Members Of SLIPKNOT, SHADOWS FALL And LAMB OF GOD Remember DIMEBAG

In the April 2005 issue of Revolver magazine, SLIPKNOT's Paul Gray, LAMB OF GOD's Randall Blythe and SHADOWS FALL's Brian Fair discuss Dimebag's murder and the three bands' upcoming joint tour of the U.S., which is scheduled to kick off early next month. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Revolver: Going out right after Dimebag's death, is everything different? How do you deal with knowing that someone might go after you?

Brian Fair: "You've got it in the back of your head, but you can't let things that you can't control worry you. That was such a freak insane situation."

Paul Gray: "The fact that he could even get that gun in — that's so fucked up. I haven't been to a show in forever where they didn't pat you down. Not for band safety, but for kids in the crowd. How some dude walked in with a gun, I don't know."

Randall Blythe: "I know, because I've played that club before."

Brian Fair: "We have, too. You can't let things like that stop you from living your life. Because if you did—"

Randall Blythe: "You'd never leave the house. You could walk out and get hit by a car or something. But it's in your mind. We just played in England and a kid jumped onstage, made it past security. My guitarist and I just looked at each other and were like, 'Whoa!'"

Brian Fair: "We were on that tour with DAMAGEPLAN. We'd left it two days before the shooting. I stood on Dime's side of the stage every night. I was doing shots with him every night. I would have probably been there when it happened."

Randall Blythe: "Our tour ran into their tour, and all of LAMB OF GOD was onstage with them singing PANTERA's 'Walk'. We were like, 'What if we'd been there?' I'm glad the dude that shot Dime is dead."

Revolver: Did you guys know Dimebag well? What were your impressions of him?

Brian Fair: "He was one of the nicest rock-and-roll dudes I've ever met."

Paul Gray: "I went down to his funeral and it was beautiful. Everyone had great things to say about him. One of the coolest things was when Eddie Van Halen, who was Dime's idol, brought [Eddie's] guitar and laid it in the coffin. And Eddie only met him one time, too. I'm going to miss him so much — he was a really good friend of mine."

Brian Fair: "Without a doubt, one of the nicest guys around. No rock-star bullshit. We played some shitholes on that tour, and it didn't stop DAMAGEPLAN. They didn't think about it for a second. They went from having hit records and touring arenas to playing shitholes, and Dime didn't even care. All he wanted to do was play rock and roll. And he went out doing what he wanted to be doing."

Paul Gray: "And he was one of the baddest fucking guitar players ever. He changed heavy metal."

Randall Blythe: "He helped create the style of music we're all playing."

Paul Gray: "And I've never seen a guy get so fucking drunk and still shred! Note-for-note perfect! While someone's pouring a bottle of booze down his throat. I was like, 'You've got to be fucking kidding me!'"