DIMEBAG's Girlfriend Clarifies PANTERA 'Behind The Music' Comment

January 31, 2008

Guitar World magazine conducted an interview with late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's girlfriend of 20 years, Rita Haney, for its March 2008 issue, which contains a special section dedicated to Dimebag, the magazine's 2008 Hall Of Fame winner. Another excerpt from the chat follows:

Guitar World: In the VH1 "Behind the Music" episode about PANTERA, you said that you told Phil [Anselmo, former PANTERA and current DOWN singer] you would blow his face off if he showed up at Darrell's [late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott] memorial or funeral.

Haney: "One thing that really bothers me is how they edited my interview for that show. They only used that one part from what I said our phone conversation was, and they took out important parts that explained what I meant. They left out the part where I mentioned how Rex [Brown, former PANTERA and current DOWN bassist] told me that they had to throw ice water on Phil just to sober him up enough to tell him that Darrell was dead. I thought it would be disrespectful for Phil to show up here in that shape on that drug. I got on the phone with Phil and asked him why he never bothered to call back all those times Darrell tried to reach him. He said, 'I'm so devastated.' I said, 'You're devastated? Your words murdered my boyfriend!' He said, 'You and I don't see eye to eye,' and I said, 'You're damn right we don't!' Then he said, 'Well, right things happen to right people.' I asked him to repeat that because I couldn't believe what I just heard and he did. It just blew me away that even then, at that moment, he would still try to throw something out there to take away his responsibility for his actions. That's when I told him that if he showed up I would blow his face off myself.

"The bottom line is Phil's actions led to what happened. If Phil hadn't quit PANTERA, Darrell wouldn't have been playing in that shithole where that guy could get to him. The guy wouldn't have been after Vinnie [Paul, Darrell's brother and former PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN drummer] and Darrell if PANTERA had not broken up. It was all due to Phil's stupid, stupid actions."

To read the complete interview, pick up the March 2008 issue of Guitar World, on sale now.

For more information, visit www.guitarworld.com

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