VINNIE PAUL: 'I'll Do Everything I Can To Ensure That DIME's Legacy Lives On'

MTV News reports: December 8 marks the one-year anniversary of one of the most grim and bizarre tragedies in music history — the onstage shooting death of PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. In the past year, friends and fans have talked at length about Dime's influence and spirit, but the man who knew him best — his brother and bandmate Vinnie Paul — has been largely silent. Recently, however, Vinnie sat down with MTV News' Robert Mancini for his first on-camera interview since losing his brother. He recalled a different side of a true metal giant, and helped to remember the talent and the kindness that was Dime as fans mark the anniversary of his death. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

MTV: A lot of folks, the first image that they get of Dimebag is of this really open and good-natured guy who's always up for a party, but he really took music seriously too and was very much a student of his craft, right?

Paul: He was a perfectionist. I know because I was in the studio with him every record we made, I co-produced all the records with Terry Date. He was like, "Man, I've done a thousand bands and I've never seen anybody like your brother sit there and want to get the guitar as hot as it gets, take 20 leads and decide, 'You know what? All those suck. Let's start over and go again.' " He just was a perfectionist, and he was never afraid to experiment. That's something that always blew my mind. You know a lot of people learn certain places on the neck or certain things, and he was really great at accepting other people's ideas. He never said, "Naw, this is my way. This is the way I'm gonna do it." He'd say, "Aw, OK, let me try it, let me see if I could do it the way you're talking about." And a lot of magic came from that, you know, because he just was never afraid to try other things. He was never afraid of people making fun of him, and he wasn't afraid to fail. He would go for it, and if it didn't work, he was the first person that knew.

MTV: That's what you hear so much about him — you hear a lot about that spirit and that energy. And it's so evident in the scope of the reaction to his death and the number of people who say he impacted them.

Paul: It was heartwarming to see all the people that really respected everything he did, all the people that he touched, in particular the bands that toured with us. So many of them learned to have a good time on the road from him and from our family and everything we did on the road, and he truly touched millions and millions and millions of people and he will continue to forever.

MTV: It's also remarkable how many fans he had direct interaction with, and how many people were connected to him that way. What was it like to see that on the road, to watch him with the fans?

Paul: He never turned a fan down. He knew the minute he came off that bus everybody expected the wild and crazy Dime that they saw in the videos, that they saw onstage, that they came to see, you know? I remember the night before this horrible stuff happened we played in Buffalo, New York, and me and Dime loved gambling. Anytime there was a casino, we wanted to go gamble. And we got on the bus after we did everything with the fans and everything and I said, "Hey, man, let's go to Niagara Falls. Let's go gambling." And he's like, "Man, I'm smoked. I've gotta go to bed. I just gotta rest up, we've got these last two shows. I'll catch you tomorrow." I'm like, "OK." So we take off, we go to the casino, we're having a blast and all that. About two hours later the bus comes to pick us up, and I hop on and there's Dime in the front lounging with seven or eight fans, and they're all doing shots. And I'm like, "I thought you were smoked, man, and going to bed." He goes, "I couldn't let these people down, man. They wanted to f---ing party, so I brought them on the bus." That's how he was, man, he never came first. He was exactly what people thought he was and then some.

MTV: This whole thing must be such a long and difficult process. What was the key thing that you needed to go through to make this a little easier to even just start talking about it?

Paul: Time. That's all it is ... time, man. And it still feels like it's a couple days before December 8 last year. I mean, I've never had a year in my life go by this fast where it just felt like it was null, empty, unproductive, no goals, no future and just unimaginable sadness, you know? I've just had a lot of amazing friends and the support from all the fans, and that's been a big help. That's been a big help, so somehow or another we'll make it through this. I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that Dime's legacy lives on as long as it can, and at some point I'll get on with doing my thing too.

MTV: Is there a thought that sticks with you more than anything else? Not necessarily a memory of him, but sometimes when you go through something like this, something will run over and over in your head.

Paul: Probably the truest phrase that anyone came up with was [Dean Guitars founder] Dean Zelinksy, whom he had an amazing relationship with — Dean did all his guitars. He said, "He came to rock, and he rocked like no other." And that's all there is to it, man. That puts a smile on my face every time I hear it because it's true. No truer words were ever spoken.

Read the entire interview at this location.