Original subtitles

They were cowboys from hell who lassoed the metal world by the throat. That was

really extreme metal before people called it extreme metal.

Pantera was the band in the 90s that you could actually say saved metal.

There wasn't anybody out there that could touch us. We wanted to terrify

Pantera bludgeoned concert crowds, and led by guitarist Dimebag Darryl Apple,

partied even harder than they played.

Just to play the guitar.

You have to get a couple cocktails in them.

It was out of control.

The only band that I've ever known that if you didn't drink, you'd get fired.

Pantera's brutal brand of metal forged a brotherhood.

Then, in a single terrifying moment, it all came to a stunning end with the

horrific onstage murder of guitarist Dimebag Darryl Abbott.

Stop, please.

Stop shooting. You're killing all my friends.

It's like a cannon blast.

And a decade later, the loss of Darryl and the other victims are still

commemorated in Dallas, Texas.

People come from all over the world. And at the Alrosa Villa Club, where they

died. To me, this place is sacred.

Holy ground.

Now, put the pedal to the metal with Pantera.

We were a machine.

This is the story behind the music.

Don't underestimate the kid.

You're crazy if you do. And I am the kid.

Pantera was founded by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie and Darryl, in

Texas, in 1981.

By the time they disbanded it 22 years later, this increasingly heavy metal

had sold 20 million records.

It all began when 11 -year -old Darryl Abbott became a foot soldier in the Kiss

Army. He enlisted with his neighbor, Rita Haney, who years later became his

girlfriend.

Kiss's Sonic Circus inspired Daryl to pick up an instrument of his own.

On his 12th birthday, he got his first guitar.

The next thing I know, Daryl's standing in his room, got his guitar strapped on,

and a Kiss outfit.

Got his face all done up like he's freely in the whole damn yard, you know.

Once he started playing, he was completely obsessed with the guitar.

Took it to the bathroom with him.

As Darryl practiced power chords, his older brother Vinnie Paul bashed away on

the drums.

And in 1981, while still in their mid -teens, the siblings formed Pantera.

The band's lineup was rounded out by bassist Rex Brown.

and vocalist Terry Blades. We started immediately jamming at Vincent Darrell's

house out in the garage.

I got in the van. They said, you've got to wear spandex. I said, no way.

But I eventually put on some freaking spandex.

There was wild stuff that went on in that house. Lots of things we weren't

supposed to be doing. It was out of control.

Vincent Darrell's house was party 24 -7.

Pantera quickly became the kings of the Southwest Spandex Circuit.

even before they were old enough to get into bars.

They were

arena

ready before they hit the bar.

By 1986, inspired by the heavy grooves of Metallica and Slayer, Pantera shed

their hair metal gloss for a more aggressive approach.

Lead singer Terry Glaze's glam rock style didn't mesh with the band's new

philosophy and was fired, replaced by 19 -year -old New Orleans native Phillip

Anselmo. It was harder, it was edgier, it was walking more with swagger, you

know? They knew, and I knew right off the bat, the first time we had ever

jammed, I had never played with a band this tight.

I mean, these guys were stunning, you know. It was like, my God, you know,

is unbelievable.

He came down and we did a jam session together and it was just like it all

into place, you know.

Let's just go out there and be comfortable, jeans, T -shirt, whatever,

where it goes.

By early 89, Pantera's fiery new demos ignited the interest of Atco Records,

which sent A &R scout Mark Ross to see the band perform at a birthday party in

Dallas. These four guys come on stage and they start spinning their hair.

oh boy, what are we in for here?

But then Daryl just launches into one of his riffs and then Phil opens that

mouth of his and this just roar comes out that just is overpowering from the

-go.

But Ross left the gig just 20 minutes into their set. I think I turned around

Vince and go, he's split.

You know, we'd had everybody come out and see us at a certain point. We were

just like, so we got ripped.

All of a sudden, they start throwing birthday cake, and we start slamming

drinks, and diamond racks are sliding around on the dance floor. I mean, you

couldn't even step on that floor without busting your ass. As soon as we get

done, the dude comes over to me, and he goes, man, that was one of the most

incredible live bands I've ever seen in my life. And I'm like, well, dude, how

come you left about 30 songs into it? I told him that, you know, I went to call

my boss and say this was just unbelievable.

We got to sign these guys immediately.

In the winter of 89, Pantera roared into the studio to record their major label

debut.

Released in July of 90, Cowboys from Hell served as a ferocious sonic

You know, it was a whole new animal.

Unbelievably powerful, it was undeniable, it was fierce as hell.

I was like, holy, you know, like, how did they do that? You know, how'd they

from here to here?

In the fall of 90, Pantera snagged the opening slot on a national tour

Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus.

Though virtually unknown, the Metal Cowboys won over hardcore audiences with

relentlessly intense performances.

We call that the Kill or Be Killed Tour.

And we went out and killed.

That was really extreme metal before people called it extreme metal. We

to terrify people, you know.

Yeah.

Pantera sleet crowds across America and gave their touring RV a thorough beating

in the process.

Bucket of bolt, 10 swinging on the thing, and it'd break down just every

night. The septic tank would fall out everywhere.

So, a lot of fun.

Everywhere we went, we just barely made it from gig to gig. I actually drove the

RV on that tour with Suicidal from Chicago to Minneapolis with no

And we got no headlight. And I'm, like, laying on the floor, like, past Matt.

And he's like, oh, a car's coming. So I got to reach down in there and put the

wires back down to make the headlights work until they go by. And they're like,

okay. And he's just driving, you know, by the moonlight, you know. And the

coming up.

Headlights, okay.

Okay. At the end of the six weeks or however long that tour was, every single

thing on this motorhome was broken.

Everything. It was insane.

We wound up dropping that thing off in the middle of the night at the RV place

we rented it from.

Hopped in the car and we drove off. Here's your RV back!

Later!

The band also

made history when they played Moscow in September 1991, where their free

-spirited metal hell -raising touched a chord with rebellious Russian youth.

Three months later, the Soviet Union would collapse after 69 years.

Pantera were poised to reach the heavy metal pantheon, but the rock -solid band

would soon find itself on shaky ground.

Next, Dimebag Darrell's 100 -proof prescription for pain relief.

That's just to play the guitar. You have to get a couple cocktails in them. When

Behind the Music continues.

By 1991, Pantera had positioned themselves at the sharp tip of metal's

edge.

They returned to the studio late that year to record vulgar display of power

with one ambitious objective.

to obliterate the boundaries of heavy rock.

We were so possessed, really, and focused on what we wanted to do.

There wasn't anybody out there to cut it. We kept getting, you know, heavier

heavier and tighter and tighter.

It was exciting to hear that they took it that far, that they took it that

direction, and just went deeper and darker.

The album's intensity was matched in the mosh pits of Pantera's increasingly

brutal stage shows.

I guess not everybody that goes to a rock show or a heavy metal show is going

there to get their nose broken. You know, a lot of people want to watch.

And I wouldn't allow it if I didn't get what I was demanding out of an audience.

I guess I became furious.

I want to see you lose your...

If you're a parent, you totally don't want your kids going to a Pantera show.

Either because they're going to come back with a bloody nose and black eyes,

just because they're going to come back so hopped up, you're not going to want

to deal with them. I just find it's just an unstoppable wrecking ball.

It's definitely beyond awesome.

Pantera's power grew its pummeled audiences.

But the hard -partying band took their best shots backstage, where booze was

chugged like water. We would joke with people. They would say, how'd you get

opening slot? And we're like, well, you got to sign a contract that says you

will drink with Pantera every night, otherwise you're throwing off the tour.

People are like, really?

I'm like, yeah, really.

How's it going, man?

The only band that I've ever known that if you didn't drink, you'd get fired.

They went through unbelievable amounts of liquor backstage.

I had to see the bill, so I was always shocked more than anybody else, I think.

All of

Pantera binged on the bottle, but no one guzzled with more gusto than Dimebag

Darryl.

I could always get out there and whoop at him, you know. Couldn't even say his

name, but just get up on stage and just wail on guitar.

The nights that he thought he was going to be absolute bambles on stage were

probably some of his most brilliant performances.

Dimebag made sure each killer gig was capped by unique forms of alcohol

amusement. Don would come up with all kinds of crazy... We'd be in the middle

bum... He would come up with some crazy -ass game to play or, you know.

Just to break up the monotony, that's the kind of cat he was. One time we had

hung all these, like, hustler foldouts and stuff on the wall, and he had bought

this thing of green slime.

We'd throw them, and if you hit the face or something like that, that wasn't

good enough, you know. That's a shot of whiskey if you hit it.

hair or something. If you hit it smack dab on the crotch region of the young

lady in the photo, I think you probably still had to do a shot of whiskey. We

had a little, one of those breathalyzers on the road.

Dime brought it in from somewhere. And so everybody would, you know, see how

drunk you are. Oh, dude, you're not nearly drunk enough, you know. Pour him

another shot.

By 1994, heavy metal had been declared all but dead in the wake of the grunge

revolution.

But Pantera was prepared to strike back with a vengeance, and they entered the

studio to record their next album, Far Beyond Driven. I remember one of the

thoughts going into that record was, we have to be heavier than vulgar.

This has to be a heavier record.

And I was thinking to myself, how is that possible?

You know, how do we do that?

Each record we wanted to outdo.

the next record.

And we just said, we're going to make the most balled -out, kick -ass record

can make.

Far Beyond Driven was released on March 22, 1994.

Without significant radio or MTV play, it debuted at number one on the

chart. That was the most abrasive record I could ever imagine, and it went and

blew up the charts at number one and just scared everybody.

which was great. And it was funny because all the magazines you'd read and

would say, Overnight Sensation, Pantera.

We've been out slaving on the road for four hard years and seven years in the

nightclubs before that.

It was a pretty exciting time.

For metal to have a band like Pantera come out and enter the charts at number

one, it just showed you that there's no way you can't kill this because there

will always be a band that's going to fly that flag in the face of everything

else.

Pantera was the band in the 90s that did that, that you could actually say saved

metal. But the keepers of heavy metal's incendiary flames were about to get

burned by their own lead singers.

On the road promoting Far Beyond Driven in 1995,

Philip Anselmo began distancing himself from the band.

He would just start freaking out about stuff, and nobody would know why. One

night we were playing the sold -out show in Hamburg, and he didn't get the

reaction that he wanted out of the crowd, and he just comes back there and

y 'all, I quit. You know, obviously he didn't quit, but this is when things

started really going sideways, you know?

I can recall Daryl calling me and saying, look, I don't know what's going

with this dude, but...

You know, and of course, everybody kind of thinks, well, you know, maybe it's

the fame thing going to your head.

And Thelmo attributes his erratic behavior to chronic back pain caused by

of violent onstage performances.

It causes isolation.

It causes your entire lifestyle to change.

And at that point, Panthera was gigantic.

And I had a job to do through.

pharmaceuticals or anything to get me up on that damn stage and desperately not

feel that pain.

I would drink an entire bottle of wild turkey before we went on to just be

which, of course, was affecting my performances.

putting some worry into the band, you know?

But the band's separation anxiety would only deepen as their singer began

treading a dangerous narcotic path.

Next, Philip's dance with death.

This nurse leaned over and said to me, Welcome back to life. You overdosed on

heroin. When Behind the Music continues.

It's incredible to play a show like this in front of all you people.

By 1995, Pantera was the heaviest metal band in the world.

The Texas outfit bone -rattling brand of musical mayhem took the senses of

millions of delirious fans.

When you buy a Pantera, you're going to get blood, you know what I mean?

Pantera's about as metal as metal gets, you know? We were a machine. That's the

way we operated, all the parts.

Just as Pantera was scaling their greatest heights and Thelma was hitting

bottom, burdened by agonizing back pain, the singer's erratic antics threatened

to take down America's toughest band.

We all told him all the time, get x -rays, go to the doctor, let's get it

so we can get on with this, and he never would.

They wanted to fuse the discs from the front, cut a piece of my hip out, to

use the actual bone.

as the cartilage part.

And I was like, well, what's the recovery time on something like this?

it's going to be about a year, year and a half.

No way, man. I've got work to do.

To maintain Pantera's frantic pace, Philip dabbled with more dangerous

for his perpetual pain.

I was really, really turned on to heroin.

I realized that it would numb me out so much that the pain was gone.

And that's like putting a Band -Aid over cancer.

As the drugs dulled Philip's pain, he continued to isolate himself from the

band. During the recording of 1996's The Great Southern Trend Kill, Philip cut

his vocals in New Orleans.

while Dime, Rex, and Vinny laid down tracks in Texas.

He would do his vocals, and then I would bring them back to Texas after two

weeks, and they would hear them, so there was more of a disconnect between

two. It was the only way we could work at that time.

I was unapproachable.

My mind was not my own, and it was filled with discord,

if anything.

On July 13th, 1996, an hour after a triumphant homecoming show at the

in Dallas, Texas, Phillip overdosed on heroin.

His heart stopped beating for nearly five minutes.

Somebody comes running around the corner and says, Phil's out. I saw him laying

on the ground blue and people hitting on him and all this. And I was like, damn,

dude had heat frustrations. And no, dude, he OD'd on heroin. I'm like,

You gotta be kidding.

No. No way, not Phil Anselmo.

The paramedics get there and they put him back on the couch and give him a

I guess, of adrenaline and put the oxygen on him and pump his chest and

him.

I didn't know what had happened. I had all these tubes hooked up to me and I

straight up and threw up immediately.

This nurse leaned over and said to me, Welcome back to life. You overdosed on

heroin. The following night, Philip apologized to his bandmates and crew,

Pantera would never be the same again.

I had never felt smaller in my entire life.

I begged for their forgiveness, and I promised them and I

swore to them that this would never happen again.

It was definitely a wake -up call for all of us.

It's like something that's been obvious in front of your face for years and

years, and you go, aha!

I thought I could do anything, and there wasn't a damn thing that could beat me.

I was wrong.

I was wrong.

Philip's ongoing struggle with heroin was slowly tearing Pantera apart.

The deed was on a steamroller to self -destruction. I don't think anybody

have helped him. There's a different look in everybody's eye.

That inch of doubt that was never there before. The lack of trust.

You know, where are you going, man?

When Phil was on, he was on.

Gerald would have never taken that away from him or anything, but he was very

embarrassed by him.

I relapsed.

maybe two more times, and I felt so guilty afterwards.

I was like, why the hell? Why?

Why? Why?

The Shellshock band didn't return to the recording studio for four years.

2000's Reinventing the Steel was packed with Pantera's sledgehammer swagger and

earned the band a Grammy nomination in the process.

But old tensions soon resurfaced on the road.

Daryl would make an effort to go over before the show to do a shot with him,

check on him after.

He was pushing away all the people that really loved him and cared about him. It

was the same stuff, same song list, the same... Once again, the communication

was so bad that no one would even go to Phil and talk about changing the set

list before a tour started.

In late 2001, the band's tour was abruptly cut short by the tragedy of 9

They had no idea they had performed together for the last time.

Next, the shot that reverberated around the metal world.

It was like a real bad movie.

None of it seemed real whatsoever.

None of it. None of it. When Behind the Music continues.

After going full throttle for nearly two decades, Pantera hit the brakes in the

fall of 2001.

But vocalist Philip Anselmo wasn't ready to pull back.

He quickly returned to the road with a side project called Down, joined by

Pantera bassist Rex Brown.

The last thing that he told us when we finished reinventing the skill to us was

like, I'm going to go home and take a year off. My back's hurting. I'm done

it. for a while a month later he's putting out the down album and recording

he even said i'm not trying to tour on it in six months you'll have your new

pantera record i mean i can sit here and just keep going and going any free time

i had i would start something that would turn into something awesome then he

puts out super joint goes out tours for that then he does another

With Phillip focused on Pet Project, Super Joint Ritual, and Down, Pantera's

short break turned into an extended vacation, and for nearly two years, the

singer remained out of touch with Dime and Vinny.

In 2003, with Anselmo AWOL, the Abbott brothers reluctantly abandoned the only

band they ever knew.

We were sitting there rotting away. Two of the best musicians on the face of the

earth that play that kind of music were sitting there and having to take it in

the face.

No future, no nothing, just sitting there wondering what the fuck is

You know, this is like these two kids who basically built this family business

from the ground up, and then all of a sudden they can't run that business

anymore. The idle time sent Dimebag Darrell into a spiral of depression.

You know, he'd never been off that long, and that was probably the worst two

years, I think, of his life.

