Latest / DISGRACELAND / Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell: A Murderous Fan, Brotherly Love and Cowboys from Hell

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Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell: A Murderous Fan, Brotherly Love and Cowboys from Hell · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Pantera's Dimebag Daryl Abbot are insane. He was a heavy
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: metal wonder kid whose guitar playing was so face melting
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that he won teenage competitions. His band, Pantera, is one
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He was famous for his friendliness and generosity to fans,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: beloved by aspiring heavy metal guitarists who worshiped him as
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the groundbreaking guitar hero he was, and he was lauded
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: by the guitar heroes he worshiped growing up, Edie Van Halen,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Ace Freeley, and Carrie King among them. But most disgracefully,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Dimebag Daryl was gunned down by a deranged fan on
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: December eighth, two thousand and four, twenty four years to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the Zach Day that John Lennon met the same exact faith.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: But before that, Dimebag Daryl made great music. Unlike that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: music I played for you at the top of the show.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: my mellotron called Dirt Road Fishtail MK one. I played
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: My Boo by Usher and Alicia Keys, And why would
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of First Kiss Cheese?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: song in America on December eighth, two thousand and four,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And that was the day Nathan Gale entered the Alrosa
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Vista nightclub with a loaded nine millimeter bretta and ended
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the life of one of heavy metal's most talented and
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: beloved musicians. On this episode, a deranged heavy metal assassin,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a real life superhero in Pantera's dimebag Daryl. I'm Jake
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Brand in This Is Disgrace, Lad roll Call was boring
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: him and a handful of other cops plopped down in
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: metal chairs, some hungover, most disinterested, others grab assing talking shit.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: They looked and sounded more like high school kids settling
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: into a classroom before the biology teacher arrived than they did.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Authority figures. That's in part because that's what they were kids,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: despite their age, fucking juveniles, despite graduating from the academy,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: despite whatever experience they had when it came to maturity,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: at least when they weren't on their ship are in
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the line of duty, They were still just kids out there,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: full grown men in here, juveniles ranking on each other,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: their digs, cutting, brutal weight, looks, suspected sexuality, intelligence, None
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of it was off the table. Whatever God blessed you
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: with or denied you of, one of your fellow cops
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was gonna use it against you, sometimes to knock you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: down a peg, but mostly to bond with you in
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that hard ass blue collarway. Too fat, too bad, lose weight,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you fucking homp it. Too short, too bad, too, You're
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: fucked for life? Too good looking, Yes, there was such
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a thing, you pretty boy, better watch your ass in
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the shower. Too stupid, Get in line with your short
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: friend because you too my friend? Or moosho fuckoed and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: too smart? What do you think you're fucking better than
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: everyone else? Asshole? The putdowns soon gave way to whatever
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: other bullshit was on their mind. Whose little league team
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: was about to be coached by their brilliance into the playoffs,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Whose mother in law was a bigger pain in the ass,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Which corner had the hottest pro. There were a few
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: female cops, and they were given no quarter. They were
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: just other guys born with the wrong genitulia as far
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: as their male counterparts were concerned. Unfortunate for them out
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: in the real world, sure, but policing was a numbers game.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: One sex didn't really matter as long as they were
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: there when the shit got heavy, and of course they
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: were so they were welcome editions and ragged on mercilessly
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: alongside the men. The patrol supervisor came in blowing hard,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: barking out operational formalities, date time, blah, blah blah. The
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: din dulled but didn't totally dissipate, so the patrol supervisor
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: barked louder and began handing out photocopied papers stapled together
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: with whatever relevant information was needed for that night's shift.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Scant attention was paid to the materials, less to the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: patrol supervisor more grab assing. The patrol supervisor was now
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: behind the podium at the front of the room, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: visibly pissed. He lifted it with both hands about an
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: inch off the ground and slammed it down hard onto
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the floor attention. Finally, the officers clammed up and settled
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: into the inevitable another shift. More shitbirds on the prowl
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: like this one here item number four on their handouts.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: A local Tom last seen lurking in missus McNally's bushes
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: with his dick in his hand, peering into her window
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: at night. Male white, thirties, balding, known cross dresser, partial
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to long skirts and loose fitting blouses and big round
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: red Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, and there were plenty of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: snickers from the assembled patrolmen, random cat calls, the sound
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: of nightsticks clinging up against metal desk and chairs banged
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: out as the last of the officers, the tardy ones,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: some smelling of last night's jamison, some just unable despite
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: their best efforts to ever be on time, shuffled into
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: roll call, and the other cops already in the room
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: quickly made mental notes to dismiss them as the unreliable ones,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and the patrol supervisor continued to wrap. The captain, seated
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: at the table to his left, took notes, and the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: lieutenant stood in the back observing. The room tone did
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: what it always did around this time of the nightly ritual.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: It shifted to seriousness. Item number six. The patrol supervisor
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: called out, this local looney bird has been more looney
