Eight years. Wow.

I had a great day building guitars today, and I have to think that some of it is because of this day; December 8th. The anniversary of the death of John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. To me, Dime's passing is second to the passing of Randy Rhoads - only because Dime had more of a musical legacy left behind than Randy. I wasn't a Pantera fan, but one day in 2003, while walking through the NAMM convention, I passed the Washburn booth. Dime was signing autographs at the time, and while I wasn't in line, he saw me and my Ace Frehley tattoo and said "Hey brother, c'mere!" We talked about Ace for a minute, and he showed me his Ace tattoo, and I had quite a smile that day as a result. I LOVE his cover of Ace's "Fractured Mirror" and his cover of Ozzy's "Believer" (with Sebastian on vocals - could you ASK for anything better?) is so great. Dime was equal parts wonderful guitar player and person. I grew to love Pantera because of my NAMM moment, but the other thing is that you can hear how much fun he was having when he played. When I hear his cover of Fractured Mirror and Believer, I hear the music, but I SEE him smiling and having the best time playing the music of his (and my) heroes. check it out for yourself. 

Believer:



Fractured Mirror: