Former Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, killed by a deranged fan on December 8th, was a Kiss-worshipping, beer-chugging virtuoso whose percussive riffing and bluesy, adventurous solos carried the flag for classic metal into the Nineties. "He was next in line after Eddie Van Halen," says Anthrax guitarist Scott fan. Adds Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, "He was one of the last great traditional metal guitarists."

Born in Dallas on August 20th, 1966, Abbott spent his teens playing Iron Maiden and Van Halen covers with his drummer brother, Vinnie Paul. The two formed Pantera as a glam-metal act in 1983, after their father, country songwriter Jerry Abbott, pushed them to make original music. But it wasn't until growly singer Phil Anselmo arrived that Pantera's definitive sound emerged: an uncompromising thrashier-than-thrash-metal assault.

The band reached its commercial peak on 1994's Far Beyond Driven, which debuted at Number One on the Billboard charts. The group released two more studio albums, scoring four Grammy nominations along the way. But with new-metal acts such as Limp Bizkit on the rise and Anselmo feuding with the Abbotts, Pantera split in 2003. That year, Dimebag and Vinnie rebounded with a new band, Damageplan, which modernized the Pantera sound.

Darrell Abbott had a personality as colorful as his dyed goatee — he communicated in a "dude" and "bro"-heavy patois that he called Dimebonics, even when writing his instructional column for Guitar World. "Dime would always make fun of everything," recalls friend and Black Label Society frontman Zakk Wylde. But Abbott was downright evangelical about the music he loved. "It's our fucking religion," he said in 2000. "It's what drives me from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep."

Additional Reporting by Lauren Gitlin

[From Issue 964-65 — December 30, 2004-January 13, 2005]