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: than normal, you all know, mister Gail White, male twenty
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: five six foot three, two hundred and fifty pounds, buzz cut,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: broad shoulders, ex marine, likely schizophrenic to this point, largely nonviolent.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Nothing major needed here, Just be aware. We've received multiple
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: calls about his behavior. He's erratic, seems menacing to those
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: in a circle, vaguely threatening. He was arrested last month
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: for driving with a suspended license, has a prior for trespassing.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Nothing major, nothing to do, and just putting mister Gayle
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: on your radars. We've been receiving calls about him again,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: nothing to do, Just be aware. As usual, heroes need
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: not apply, heroes need not apply. It was familiar refrain
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: in the precinct. It meant, don't be too aggressive, don't
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: try to be a hero. Heroism was instinctual. You either
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: had it at the right time or you didn't. And
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: if you did, and God willing, your actions resulted in
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: someone's life being saved, least of all yours in the process,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: then you never admitted your heroism. You denied it because
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: as a cop, that's what you believed. You were no
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: fucking hero. Those men with their pictures on the wall,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: they were the heroes, the ones with the flags draped
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: over their coffins, the ones with the fucking bagpipes at
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: their funerals, the ones who got stretched out on the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: bar at your local while you and your brethren did
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: final shots of Jamison and Cutty to send them off
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: on a proper drunk. They couldn't feel anymore, so why
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: should you fuck it? Those bagpipes still echoed in your ears,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: fucking haunted you. They were gone, and thus they not
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you were the only ones worthy of that filthy fucking
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: word hero. Being a hero meant a lot of things.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: It meant you stood up when it mattered. It meant
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: you were either brave, stupid or both. That also meant
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you were dead. You, no matter what you did, were
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: not a hero. You were just a hump trying to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: get through a shift and live up to the example
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: set by those who came and went before you that
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: departed on the wall. Roll continued. You were present, but
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: not really. Presence of mind was reserved for patrol, not roll.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: You hit the streets and your crews are alone, no partner,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: just you. There, two heads out in front of the speedway,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: passing a joint. You flash your blues and give the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: sir on a quick, short blast at the same time,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and the head see you drop the joint and sprint
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: off behind the Speedway, you consider giving chase. But for
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: what they were small time kids, aimless, broke, and most
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: definitely not holding more than a dimebag. Fuck van Halen,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: what you heard me? Fuck van Halen. The two heads
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: were now settled into the front seats of the shipbox
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: they had borrowed for the night, safe from the clutches
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of the local Columbus, Ohio cop recently scared them off
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: their night we post in front of the Speedway gas station,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and they were talking about something of great concern, whether
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: or not van Halen was as good as their hero
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Pantera guitarist Darryl dimebag Abbott had told him they were
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: You're wasted, man. You heard Dime. Van Halen is the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: fucking greatest. He was talking about the man, the guitarist,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: not the band, as in, fucking Eddie van Halen, the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: band isn't that good, dude, You're wasted. A few months back,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the two had managed to catch up and hang with Dime,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: as they called him in person, a fucking dream come
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: true for the two heads outside one of Dime's gigs
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: in the parking lot next to his band's new tour bus. Pantera,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: his old band, his groundbreaking heavy metal band, a band
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the two heads both loved, was broken up. It was
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a fucking shame man. After twenty years as one of
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: metal's premier bands, emerging from their eighties glam origins to
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a previously unheard heaviness, to sell more than forty million records,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: score four Grammy nominations, and more important, seamlessly meld the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: effortless Texas groove of Zzi Top with the skull crushing
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: intensity of Slayer and Metallica, Pantera had finally run its course.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Dimebag's new band was called Damage Plan. As always, his
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: brother and fellow founding member of Pantera, Vinnie, was at
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Dime's side and Damage Plan and Damage Plan brought it
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: that night on stage. But for the two heads, Nick
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: called so because he was obsessed with dimeback Darryl and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: played guitar merely half as good as Dime did. Dime
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: have a Dime Nickel aka Nick and Nick's friend Speed
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: called so because well, for as long as anyone could remember,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: he could be found hanging out in front of the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Speedway gas station, scamming for a buyer scamming for Bud's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: chicks grass whatever changed to by a gas station hot Dog,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Speed and Nick were joined at the hip and they
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: loved damage plan that night. But for them, the real
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: thrill was getting to meet Dime before the gig, getting
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: to hang with their hero out in front of the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: tour bus, seeing Dime back Daryl in the flesh, and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: hearing him generously impart his wisdom not only on the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: glory of Van Halen, but a quick tutorial on how
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to mix his favorite drink, the blacktoothed grin. Two shots
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: of whiskey and a plastic cup preferably crowned Royal rocks,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and just a tiny splash of Coca cola. But before that,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: shots a tray full of more crown and an endless
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: flow of cold Core's life and cans. Dime was so
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: damn cool and down to earth, he made it seem
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: like they were doing him a favor by hanging out
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: with a pre show. They literally couldn't believe how fucking
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: lucky they were to be hanging out with Dime and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: his brother Vinnie. The two were metal royalty, more important
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to them than the Van Halen brothers. Eddie and Alex
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Dimes chosen pre show topic of conversation were not imparting
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: metal head mixology tutorials. Eddie van Halen was the best,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: second to none, a class above all other guitar players,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: even Ace freely. Take that to the bank, young, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: its advice worth its weight in gold. When your guitar
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: hero gives you the secret who his guitar hero is,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you listen. But Eddie van Halen was one thing. Van
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Halen the band was another thing, entirely David Lee roth
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Ra Okay, Nick got it, But that's Sammy Hagar bullshit
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: he could do without. Didn't matter. Speed reminded him Eddie
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: was the shit no matter who he was playing with.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Dime and Vinnie pretty much told him so that night
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with their ritual just before showtime, seconds before and seconds
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: after their last pre show shot, the Abbot brothers grabbed
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: each other by the shoulders stared each other in the eyes.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: If you were lucky enough to witness this ritual, you
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: could practically see the brotherly ties binding the two Texas
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: boys in real time. Vinnie, the older of the two,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: asked the question. It was a question that begged one thing.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Are you fucking ready. But what And there was of
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: course only one answer, Hell fucking yes, but they said
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it with different words. Vinnie looked at his little brother
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and spoke. He asked Van Halen. Dime held his brother
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: stare and with the same intense conviction he'd had they
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: first started playing gigs together over two decades ago, replied
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: in the affirmative, Van fucking Hallen, and with that the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: brother's Abbot headed to the stage. The venue was a
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: step down from the arenas Pantera was filling a few
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: years earlier before their breakup in two thousand and one.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, Damage Plan, Dimebag Daryl and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: his brother Vinnie Abbot's new band was starting over. Their
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: debut album, Newfound Power, was selling, but it wasn't selling
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: anywhere near the amount Pantera Records had. Meanwhile, Pantera's former
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: front man Phil Enselmo's side project Superjoint, Ritual and Down
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: were garnering it tension in the heavy metal press and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: selling their fair share of albums, but like Damage Plant,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: neither of Phil's projects were succeeding at a Pantera level.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Nick and Speed, like most Pantera fans, wanted a reunion,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't in the cards. The acrimony between Phil
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and Salmo and the Abbot brothers was too heavy and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: for what Pantera fans didn't really know for years, the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: partnership between them had taken Dime, his brother Vinnie, and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Phil to New heights. The Abbots had started Pantera with
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: some high school friends in Texas in the early eighties,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: soon settling into an early lineup that included Rex Brown
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: on bass. At first, they were a regional glam rock
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: band with a major Van Halen influence, right down to
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the brothers on drums and lead guitar. Darryl soon emerged
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: as a wonder kid on the acts, and with the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: help of their father, Jerry, a songwriter producer who'd written
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: country songs for Buck Owens and Emmy Lou Harris, among others,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Pantera had studio access and soon started producing records and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the label their old man had started just for them.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: It was a sweet setup for a band just starting out,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: but the creative and commercial leap wouldn't arrive until Phil
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and Solmol joined the band on lead vocals. At the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: end of nineteen eighty six, Pantera had finally found a
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: true frontman and the whole band, influenced by the metal
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: breakthroughs of Metallica and Slayer, quickly turned to a heavier
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: sound that would define them and make them famous in
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the nineties with the release of their major label debut,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Cowboys from Hell. Cowboys from Hell is an excellent record,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: a groundbreaking record as a heavy metal album. There were
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: few like it at the time. No metal band before
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Pantera's Cowboys from Hell had truly captured the mainstream potential
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: of metal in a way that was this heavy. There
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: was a groove that was present on this record that
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Metallica wouldn't find until a year later with the help
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of producer Bob Rock, and that Slayer would never truly find.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Cowboys from Hell rageous with anger and palm with skull
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: crushing rifts like the best of Slayer of Metallica, but
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it also grooves like Ceci Top and like van Halen,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: at least David E. Roth van Halen. It never takes
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: itself too seriously. As forward looking as the metal arrangements
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: on Cowboys from how are as angsty as phil Enselmo gets.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: The album always keeps one shit kickers stuck in the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: strip club and the record is fun as the best
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: heavy metal should be. On Cowboys from Hell, Pantera literally
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: found its groove, and later on their next record, nineteen
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: ninety two is Vulgar Display of power. That groove exploded
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: with a heaviness and a ferocity that it yet to
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: be heard in commercial heavy metal. The record slams with heaviness,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and unlike most every other metal album before that reached
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: for a new kind of heaviness, Pantera didn't suffer for
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: it commercially, quite the opposite. The album went double platinum
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and to date is the group's biggest selling record. For
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: what it's worth, the critics loved it as well, with
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stone magazine naming it the tenth greatest heavy metal
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: album of all time. But later, while recording their album
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: with the Great Southern Trendkill in nineteen ninety six, Phil
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and Salmol recorded all his vocals in New Orleans at
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Trent Reznor's studio, away from the band, with the rest
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: of the band recorded in Dallas. It wasn't all out
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in the open yet, but the band could barely stand
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to be around one another anymore. Phil had fallen into
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: booze and heroin, supposedly to help with back problems. But
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: back of no Back. Shortly after the album came out,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Phil odeed on his dope and was without a heartbeat
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: for nearly five minutes. He recovered, but Phil's addiction and
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: devolving personality led to real tension with his bandmates, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: with Phil taking on various side projects, communication broke down
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: further until Pantera officially broke up in two thousand and three.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Phil and Salmo let the world know in the December
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four edition of Metal Hammer Magazine just
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: how he felt about one former bandmate, saying, quote, Dimebag
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: deserves to be beaten severely. None of that mattered to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Nick and Speed. On April fifth, two thousand and four,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Phil's fighting words against Daryl were months in the future.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: They had driven more than two hours up from Columbus
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: to Toledo, Ohio to the fifteen hundred capacity club Bogarts
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to see damage plan, and before a note was even struck,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: they got to hang with dime and Vinnie. On that alone,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the trip had already been worth it. When the band
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: kicked in on stage, din Bag was in it, laying
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: into that patented heavy groove, his brother dutifully keeping time
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: like a fucking Machine Die was in that familiar heavy
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: metal guitar player stage dance, knee slightly bent back, slightly arched,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: guitar tight against his lower torso, his head circling round
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and round and rhythm with his monster riff, a hurricane
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of hair swirling around his shoulders, and the other two
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: members of the band, bassist Bob Zilla and singer Patrick Lachman,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: were in the groove as well, eyes closed, feeling it,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: oblivious to the crowd other than feeling its energy, which
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: was all good. And the crowd was in it too,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: especially Nicking Speed, who now felt like they had a
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: special secret, their newfound kinship with their hero on stage,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: who was just now laying it down. They fucking knew
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that guy, they knew Dime. They were just doing shots
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: with him. Man fucking ah. But then out of nowhere,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: a big man, a bald man, buzz cut, broad shoulders,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: workers jacket, big black boots, rushed the stage. The band
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: was clueless, still rocking out, and the audience was immediately pissed.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: The hell was this guy interrupting what was shaping up
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to be a glorious set. Then the big man stormed
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: forward on stage in the direction of Dime Security pounced immediately.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Dime had no idea what happened, neither did the rest
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: of the band. Security struggled to contain the Big Man,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and they stumbled. The Big Man latched onto a stack
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: of amplifiers, refused to let go. The crowd booed. The
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: band saw what was happening, and they knew security would
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: straighten it out, so they did the smart thing and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: kept playing so it as to not draw further attention
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: to the problem and giving the over excited fan what
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he wanted attention. Security clumsily hauled the resistant Big Man
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: off stage. On the way, he reached out and grabbed
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and toppled a small lighting rig. Rodies and stage hands
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: were quickly dispatched to fix the rig, and the band
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: literally didn't miss a beat. The Big Man was gone
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: like nothing happened, But Nick saw it Speed did too.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: From the crowd, they could see the Big Man wasn't
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: fucking around. He wasn't just some ordinary over excited fan
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: jumping on stage to wash around and then dive off
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: after four seconds of glory. It was a look in
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: his eye. It was more than menace, was something else,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and it scared the hell out of them. We'll be
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: right back after this word word word. The music in
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: his headphones was at such an extreme volume that it
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: didn't matter where you were situated in the Leemath Thunder
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Simi Pro football team's locker room, you could hear it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Pantera fucking hostile screaming out of the headphones and into
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the ears of Crazy Nate, the Thunder's starting offensive lineman.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: The Marine spit Crazy Nate out. Damaged civilian life wasn't taking.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Football was a release. Crazy Nate could find a bit
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of himself out on the gridiron and pummel all comers
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: with his massive frame, just like the Thunder's logo indicated
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: a sledgehammer pounding downward, the same pounding sound as the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Pantera music. He used to psych him up before games.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: But football didn't last, and off the field, Crazy Nate
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: was just Nate Nathan. To his mom, she was proud
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of him, proud of his service in the Marines, even
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: though he was discharged over two years early mental health issues.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: She bought him a gun for Christmas, a Bretta nine
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: millimeter semi automatic. Nathan loved that gun. It gave him confidence,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: gave him a sense of self and he was in
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: need of both. He was going to do it finally,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: he banked enough courage after the Marines, after football. This
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was going to be the next move. This move was
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: going to set him up. It was going to be
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: his future. He was gonna make like his favorite band, Pantera,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to make a career of being in a band and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: become a rock star. Nick and Speed sat on the
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: bench seat in the back of the Forida' conline, long
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: since liberated from the working man's van. The bench seat
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: now occupied the corner of their friend Dave's garage, next
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to the weightlifting bench, a few feet from the dorm
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: room fridge, and positioned perfectly across the wall of Marshall lamps, drums,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and cheap pvy vocal pa system that never seemed loud
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: enough for the vocals to be heard over the crushing
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: metal riffs and rhythms of Dave's new band. The vocals
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: were a fucking problem. Dave's new band had an endless
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: parade of riffs. Nick and Speed were plenty satisfied, but
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Dave and his band had no singer, no singer, no band,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: no band, no gigs, no gigs, no chicks, no chicks,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and he was still just a loser in a garage.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Nick and Speed were content to hang in Day's garage,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: though at least there was action between shows from their
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: favorite bands. Nothing could beat that hang with Dim before
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the Damage Plant gig up in Toledo a few months earlier, though,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and Nick and Speed were especially stoked about another Damage
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Plant gig with their hero dimeback Darrow in a few weeks,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: this time in Columbus, Ohio and making it even better
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: on Nick's birthday, December eighth, John Lennon's death day. Actually,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Nick thought that was cool, the rock and roll tie
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: in the darkness of Lennon's death, so evil, so metal
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: mark David Chapman, John Lennon's murderer, was indeed evil. He
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: didn't know it, though, he was that batshit crazy. Nick
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: was a bit of an obsessive when it came to
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: serial killers. Chapman wasn't a serial killer, but he was
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: high profile enough for Nick to dive into the lenin
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: murder Warmhole even wrote Chapman letters in prison, same as
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: he did with Son of Sam David Berkerwitz and the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Green River killer Gary Ridgeway, and none of them ever
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: wrote back. Nick suspected and serial killers only wrote back
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to chicks typical except Mark David Chapman was still married,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: still married to the woman he was married to before
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: he went to prison. Now that Chick was committed, Nick
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and Speed's friend Dave and his bandmates could use that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: type of commitment behind Mike or else. They were all
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: going nowhere. Singer after singer paraded through and they all sucked,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: all ripoffs, and they could be categorized into three metal
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: hardcore singing styles. Number one the Prince of aquinet the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: guys who didn't get the memo that the fucking eighties
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: were over man that nobody wanted to hear some sunset
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: strip has been trying to sound like Ozzy Osbourne or worse,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Sebastian fucking Boch. It was a reason Ozzie sounded like
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Ozzy because he was fucking Ozzy and you weren't. Number two,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the cookie monster. This dude grabbed the mic, pulled it
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: off the mic, stand started stomping around with his head down,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: his face buried into the microphone while straight up barking
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: into it like he was choking on a bone, or
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: more specifically, like he was choking on a bunch of
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: poorly chewed cookies and sounding like well fucking cookie Monster
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: instead of some dude from an East Coast hardcore band.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And number three the Phil, the guy who combined the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Aquinet hair metal style with the Cookie Monster hardcore style,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: just like Phil Ensamo from Pantera did, and the approach
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was dead on. But none of the dudes who tried
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: out had pipes like Phil, so inevitably they were drown
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: out by the crunching power of Dave and the rest
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of his band. But today it was a new day,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and that meant a new audition. Nick and Speed sat
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: on the bench seat, sharing a joint and pulling on
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: forties while Dave and his band tuned up. When Nick
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: saw the big dude who was auditioning walk in, he
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: immediately started to choke on the grass he was trying
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to inhale. No shit, Speed Saw too, was just as freaked,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: was him. No shit, that's him. The big dude from
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Boguards who rushed the stage on Diamond Vinnie, who was
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: tackled and hauled off by security, the dude with all
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the crazy in his eyes. Neither of him said anything,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and their inner monologues quickened the parent from the Weed
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and they watched the Big Dude make awkward introductions with
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Dave in the band. He told him his name was
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Nathan and told him not to call him Nate. He
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: fucking hated me. Okay. They made brief small talk, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: then the band got down to it. Counting in their
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: first song. Nick and Speed loved the riff, one of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Dave's best, was totally original. It was no easy thing
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: to do in the world of heavy metal create an
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: original riff. The rhythm section kicked in big behind Dave's guitar,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: mid tempo, heavy awesomeness, a massive groove. Nick couldn't help
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: but think that Dime would approve the Big Dude. Nathan
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: grabbed the mic and Nick called it immediately. Oh no,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: oh no, no, he's gonna do it. Don't don't do it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Here comes Yep, Mike off the stand, head down, Billy Mulino,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: big man. Stop. Here comes the fucking Cookie Monster. But
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, what the fuck? This was worse than
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Nick or anyone could have expected. Dude wasn't only doing
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the cook Monster those lyrics, Those lyrics weren't his lyrics.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Those were fucking Pantera lyrics. Dave and the rest of
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the band immediately identified the lyrics for what they were
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: as well, stolen Pantera lyrics, and stopped playing. Dave wasn't
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: won the fuck around? The fuck do you think you're doing, Nate?
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? And it's Nathan by the way.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Dave explained to him that those weren't his lyrics, that
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: he was no dumby, he knew who fucking Pantera was. Man,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: those were Phil Nselmo's lyrics. Nathan denied it. There were
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: his lyrics, his lyrics. Those weren't anyone else's. He wrote them.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: He said it with such conviction that everyone in the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: garage almost believed him. Almost get the fuck out of
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: here and stop wasting our time. Dave was pissed, but
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: not as pissed as the big man, Nathan, or as confused.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Nathan stormed out of the garage and hit the sidewalk,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: utterly humiliated by the experience, hands jammed in his work
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: as jacket pockets, head down, chin tucked against his chest,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: eyes peering up, pushing his brow, and who his clinched forehead,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: walking fast, but somehow sinking into himself. He heard the voices.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: They multiplied and came at him, fast loser, wannabe lard ass,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: fucking schizo looney Fuck you. He'll never be anything. Shitty marine,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: shitty football players, shitty singer. No one likes you, No
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: one ever liked you. You'll never get laid you big
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: fucking load. What did you expect. It wasn't your fault.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: It was his fault, their fault. You didn't do anything wrong.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: They fucked you, man. They stole your lyrics, Pantera did.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Those weren't Phil fucking and Salmo's lyrics, they were yours.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Pan Terra stole from you. You're not a loser, You're
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a wrong fucking man. Man. Fuck them. They're stealing pieces
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of shit. They deserve to be humiliated. He's not you.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: They deserved a fucking gay. Twenty two year old Nathan
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Gale was hurriedly walking down the street in the midst
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: of a manic schizophrenic episode. Inside of his head, swirling
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: voices competing for attention, untethering him from whatever grip on
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: sanity he still had. The locals who spotted him suspected something,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: but had no idea. Neither did the cop prowling by
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: in his cruiser. He just knew something about the Big
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Dude was off December eighth, two thousand and four, Columbus, Ohio,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Al Rosavilla Nightclub, Nick's birthday, twenty minutes past roll call
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: at the eighteenth precinct. The Big Dude, who was looking
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: for a place to park his Pontiac Grand Dam. The
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: cop was eighteen minutes into his patrol in his cruiser
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: on his own rolling through Columbus. Nick and Speed were
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: settled up front near the stage at al Rosavilla, absolutely
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: hyped on seeing Damage Plan for the second time in
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: an even month period. Damage playing guitar player ex Pantera
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: guitarist Dive Back darryl Abbott, again up close and personal
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: on a tiny stage. At the moment, Diame was backstage
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: with his brother Vinnie and the rest of the band
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: about to embark upon their nightly ritual shots and then
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Van Halen, Van fucking Halen. The Big Dude was now
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: outside his car, pacing in the albro Sevilla Nightclub's parking lot,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: hands stuffed in his pants, pockets in that familiar walking
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: post of his head down, chin tucked eesa all menace.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: He was, of course, drawing attention to himself. Club security
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: had taken notice it was cold. What the hell was
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: he doing out here all by himself. Security wanted to
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: know if he had a ticket to the show. The
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: big dude mumbled something and kept walking. The security shrugged,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: not his problem and headed back inside, where anticipation for
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Damage Plan was building with the crowd. The house lights
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: were killed. A quick roar went up from the audience.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Dark figures walked on to the dark stage. It wasn't
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the band, not yet, roadies, one of them a massive
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: man that Nick and Speed remembered from the last Damage
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Plant show, A guy who went by the name Mayhem,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: who headed up security for the band, posted up by
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the drum riser. Now more dark figures, long hair, purpose
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: walking with drinks in their hands. They put them down,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: picked up their instruments. The band another roar, whistles, cat calls,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: more damage Plan chanting, and someone hit the lights. The
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: fuck there they were, in the flesh, right there, mere
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: feet from the crowd. The feeling never failed to surprise Nick,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: that feeling of oh my god, these guys are actually
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: real and I'm actually in their presence, breathing the same
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: fucking air man. No one is as lucky as I am.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Right now, dinback Daryl pulled some feedback up of his guitar.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: His brother Vinnie laid in a beat behind him. The
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: rest of the band kicked into their sets for a
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: song breathing life outside the club. The sound from the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: stage bled out into the Columbus Knight. The Big Dude,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Nathan Gale, ex marine, ex semi pro football player, ex
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Pantera fan, he of the begrudged identity, believing that his
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: lyrics were stolen by dine Bag Daryl's band two manic,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: too schizophrenic, too insane to realize he'd beved the lyrics himself,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: that he committed the act that led to the humiliation
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: back in Dave's garage, that Pantera, that din Bag Daryl
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. When Nathan Gale heard
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the first sounds from damage Plants set, he turned on
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: his heels and, with the most purpose he'd ever felt
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in his short life, stormed back toward the Alrosavilla Nightclub. Inside.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: As was their vibe, the band was in it, especially
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Die in that stance, the one that was instantly recognizable
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: to any dine Bag Daryl fan. The Texas lead, the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: metal head swirl, the horricane of long curly hair, putting
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: on a master's course and how to riff and not
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: just for Hea, for groove. It was all Field van Allen,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: van fucking Halen. The crowd rocked inside. Outside, Nathan Gale
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: stormed his way toward the club. His hands still in
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: his pockets, he removed them to scale the fence surrounding
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the back of the club's exit. The fence was no
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: match for the Big Dude. He pounced down on the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: other side, his sight square on the back exit, ignoring
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: the random fans smoking cigarettes giving him shit for his
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: blatant attempt to sneak into the show. He jammed his
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: hands back into his pockets and made his way to
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the door to get in, where Nick Speed and two
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty other fans were now rocking out in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a shared heavy metal trance, a stone cold Texas groove
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: right there in old fucking Ohio with their heroes on stage.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Nathan Gale bounded into the back door of the club,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: straight past a member of security. Security asked the big dude,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: what's up. He got no answer. Nathan Glee was gone.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Inside in the dark, Nick and Speed broke their trance.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: By the time Din back, Daryl hit the solo. Nick
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: was watching dim intently studying the master intent himself on
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: one day matriculating on guitar from a mere nickel to
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: a dime, maybe even getting up the courage to ask
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Dave to jam with him. In his garage, dime was shredding,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: putting on a fucking clinic. And that's when Nick's saw
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the big dude from day's garage from the last damage
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: planned showed Toledo too there at the side of the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: stage moving the big Dude, Nathan Gale, walking with purpose,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: unmistakable menace, even in that oversized Columbus blue jacket's hockey jersey.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: What the fuck was he doing? Nick felt it immediately
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: fear for himself for speed for Dimebag on stage, because
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: it was clear to Nick instantly that that was who
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the big Dude was headed for. But now on stage,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Nathan Gale's hands were out of his pocket as he
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: continued to walk. His arms were outstretched in his right
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: hand a gun, his left hand cupping his right a
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: proper shooter stands in motion, moving straight toward Dimebag. Daryl Abbott,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: who was oblivious to what was about to happen, as
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: was the rest of his band. It was happening so fast,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: but Nick saw it in slow motion. He froze, paralyzed
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: in fear, watching the opening moments of a real life
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: horror show, and unable to do anything, unable to scream,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: unable to run, unable to look away. He saw it.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Nathan Gaile fired his nine millimeters Bretta handgun point blank
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: into the side of Dimebag Daryl's head. He shot off
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: three more rounds, one in the face, one in the year,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: one in the hand. Nick watched his favorite guitarist all
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: dead on the stage, and then all hell broke loose.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Damage Planned Security. The mountain of a man they called Mayhem,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: sprinted at Gail from behind. Gail got off another shot.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: The bullet hit Damage Plans tour manager, who was also
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: given Gail chase. Then Gail, struggling in the grip of Mayhem,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: loosened his hand with a gun and pumped shot him
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in Mayhem's chest, then another in his leg, and then
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: another in his back, and Mayhem died almost instantly in
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the opening seconds of the melee. The crowd had no
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: idea what was happening. Once they figured out that there
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: was a crazed gunman in their midst firing off rounds.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: It was fight or flight. Most understandably ran toward the exit.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: For others, their instincts compelled them toward the stage, toward
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the shooter. One of them was twenty three year old
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: damage planed fan Nathan Bray, who rushed straight at Nathan
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Gale after seeing the shoot and killed Dinbag, Daryl and Maham.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Unarmed himself, Bray tried to disarm Nathan Gale. Gail shot
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: him in the chest. Gray died from his wound later
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: that night at the hospital. Another brave Al Rosa Vista
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: attendee on that night was club employee Aaron Hawk, who
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: was also an ex marine. He took a different approach
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: toward the gunman from behind, sneak attack over the drum
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: riser onto the stage. Nathan Gale was not surprised. Aaron
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Hawk was met with six shots in the legs, in
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the hand, and four deadly ones in the chest. Aaron
