Damageplan was an American heavy metal band from Dallas, Texas.
Damageplan was an American heavy metal band from Dallas, Texas, formed in 2003. Following the demise of their previous group Pantera, brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott wanted to start a new band.
Dimebag Darrell
This shoot to me was a memorial to Dimebag Darrell. I was gifted this guitar pick from the last show where DImebag was killed. I have friends all over the country who work as stagehands and roadies and one of my friends was there the day Dimebag was shot working as a stagehand. He was within feet of Dimebag when he was shot and the last guitar pic held by Dimebag feel his feet and he quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket.
Behind the Murder of ‘Dimebag’ Darrell
This story is from the December 30, 2004 issue of Rolling Stone.
A young fan obsessed with heavy metal shot and killed former Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and three other people during a show by Damageplan, Abbott’s latest band. The tragedy took place on the evening of December 8th at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio.
The shooter, Nathan Gale, 25, was killed by a Columbus police officer minutes after the violence erupted. A stocky former Marine, Gale was reportedly upset that Pantera had broken up – last year – and may have blamed Abbott for the band’s acrimonious split. The deaths came on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the murder of John Lennon.
The other victims were 23-year-old fan Nathan Bray, Damageplan crew member Jeff “Mayhem” Thompson, 40, and club employee Erin A. Halk, 29.
Abbott, 38, was known as an expressive guitarist who brought the fluid dynamics of Eddie Van Halen’s technique to Pantera’s much harder power-groove thrash. One of the Nineties’ most uncompromising metal acts, Pantera were also one of the most successful: During its 18-year career, the band sold more than 7 million records, according to SoundScan; 1994’s Far Beyond Driven entered the charts at Number One and sold 1.4 million copies.
