Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal

by Jon Wiederhorn

  RITA HANEY: He really, really wanted to cancel those last four shows and come home. They were coming off of the Slayer run in Canada and he was like, “Man, do we really have to play these shows on the way down? Can’t we just keep going and get in the studio?” He was so fired up on the new stuff.

  VINNIE PAUL: We got to the gig the next day in Ohio and Dime gets up and goes, “Man, we gotta go and do a sound check. I was having a problem with my rig last night.” We only had two shows left in the tour, but that’s how much he cared about his shit. We had played the club back in the early Pantera days. Dime went around and found the club owner and said, “Thanks for having us back. We’re glad to be here.” There was this band playing in front of us that was doing Parliament songs heavy metal style, and they were all dressed up like G.I. Joes, and we were catching such a nut on them. We were back there doing shots and peeking out and cracking up. We were all in a good mood, and we had a full house. I went up on the deck and right before we went on, Dime was warming up his hand and putting his lip gloss on. The last thing I ever said to him was “Van Halen?” He gives me a high five and says, “Van fuckin’ Halen.” That was our code for letting it all hang out and having a good time. That’s the last thing he ever said to me, man. A minute, forty-five seconds later he was gone. It’s insane. . . . Insane.

  RITA HANEY: I can’t help but think things about Phil—like Darrell wouldn’t have even been playing this shit hole if you hadn’t done what you did before the demise [of Pantera] or put him where he was. All kinds of things run through your head. I even think stuff like, if I hadn’t gone home, I would have been in the front videotaping right in front of him. Would I have seen this guy coming? Could I have jumped on him and stopped him? I’ve had time to think about it to where there’s only one person to blame for what happened, and that’s the person who did it. I do have resentment toward [Philip] for hurting Darrell. But if I blamed Philip for Darrell being in that shit hole I could easily turn around and say, “Vinnie, why didn’t you cancel the show like he asked?” It just doesn’t get you anywhere.

  VINNIE PAUL: There’s no doubt the guy who did this was out of his fuckin’ mind. He’s somebody that should have been incarcerated. When you’ve got somebody with obvious mental problems, it’s not a great idea for him [to own] a gun that’s used for killing people in the military. And obviously, he knew how to use it. He wasn’t just some ragtime dude who grabbed a gun. I saw what happened, and I knew exactly that the dude was on a mission, man, for whatever reason.

  Some of the lingering animosities between Vinnie Paul Abbott and Phil Anselmo stem from an antagonistic interview Anselmo did with the UK magazine Metal Hammer, which came out shortly before Dime was killed.

  PHIL ANSELMO [2004 interview]: There was never a point when [Dime] could not get drunk, which was pretty much every day. Now I’m hearing it’s worse than ever. He would attack me, vocally. And just knowing that he was so much smaller than me I could kill him like a fuckin’ piece of vapor, you know, he would turn into vapor—his chin would, at least, if I fuckin’ smacked it. And he knows that. The world should know that. So physically, of course, he deserves to be beaten severely. . . . But of course, that’s criminal and I won’t do such a thing. . . . Really, I just let him prattle on. I grew very tired of it very quickly, and in all honesty I really wish that [the Abbotts] would be men, which is very hard for them, figuring that they were living in their mother’s house until they’re thirty years old. In comparison, I was on the street by choice at the age of fifteen, living anywhere I could.

  VINNIE PAUL: He said it word for fucking word. He was not coerced into saying it by the interviewer. And the kind of shit he said in there is the kind of shit that might incite [Nathan Gale] to do the kind of things he did. Phil called me when he was trying to get into the funeral and left me a message that said, “I can prove to you I didn’t do that interview.” I got the fucking audiotapes, man. Anyone that wants to hear them, I’ll be happy to play them for you. Him sitting there and talking in a calm voice, saying the shit that he said. So he ought to feel really fuckin’ guilty, any way you slice it.

  PHIL ANSELMO: The press did wind us up. We were both guilty of taking the bait. Very guilty. There was the unfortunate article, there was Dimebag’s death, and, in my view, if there’s anyone that does not know any of us, nor was in the fucking band, if they’re going to take a stand, I say “Who are you, motherfucker? You don’t know me. Therefore you do not affect me.” That’s how I see it. I am not bothered by it. I’ve moved on. I’ve found my peace. Do I understand it all? Fuck no. Will I? Fuck no. I’m sure I won’t. Who can fully understand the acts of a maniac who murdered someone close to you? You can’t understand that. You accept it. It’s a done deal. Do you wear it on your heart? Yeah, probably forever.

