there is… Can you stripe him a yellow-and-black guitar?” He said, “Are you sure you don’t want the red-black-and-white?” I said, “No… Dime told me the yellow-and-black is the shit! It’s the toughest lookin’!” He always thought that. We had just seen Van Halen in Midland, TX a few weeks earlier and that was the first time Dime ever got to meet Eddie Van Halen. They hung out before and after the show. Dime even got to play on his rig at soundcheck. He was like a kid in a candy store… the way his eyes were lit up. He told me later in the limo — which Van Halen provided — “How cool is that?” Anyway he leaned over and looked me right in the eyes and said, “If I died tonight, it wouldn’t matter, ’cause I’ve done everything now, I’ve met Eddie Van Halen!” and he had the biggest smile on his face… he was so happy! But, shit, I strayed! I’m the world’s worst about telling 10 stories at once! [Laughs] Back to Ed… He said, “OK,” that he would be down in a couple of days. When Ed came in at the viewing, he had the guitar, but it wasn’t the guitar we expected… he told Vinnie and I that “Dime was an original and only an original deserves the original!” He popped open the case and there it was… his original ’79 still with the rusted set of strings on it! It was so amazing!!! I took it in to Dime and I said, “See, baby, you didn’t get a replica! You got THE one,” and I gave him a kiss on the forehead and place it in there with him… Ed was awesome and I thank him still!
That is pretty fucking rad. Though many people seem to forget to pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen, it’s good to know what he meant to Dimebag and that the feeling was reciprocated.
-VN
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Michael Anthony’s statement:
Van Halen ex-bassist Michael Anthony posted the following message on his website upon hearing the sad news:
“We were very saddened and angered to hear of the shooting that took place in Columbus, OH last week that took the life of a friend and fellow musician, Dimebag Darrell Abbott.
“It was only a few weeks ago that Dime and Vinnie Paul joined us backstage to do some Jack shots while we were in Wichita on the last leg of the Van Halen summer tour.
“It flat-out sucks that something like this could happen to someone who just wanted to get up on stage and play guitar.
“Our sincerest condolences to Dime’s wife Rita, his brother Vinnie and all of the Abbott family. Darrell will be missed.”
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