They'd call me loaded or whatever, and I'd just go, what's going on? I'd be

like, I was just bummed out, man. I'd go, well, look at it this way, man.

Good Lord gave you a gift. You put it in your hands, man. It's the best guitar

player in the world. I'd say, just get out there and just, you know, hit

get some ass -picking musicians with you.

By late 2003, Diamond and Vinnie formed Damage Plan, releasing their debut

album, Newfound Power.

in early 2004 it was weird for the fans you know they wanted pantera i mean

you've been serving people coca -cola for 200 years and then all of a sudden

tell them we're changing the flavor and it's now going to be called diet right

you know dime bag had made his peace with the perils of pantera but

his contentment would be short -lived

On December 8, 2004, Damage Plan was wrapping up a two -month club tour at

Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.

But the gig would quickly turn tragic.

Ten seconds into the set, 25 -year -old ex -Marine Nathan Gale stormed the

stage, brandishing a 9mm pistol.

I just screamed as loud as I could, and bam, bam, bam.

I just remember screaming and shooting something.

And then he came off the drum riser and he's coming at me and he's going, he

just shot my brother. He shot my brother.

I went to jump from behind the drums to run out and help.

And John, Don's guitar tech, tackled me and held me on the ground.

As soon as I knew he was pointing the other way, we both ran across the drum

riser and got to the other side of the stage.

It kept going on, and he picked me up and shoved me and said, run, man.

9 -1 -1, what's your emergency?

9 -1 -1, emergency.

9 -1 -1, please, any help as soon as possible. Oh, my God. 9 -1 -1.

He's on stage right now. He's got to go. The guy's on stage with a gun.

People were trying to rush the guy, and he shot a couple of people

to keep him.

The whole time he was looking for Vince.

After rushing to the aid of the mortally wounded Dimebag Darrell, Drum Tech Cat

Brooks tried to subdue the gunman.

I went after the dude.

Cat was fighting with him, and he kept telling Cat to

settle down, settle down. He wouldn't, and he kept

shooting me.

They just kept telling me, stay down, stay down.

I'm like, quit shooting.

Quit, stop, please.

Stop shooting. You're killing all my friends. Stop it.

And he goes, shut up, bitch.

I looked over my shoulder and I heard the chaos. And I look and there's an

officer coming through the door.

Immediately I saw someone laying there that was bleeding. There was a small

group of security guards standing there.

saying he's there, he's there. Columbus policeman James Niggemeier was the first

of eight officers to arrive at the scene, just three minutes after

dispatch call at 10 .18 p .m.

I motioned for the officer over there, and I said, yeah, you got to kill this

guy. He's going to kill more people. He's got my friend. As I started working

across the back of the stage, he then moved the gun to the hostage's head. As

soon as he put the gun to the hostage's head, I realized that I had to do

something to try to save the hostage.

And then just all at once, he just took aim, and he just leaned back real slow.

I watched him click the safety with his finger, and when he clicked the safety,

I just plugged my ears and turned my head. I stopped and pulled the trigger.

It was just like a cannon blast.

All of a sudden, the weight was off me, and I was like, somebody got him.

And it was over.

It was over just like that.

I looked up and he was down. The cat was moving.

And at that point, I ran to the floor where they had dime on the floor.

And then he kept calling me, and he still didn't know nothing.

And then when he called me back and said, my brother's dead,

that's all he could say.

And we both just cried.

It was like a real bad movie. None of it seemed real whatsoever.

None of it. None of it.

And that was that, man.

In the end, five were dead, including Dimebag Darrell.

Cat Brooks suffered gunshot wounds to the chest, arm, and leg, but was

from the hospital within three days of the shooting.

It is now believed that Gale killed Dime because he thought the band could read

his mind and was stealing his thoughts.

The brutal on -stage murder of 38 -year -old guitarist Dimebag Darryl Abbott in

December of 2004 sent shockwaves reverberating among everyone who knew

were touched by his music.

Nothing like this would ever happen. Lennon,

maybe. But Lennon was shot and killed on stage. I mean...

I was murdered on stage.

It's just shocking.

I lost everything that night, you know.

I just feel like somebody took a hacksaw and cut me right down the middle, took

my right arm, my right leg, and my whole heart. I would love it if two minutes

ago he walked through that door.

I still feel like he's going to.

He would take me in his arms. Dad, I love you.

Yes, I love you.

Sorry.

That's what I remember the best.

Yet Dimebag's memorial service was anything but somber. It was the ultimate

and roll send -off, right down to the kiss basket in which the fallen

was buried.

There's all these rock stars coming in. It just looks like Headbanger's ball.

There's Eddie Van Halen up there talking at the funeral service.

puts his guitar in the casket with Daryl. It's the guitar of Van Halen,

know, the black one with the yellow stripe. I mean, it's the guitar.

And all I can think is that, you know, back in the early days when we were

teenagers, if someone would have said, Daryl, when you die, Van Halen's going

put that guitar in the casket with you.

Daryl would have said, kill me now.

Daryl was in his kiss cop, and everyone was putting, like, bottles of Crown in

there for him.

There must have been about, like, 15 bottles of Crown. Well, and I go...

You'd think this was going to be enough for the trip upstairs. It was amazing,

but, you know, like I told Rita and my dad, you know, after all this is over,

we're going to be three of the most lonely people in the world.

A prodigious roster of hard rock royalty gathered in Arlington, Texas, to

remember Dimebag Darryl Abbott.

But one prominent musician was conspicuously absent.

I had flown to Texas.

to be there and bury my brother.

I sat in a hotel room for five days waiting, waiting, sending

message after message to Benny Paul and anybody else who

would even care to hear.

They stuck the phone in my face and said, Phil's on the phone and if you

take the phone, he's going to show up.

I got on the phone and I instantly just said, why are you calling now?

And, of course, I started to cry.

Why didn't you return the nine phone calls when Daryl called you? I go, if

show up here, I'll blow your head off myself.

And I hung up on him. And I wasn't allowed to go to the funeral.

Rick Catella, who owned the club where Dimebag died, still has the radio

commercially made to promote the fatal gig.

Good night!

Damage plan in concert.

They're going to rip your head right off your shoulders.

We're going to need a barricade tonight.

Damage plan was special.

But Rick soon had the club back in action despite the physical evidence

that remained.

I remember Rick as he told me about tearing the bloodstained carpet off the

stage.

going out back and just throwing up over and over again. I got email after email

saying they should burn that club down. It just drove me crazy that bands would

say, no thanks, we don't want to play there.

But when Rick announced they might close, he discovered what the fans were

of. There was the biggest crowd we've ever had that night.

And there was a line all the way around the building.

As for the surviving musician, it was ten months before Vinnie played again

his new band, Hell Yeah.

The first show that Hell Yeah ever did was at Rams Head Live in Baltimore.

And the security was so tight in there, they almost gave you a cavity surge. And

Vinny literally was hidden behind the drum kit. You could barely see him, but

was back there.

I don't blame him. He was scared to get back on stage.

For Kimberly Davis, who has managed the band since 1994, it all seems like

yesterday. There is part of me that will never believe that this is where we

ended up.

The fact that the band is no more.

that Daryl's dead, that it's over and will never be again.

Kimberly is determined to secure the band's legacy and has already re

Pantera's first two albums with more to come.

She's in touch with all three surviving members of the band whose lives have

gone in very different directions since Daryl's death.

Rex is now playing bass in Kill Devil Hill alongside metal drumming legend

Apathy. who has played with Black Sabbath, Dio, and Heaven and Hell.

But Rex is still proud of what Pantera achieved.

We worked very hard for what we did. Those days are over now. You can't go

to them, but I'm very proud of those days.

But they were days that took a shocking toll on Rex's health.

My pancreas was full of stones, and they had to kind of sliver the pancreas and

take all the stones out. That's from years and years of us partying our asses

off, you know?

Phil is still working with Down, but remains angry about the press coverage

blamed him for Dime's death, and is bitter about the impact this has had on

reputation.

Sorry for the retarded, asinine program that

smeared my name through the goddamn toilets of every house in America.

She didn't have to live with it. I did.

I resent it. I still resent it.

Phil claims that since he left the band, he has become a totally reformed

character. Believe me, I've taken a good, cold, long, hard stare in the

I know who the f*** I am. I know the mistakes I've made.

