KING DIAMOND: 'DIMEBAG's Murder Was Just So Senseless'

King Diamond recently spoke to the Tartarean Desire webzine about a number of topics, including the possibility of a new MERCYFUL FATE album and the murder of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Tartarean Desire: [What is] your comment was on the tragic murder of Dimebag and has that affected or changed you and your approach to what you do on stage?

King Diamond: "Um, that's… I don't think I want to comment on [that]. Uh, it's not a thing to sit and, I mean, like, what happened there was insane, you know? And it's, like you said, an extreme tragedy. . . The guy, the way I know him, couldn't hurt a fly. I mean, the nicest person.

"I have only seen Dimebag from the good sides, you know, and have the highest respects for him as a human being and as a musician. And in that way, it was a horrible tragedy to hear about. It hit home very close. It definitely did. . .

"Even though I would not consider myself one of his close friends, 'cause we didn't see each other that much, but whenever we did see each other, which happened some times, it was always good. Always good. But I'm not what you would call a close friend. I would hope that I was considered a friend even though we didn't see each other a lot, you know, but you know how those things are when these tragedies happen.

"A lot of people are there [in the media]. Some are respectful, some are not, about how to treat the tragedy.

"What way do you pay respect? Do you start talking about the times when you were this and that with those who were closest or do you leave it alone? And that way you have a lot of respect. I mean, it's such a difficult thing — what do you do in that situation? When you hear about it, and then the aftermath, you know….

"Sterling Winfield is a producer. . . He worked also on a couple of albums for KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE. And he was like a brother to Dimebag, I know that. He used to tour with them. He was in the studio with them helping them co-produce their albums for a long, long time. . . And he had just talked with [Dimebag] within 6 months before this happened.

"I saw [Sterling] around Christmas and talked to him for a while about it, you know, and it's incredibly hard. I know that Dimebag was like a brother to him — a real brother, not just a friend or something like that, a close friend — [he was] a real brother. And man, I could see how that hurt [Sterling].

"[Dimebag's murder was] just so senseless. I could sit here and talk probably for hours, which I'm not going to, and come up with all kinds of things to say about this situation but it's not gonna do any good. Um, because it makes no sense. . . I mean, it goes straight over my head to try and sit and talk about it in a sensible way because it's so insane, what happened, you know? That's how it is to me. When I start talking about it now — I haven't talked about it since before Christmas there with [Sterling] because it doesn't make sense to talk about it. There is no sense in what happened. . . And that's the thing. It suddenly dawns on me as I sit and talk about it, that this is meaningless to talk about the thing that happened, because there was no sense in that action. And what is worth talking about is what a great guy [Dimebag] was and what an amazing musician he was, too. I mean, what a great human being and what a great musician — that's important. . . And that's important to remember forever, you know? But the actual act there, I think that should just be forgotten because the person that did that is not worthy of mentioning."

Read King Diamond's entire interview with Tartarean Desire at this location.