  Anselmo, who says he quit heroin in 2002, was lying in bed in New Orleans when he heard that Dimebag had been shot and killed. Devastated that Vinnie Paul and Rita Haney did not want him at the funeral, he made a raw, emotional video speech to his fans, during which he struggled to hold back tears.

  PHIL ANSELMO [from Internet video]: This isn’t about me or some motherfucking psycho that happened to destroy the most beautiful fucking person, one of my best friends in the world. It was the heavy metal goddamn media that destroyed Pantera. This is about Darrell, my brother of seventeen years, whose music changed people’s lives, man. We weren’t just some band. He was not just some guitar player. I wanna say bless his family and all his close friends and I never got a chance to say goodbye in the right way and it kills me. And I’m so sorry. I wish to God I could have gone to his funeral, but I have to respect his family’s wishes. And they do not want me there. I believe I belong there. But I understand completely. I’m so sorry to his band members. I’m so sorry to the whole fuckin’ world that loved Dimebag Darrell because let me tell you something. There was not one motherfucker like him. Vinnie Paul, my other brother. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.

  VINNIE PAUL: Phil likes to blame the heavy metal media for breaking up Pantera. I’ve never felt betrayed by the media in any interview I’ve done. They’ve printed what I’ve said word for word, verbatim, and I never felt like they were out to get me. He did his interviews, he said what he said, and all they did is write what he said. If he really wants to place any blame, he needs to look in a mirror.

  RITA HANEY: When I saw Phil at the Download [Festival in London years after Dime’s murder], I looked in his eyes and I asked him, “Why?” It was the first and only time that he didn’t make an excuse. He looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t have an excuse. I’m a junkie. I was an idiot.” He didn’t say, “Oh, my back hurts [so I took drugs that made me say stupid shit]” or anything else.

  PHIL ANSELMO: What made me finally quit drugs was a good friend of mine overdosing right in front of my eyes. Right next to me. Time stopped. We were in a speeding truck in the middle of fucking nowhere, heading to nowhere. There was no motherfucking hospital. Just a dude next to me who I’ve known for fifteen years whose heart had stopped. I fucking freaked. I pulled this dude’s beard, slapped his fucking face, grabbed ice from the ice chest and put it down his pants, punched him in the balls. Nothing. I said, “No way! No fucking way!” and I reared back and I punched this motherfucker in the chest as hard as I could and his eyes opened. His pupils were like the actor Marty Feldman’s, completely fish-eyed apart. I punched him again in his chest and his eyes came together and he was back. Shortly after, I met Kate [Richardson], my lady, and that’s another hard one to explain, because the first time I met her I fell in love with her. It fucking got me. The rules were laid. “You want me as a partner, no drugs allowed. I’m not gonna share you with that fucking church of hypodermic.” So I made that choice.

  VINNIE PAUL: My life has been one gigantic comic book, and on the other hand it’s been one gigantic book of laurels and amazing accomplishments, and on the other hand it’s been a book full of horror stories. It’s a big book.

 
PHOTO SECTION

  Ozzy Osbourne performs with Black Sabbath in Detroit, 1972. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Iggy Pop on a “Search and Destroy” mission in 1973. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Rob Zombie demonstrates his firm grasp on the music of Alice Cooper. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  MC5 kicks out the jams. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Jimmy Page bowing with the mighty Zeppelin. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Alice Cooper makeup: the eyes have it. Photograph by Kyler Clark.

  KISS’s Gene Simmons shows off his licks. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Klassic KISS. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Judas Priest performs 1980’s British Steel in its entirety on a thirtieth-anniversary reunion tour at Jones Beach, New York. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Judas Priest, hell-bent for leather. Photograph courtesy of Jayne Andrews.

  Neither Priest’s then-closeted Rob Halford nor ex-Penthouse Pet Cheryl Rixon was aroused during the taking of this photo. Photograph by Steve Joester.

  British nineties stoner metal pioneers Cathedral get lit. Photograph courtesy of Nuclear Blast.

  Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson takes a leap of faith. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Raven lunatics prepare to rock until they drop. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Ozzy, locked and loaded. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Guitar legend Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Black Sabbath (left to right): Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi. Photograph courtesy of Rhino Records.

  Birmingham brothers Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Halford chat it up at Revolver magazine’s Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Maiden’s Steve Harris shines under the lights. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  WASP’s Blackie Lawless sings like a beast. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  The late Ronnie James Dio, “devil horns” pioneer, strikes a metal pose. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Saxon warrior Biff Byford stresses the importance of bandanas in metal. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Axl Rose, big hair, buttless chaps. Photograph by Janiss Garza.