Therefore, I can move on.

I met him more recently when he was sober and not doing anything. He was a

nice, sweet person.

No more nip for the kid.

The kid also claims he has given up hard drugs.

There is no good reason to stick a needle of heroin in your arm. And I did

For the fans, the unanswered and unanswerable question remains.

Might the band have got back together if Daryl had survived?

You know, I always thought the band would always get back together. You

some point, we just needed Tom away from each other.

Bill would have jumped on stage and jammed with him, or Dime would have

on stage with Down, and they would have played again.

One of the two would have stuck out the olive branch and said, you know what,

let's just put all this behind us, and let's just go out and just do a kick

-ass, you know, a new album.

Eight years after the shooting, Rita and Phil found themselves unexpectedly face

-to -face at a concert in California.

I came out of the restroom and when I looked up, I just didn't expect it was

him. I go, I have one question. First, I just need to know why.

And, you know, he looked me right in the eye and he said, I have no excuse.

I was a junkie.

And for him to say that, you know, that's all any of us wanted to hear.

I don't think he's responsible for Dime's death.

I'm glad that Rita and Phil have made up. Rita may have forgiven Phil, but is

there any chance of Vinny doing so?

Probably not.

And I'd say probably is not the word.

Absolutely not at this point.

I don't think Vinny and Phil will ever make up. You know, he not only lost his

band, but he lost his brother.

And, you know, I think he does blame Phil in some ways.

Phil is so determined to make it up to Vinny that he has made him an

extraordinary offer.

You know, Vince, if it takes, if it's just this wall of anger and you feel

you need to just beat me up, I'll let you.

I'll let you just beat me up as long as we can sit down after and talk.

Every year on his birthday, there is a Ride for Dime in Dallas, Texas.

To me, the Ride for Dime every year, it's a way to help bring closure to a

tragic situation.

People come from all over the world to make a pilgrimage. One thing I really

admired about Daryl was that he didn't become all rock star.

I mean, he didn't move to Hollywood. He stayed right here in his hometown.

And I think that's why he's got such a big following. He was just, he was real.

I think that's the takeaway. He was real.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, they remember the unsung heroes who died that

night. Aaron Hulk died tackling the gunman. Not too many people in this

would have that kind of courage to go up and face a gun.

Jeff Thompson was working security for the band.

Had Jeffrey Thompson.

Not reacted the way he did and engaged this man with a gun, Vinnie Paul, but

very likely not to walk in the air.

Nathan Bray also died that night.

His wife, Carrie, told me she feels like, you know, perhaps what

her husband did and his accomplishments, and same with Jeff Thompson and Aaron

Hawke, is overshadowed. I get that.

To me, this place is sacred.

It's holy ground.

And, you know, John Lennon in New York City has a monument where he died.

To me, this place is their monument.

I can hear him in the background.

Get your ass up, Anselmo.

Put in the hard work, young son. It's worth it.

Every day.

And every day, musicians all over the world remember the man who gave music so

much and lost everything.

No, he was just the ray of sunshine, man. You know, if you were having the

day ever, Don would cook in a room and like just cheer you up. He was

the life of the party. He was a ranger. And he brought that huge personality and

that huge style to...

through the metal world and he changed it forever.

He was able to write and play rhythm and play lead and be just as emotive

through one or two notes as someone else could have been through 20 or 50 notes.

He's really influenced a whole generation of guitar players.

I think he's the best metal guitar player that there was.

You know, he's up there with the Eddie Van Halen. He's up there with the Randy

Rose. He's up there with the Jimi Hendrixes. You know, the Jimi Pages.

some good company.

You hear that guitar And it does make you sad. You're just like, you know,

a senseless waste that he's not around.

I love you, Don.

Every year, Rita organizes Dime Bash in memory of her lost friend and lover.

Yeah, last year they did a version of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

And the feeling in the room, the hair standing up on the back of your neck,

was amazing.

Everyone's singing it. But that was one of my favorite, most emotional times,

you know.

that i like and that song i hope never leaves our don besh set you see he's

gonna be a fantastic member in my heart until i hit the dirt and when it comes

to pantera and healing all i can say is my door is wide open

we should probably get right there

Nobody's seen this for a hundred years.