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Hawk died on the spot. Nathan Gale was intent upon
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: a full ar public blood path. He was rampaging, firing
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: off rounds on stage inside the club outside on the streets.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: The cop took the call at his cruiser just eighteen
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: minutes after roll call. He was the only black and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: white nearby l Rosa Vista three Rio inside the hour
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: page with the three three shots of the fire active shooter.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Thinking didn't enter into the equation. The cop sped straight
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: toward the scene by himself, with no partner, with no backup.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: He didn't hesitate. Heroes need not apply. It didn't even
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: enter into his mind. The only thing he could think
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of was the two hundred something people trapped inside that
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: club with a madman firing off bullets. He made the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: scene in what seemed like seconds, popped open the driver's
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: side door, pulled the shotgun off the rack, hustled to
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the first door. He could see the side door toward
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the back of the stage. There were shows shocked concert
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: goers stumbling out in there. They yelled, he's shooting everyone,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: He's got a hostage. The cop pushed his way through
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the exit and into the bottleneck of fans attempting to
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: escape on the other side. Nick and Speed saw upon entry,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the cop hoisted his shotgun to his shoulder. Nick and
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Speed were by now bottlenecked with the others trying to
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: escape at the exit behind the stage. Nick was the
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: first one the cop saw. When he entered, the cop
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: looked him in the eye and yelled, you're my witness.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I had to do it then, and opening at the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: exit speed split, Nick stayed he now had a job
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to do to bear witness. He turned and watched the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: cop slowly make his way toward the back of the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: stage below him. On stage with his back to the cop,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: the shooter, the big Dude Nathan Gale, now had a hostage.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: He had his burly left arm choke holding the hostage
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: by the neck while he frantically took game with his
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: bretta in his right hand at Crab members who were
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: now bravely threatening to rush the stage. While the gunman
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: aimed at the The cop moved slow, very aware that
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: at any moment the gunman could turn around and spot
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: him and pump that baretta straight into the skull of
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the hostage, or quickly get a shot off at him,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: taking him out, and the cop creeped. The crowd freaked.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: The shooter kept waving his gun frantically at the crowd
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: offstage and then shooting wildly into the crowd, all the
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: while keeping his choke hold on the hostage and the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: cop moved closer to him from behind. The crowd saw
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the cop approaching it with the shotgun aimed, and they
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: started yelling shoot him, shoot him, and the cop pinched
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: forward twenty feet behind the shooter with the hostage in
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: a headlock, the hostage's head just below the shooters no
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: room for error. The cop took aim. The shooter sensed
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the energy and the room shift. He started to turn
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: his head back toward the cop. The cop knew it
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: was right now or never. He didn't hesitate. He pulled
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the trigger on a shotgun. The shooter, the big Dude,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Nathan Gal, died instantly, shotgun blast in the back of
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the head with a half full clip still in his biretta,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: his business unfinished. Clearly, there would have been more carnage
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: had the cop not shown up when he did and
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: heroically entered into the fray and taken bold action. Heroes
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: need not apply. The cop was no hero, not by
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: his standards anyway. He had just done his job, protected
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: those who needed protecting. In the end, there were no bagpipes,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: there was no Irish wake, just another roll call under
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the harsh glare of the real heroes framed on the walls.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Of the precinct. But Nick knew a hero what he
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: saw one, be it the cop who ended the blood
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: bath that night, the cop who told him you're my witness,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: or his guitar hero dimeback Daryl Abbott, who was senselessly
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: murdered that night, or dimes hero Eddie van Halen, who
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: showed up at Diebag's memorial service, and in true rock
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and roll fashion, drunkenly bumbled his way through a few
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: words in Dimebag's honor at the mic, and then laid
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: his iconic black and yellow tape striped guitar in dimes coffin.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Not a reproduction, mind you, but the very guitar he
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: held aloft on the back of Van Halen too, to
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: rest with Dimebag eternally. After all, these were the last
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: words dime ever spoke Van fucking Halen. I'm Jake Brennan
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: in This is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 41:57
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• 42:01
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• 42:07
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• 42:12
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• 42:24
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• 42:29
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• 42:43
  Speaker 1: He's adn