  The eternal schoolboy shreds: AC/DC’s Angus Young. Photograph by Bill O’Leary.

  Rockin’ with Dokken. Photograph courtesy of Rhino Records.

  Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars: the young and the restless. Photograph by Michele Matz.

  The late guitar great Randy Rhoads. Photograph by Ron Sobol.

  Eddie Van Halen gets ready to erupt. Photograph by Bill O’Leary.

  Hanoi Rocks front man Michael Monroe gets his wings. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Hollywood hell-raisers Mötley Crüe. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  L.A. Guns’ wild bunch—sleazy come, sleazy go. Photograph by Nick Charles.

  Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider: pretty in pink. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Lovely Lita Ford gets maximum exposure. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Late Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby lays it down. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy demonstrates his admiration for Jackson Pollock. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Late Quiet Riot front man Kevin DuBrow and guitarist Carlos Cavazo before metal health drove them mad. Photograph by Robert Matheu.

  Poison’s Bret Michaels: look what the cat dragged in. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  The late Dick Clark with Guns N’ Roses front man Axl Rose at the American Music Awards. Photograph by Nick Charles.

  Slash, Sebastian Bach, and John Conley from Scar Culture at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in L.A. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Legendary Danish face painter and black metal progenitor King Diamond is bad to the bone. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Conrad “Cronos” Lant spews Venom. Photograph by Ray VanHorn.

  Brazilian thrash hero Max Cavalera (Sepultura/ Soulfly) frets and screams. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Anthrax’s Scott Ian poses with late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton at London’s Marquee Club in 1984. Photography courtesy of Scott Ian.

  Overkill’s Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth conjures the magic. Photography by Bill O’Leary.

  Slayer assembles the war ensemble. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Megaforce Records founder Jonny Z at Rock n Roll Heaven record signing with Raven. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Lemmy entertain you. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Early Megadeth lineup: Chris Poland, Dave Mustaine, Gar Samuelson, Dave Ellefson. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Anthrax guitarist Scott “Not” Ian before beard and baldness. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Jonny Z welcomes Alcoholica into the Megaforce family. Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Early Megadeth and Slayer: best buds? Photograph by Kevin Hodapp.

  Former and current Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna. Photograph by Nick Charles.

  Blond bombshell sacrificed at the altar by future husband Jeff Hanneman and bandmates, circa 1983. Photograph courtesy of Metal Blade.

  Dream bill for hell-bound metalheads! Courtesy of Todd Nakamine.

  Testament vocalist Chuck Billy bares his bling. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Chuck Billy wants YOU for Testament Army! Photograph courtesy of Nuclear Blast.

  James Alan Hetfield: some kind of monster? Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Metallica founders James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich slay on the Death Magnetic tour. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  New York hardcore pioneers Agnostic Front. Photograph by Todd Huber.

  Thrash and crossover collide in downtown Los Angeles in 1985. Courtesy of Todd Nakamine.

  After leaving Anthrax, bassist Dan Lilker broke new ground with Nuclear Assault. Photograph by Bill O’Leary.

  Type O Negative’s Peter Steele: gothic in green. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Suicidal Tendencies’ Cyco Miko Muir. Photograph by Jeremy Saffer.

  Pantera front man Phil Anselmo shows how high Pantera can get with the #1 Billboard Album Chart debut of Far Beyond Driven. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Rhythm guitarist Mike Clark displays his suicidal tendencies. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  DRI’s Kurt Brecht: original imbecile. Photograph by Bill O’Leary.

  Biohazard bassist/singer Evan Seinfeld lays down the urban discipline. Photography by Bill O’Leary.

  Longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist and Black Label Society front man Zakk Wylde hits the Bullseye. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell dressed to impress on the 1994 Type O Negative tour. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  After Dimebag Darrell’s murder, his brother Vinnie Paul resurfaced in the new band Hellyeah. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Dimebag Darrell: struck by lightning. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Dimebag Darrell’s last run with Damageplan. Photograph by Jeremy Saffer.

  Pantera’s Phil Anselmo strikes his Jesus Christ pose at the 2001 Ozzfest. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  The “Metal God” screams for vengeance. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Slayer guitarist Kerry King fiddles while Rome burns. Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

  Burton C. Bell bares his soul during Fear Factory’s heyday. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor smells the glove. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

  Prong’s Tommy Victor begs to differ. Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.