Hell on Stage

Jan 10, 2008 3:45 PM, By Jeff Perlah

           

An Interview With Pantera's Dimebag Darrell

What do you do when the band encounters a technical problem during a performance? Vinnie: It could turn into a jam, or maybe a talk session by Philip [Anselmo], until things get worked out. But we've never had any completely embarrassing situations where we had to walk off. The only bind on this tour is that we only get to play an hour: coming down the home stretch, we really have to keep an eye on the clock and keep things moving.

You just mentioned jamming. How else do you improvise? Dimebag: The crowd could be screaming "Pantera!" and I'll start going [makes a chugging thrash-guitar sound with his voice] and everybody else starts kicking in, and that becomes an improv section.

Vinnie: Sometimes Dime will kick into a guitar riff and Philip will say, "Hey, let's do that," and we'll just go for it. Also, we like to cut loose in a set sometimes and play some Van Halen or Judas Priest or something we did back in the club days.

Have you learned a lot from each other? Dimebag: Oh, yeah. I'll have a guitar riff in my mind I can't play, and I'll hum it to Vinnie, and he'll have a drum idea in his mind and he'll play it to me. When I first started playing guitar at age 13, I was trying to play "More Than a Feeling" by Boston, and he was playing along with me and said, "Man, you're leaving a note out right there. You're coming up short at the end of the bar." We listened to the record and I found the missing note, and that was the first sign of the alien coming out. We're always on top of each other, saying, "Man, we can do that" or "Let's stretch that a little more." When we're writing, we understand each other-we're on the same page.

Vinnie: He's got a really carefree heart. He's the kind of person who just lets it all hang out-and the same is true when he writes or performs. I've learned from him that anything will work and that you can make things work, even things that seem like they don't or shouldn't fit. You can really do some finagling, and if you play with it enough, it might turn into magic.

Dime, do you practice guitar often? Dimebag: We've been playing together for 20 years. I'm not practicing, I'm playing. I'm doing it for the fucking enjoyment. This is the moment.

In a tour with as many bands as Ozzfest has, do you get a chance to do a sound check every night? Vinnie: We've only had one sound check this whole tour, and that was before the first show. After that there was no time for it.

Why? Vinnie: The minute Godsmack's done, they pull their gear off and we've got exactly 25 minutes to change the set.

Dimebag: It's different from having your own [headline] tour where you get to do a sound check every show. You're throwing gear up and pulling it down, and everybody's got the same monitor rig.

So that first Ozzfest sound check had to go a long way. Vinnie: We got it as close as we could, but obviously the buildings change soundwise. Some nights you get up there and after the first note you're screaming at your tech and looking over at the monitor desk trying to get some help-like "I need some more kick drum" or "It's really midrange-sounding." Other nights it's like putting on a CD.

Is it challenging to perform night after night? Dimebag: Hangovers hurt every now and then, but what do you do? Throw a couple more doubles back! This is great for hangovers. [He takes a big gulp from a plastic bottle of Pedialyte.] The best rehydration source in the world, I'm telling ya [laughs heartily]. Anyway, you've just got to get in a rock 'n' roll mode. What's tonight? It's Monday night? Fuck that, it's Friday night all of a sudden! Know what I mean? It's Friday night every goddamn night and it's going to burn. I'm not going to let these people spend all that money, get their hopes up, and wait this long to see our show, and then we say, "Oh, man, we already did it ten times in a row and now my sides hurt" or have some other lame excuse. Dude, that ain't going to happen!

It must get pretty crazy at your shows. Dimebag: A dude threw a Pantera prosthetic leg up on stage the other night and got the crowd to raise some hell for it! It was extended from the top of the leg to the bottom, with a high-top stuck on it. The whole thing had Pantera skulls and crossbones, Pantera logos, CFHs [Cowboys from Hell] all over it. We threw it back out to the dude, he hooked it back on, and he was in the front of the mosh pit all night.

Vinnie: A guy climbed up in the lighting truss while we were playing in Atlanta about three years ago. We stopped the show and Philip said, "Come on, jackass, get down, everybody really wants to hear some music." One of our crew guys went up to try and get the guy down, and the guy pulled a pocketknife on him and tried to slash him. Our guy backed off, the guy put his knife up, threw his little bag off, slid down the wires somehow, and evaded the police. Nobody ever saw him after that.

Do you make many guitar changes onstage? Dimebag: Yeah. On this particular tour, since we only play an hour, I do about seven guitar changes, but on a regular tour it's ten. I've had the same tech [Grady Champion] almost my whole life, and he's the greatest tech in the whole business. Everyone who watches him goes, "Man, I'm gonna start doing that," or "Wow, you taught me so much." He played in a band that used to open for us, Cat Daiquiri. During a gig we get this feeling going, another one of those invisible waves shooting through the air. He knows exactly how the guitar's supposed to feel. He knows if I need the gate tighter or looser. He knows when I'm hung over.