I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

R.I.P. "DIMEBAG DARRELL" (Updated)

"Dimebag Darrell" Abbott, ex-guitarist for the heavy metal group Pantera and current guitarist for a group called Damageplan, has just been killed in a shootout at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio where Damageplan was performing.

"COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At least five people died and two others were wounded after a shooting at a Columbus nightclub on Wednesday night, NBC 4 reported.

The shooting took place shortly after 10 p.m. at Alrosa Villa, located at 5055 Sinclair Road.

Two members of the heavy metal band Damageplan were reportedly shot and killed, including Dimebag Darrell, formerly with the band Pantera, NBC 4's David Wayne reported. The other band member's name was not released. The alleged gunman also died at the scene, Wayne reported.

Shortly after the band began playing its first song, a man reportedly ran onto the stage and began shooting, according to a witness who identified himself as Sean. Some members of the audience reportedly thought the man running onto the stage with a gun was part of the band's act, NBC 4's Erin Tate reported.

Witnesses said that several shots were fired at the band. Witnesses said that a bouncer at the club tackled the alleged gunman before that person was shot and killed. It was unclear as to whom shot the alleged gunman."

Here's his Wikipedia bio:

""Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, also credited as "Diamond Darrell", was born August 20, 1966 in Dallas, Texas. He was the lead guitarist in Pantera. His father owned a recording studio, where he watched many blues guitarists play, and this early influence can be heard in many of Pantera's songs.

At an early age he began entering state-wide guitar competitions, and by the age of 16 was banned from entering them, having won too often. It was through the prizes won at these competition that he was able to start Pantera, including the guitar that has since become his trademark.

Among his other influences are Eddie Van Halen, to whom he has frequently been compared, and Ace Frehley. He also cites many of his contemporaries among his influences, including Slayer's Kerry King, Zakk Wylde, Metallica's James Hetfield, and Helmet's Page Hamilton.

He frequently graces the pages of guitar magazines, both in adverts for equipment he endorses, and in the reader's polls, where he frequents the top 10 metal guitarist spots. He has also contributed a long running column in Guitar World magazine, which has been compiled in the book "Riffer Madness" (ISBN 0769291015)

His brother, Vinnie Paul, played drums in Pantera. The two have also played in a project with David Allan Coe called "Rebel Meets Rebel", and have started a new band, Damageplan, in the aftermath of the Pantera breakup."

It's probably completely tasteless for me to point this out, but if you go to the page at Dean Guitar's for Dimebag Darrell's upcoming signature guitar line, the first thing you hear is a gunshot. (Those guitars will probably be worth a mint now.)

EDIT: On the official Damage Plan message board, people allegedly on the scene at the Al Rosa Villa club claim that the other band member killed was drummer Bob Zilla.

EDIT II: An alleged account from an eyewitness, 1damage1:

"all i can say is holy crap!! that was such a freakin' nightmare... i don't ever want to be a part of anything like that again... i'm still shaking.... i don't even know what to say...

i was up close to the stage on the side where DBD was playing.... then i saw the guy jump out of the crwod onto the stage... he was yelling something about how "you broke up pantera.... you ruined my life.... what about phil??? he needs heroin money..." or something like that then i saw the gun and he shot DBD right in the head... when DBD went down he kept shooting... then he turned around for bobzilla then vinnie... teh hole time i thought it was part of the show... i had blood on me i was so close... i'm still freakin' out here...

after he turned around and kept shooting i was gone... i swear i almost crapped my pants... it was ####' crazy as ####... people were totally messed up outside... i was standing next to this one chick and she was crying and couldn't stop... she fell on the ground and it was like she was possesed or something... dude it was so kayotic its not even funny... the cops showed up and then people started sayin' that DBD was killed... then people started freaking out even more...

i can't belive this happend... its so crazy... its totally unreal and there's no way to describe how messed up i am right now...

i had tickets to the show in flint michigan too... i don't know whats going to happen... theres some blood on my ticket stub so i'm going to sell it on ebay or keep it or something... i know DBD is in heaven (or ripping some mad riffs in hell)

#### what a wild #### nigth... dude i won't even be able to sleep tonight"

Hmm... if there's blood on the ticket stub, it should probably be given to the police as evidence.

Also, this Dime Bag Darrell guy was killed exactly 24 years to the day after Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon in front of the Dakota in Manhattan, December 8^th, 1980. Eerie.

UPDATE 3 p.m. EST CNN is reporting that the name of the killer was Nathan Gale, a 25 year old loner from Marysville, a town around 25 miles northwest of Columbus, who witnesses described as "a heavyset man, wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey". (I found a CV from someone with a similar name in Columbus, but "Gale" appears to be that guy's middle name and the information about his education in that CV indicates that he's about 5 or 6 years too young to be the killer, so it's just a coincidence.)

"On Thursday, police identified the suspect as Nathan Gale of nearby Marysville. A spokesman said police had no information about a motive or possible link to the band.

"Right now we don't see any connection at all, but that could change," Columbus police Sgt. Brent Mull said. "Unless he left a note or there's something else, we may never know the motive.""

Well, assuming the stuff I quoted from the Damageplan message board last night was accurate, I got Nathan Gale's motive right here:

"he [Nathan Gale] was yelling something about how "you broke up pantera.... you ruined my life.... what about phil??? he needs heroin money..." or something like that then i saw the gun and he shot [Dimebag Darrell] right in the head..."

I think this is pretty much the same deal as with Marc Lépine, the Polytechnique Killer, in that Nathan Gale was an evil wacko who wanted to kill himself in the most sadistic way possible, by taking out as many people as he could with him, and he had a grudge with the Abbott brothers for breaking up Pantera, so a Damageplan concert was the perfect venue for him to enact his death plan. As bad as it was, the crucial difference between this and the Polytechnique Massacre is that someone with a sidearm, James Niggemeyer of the Columbus police, was able to kill Gale before the situation got even worse, as Gale was using a hostage he had in a headlock as a shield and would have killed that person as well as many others if officer Niggemeyer hadn't arrived as promptly as he did.

The other band member killed hasn't been identified, though information I obtained... well, "read"... from people who claimed to be at the concert on the Damageplan message board before it got shut down would seem to indicate that it was Bob Zilla rather than Vinnie Paul Abbott, who was reportedly able to walk away from the stage and use a cell phone. The other victims are Nathan Bray, 23, and Erin Halk, 29.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 5:19 AM