SIX FEET UNDER Singer CHRIS BARNES: 'Life Is Too Short'

SIX FEET UNDER frontman Chris Barnes has issued the following statement in memory of DAMAGEPLAN/ex-PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott:

"Life is too short, my friends ... life is too short.

"I was lucky enough to meet Dime a few years back when I was in Dallas for a tattoo convention and getting some work done on a tattoo that Paul Booth was working on.

"Anyway, me and Paul and some friends decided to go see KID ROCK, who was playing in town. During the show, Dime came out on stage and joined the band — it was awesome.

"After the show, Paul asked if I'd come backstage with him and Paul asked me if I would show Darrell the tattoo work he was doing on me. And I was like, 'Sure.' Man, was I nervous as hell when I went back there — but you know what Dime was cool as hell to me and complimented me on the tattoo. It was just a real cool experience getting to meet him.

"I was always a big PANTERA fan, and when I heard the news last Wednesday night, all I could think of how lucky I was to meet Darrell and how back in 1994 when I was on my last U.S. tour with CANNIBAL CORPSE, we were playing a show in L.A., chillin' on the bus, it was about two hours before the show, we were all just sittin' around playin video games and such. So Rob walks in the bus with a couple of guys, one was in the opening band and one was a friend of the guy in the opening band. Anyway, to make a long story short, the guy from the opening band shook my hand and then started talking about his friend that was standing next to him facing me, and how he was just released from prison and how they came there to kill me because of the lyrics I was writing at the time — 'Butchered at Birth' and 'Tomb…', mainly — saying that I should be killed for singing about killing babies… and at that point his friend lifted his shirt and took out a 9-mm from the front of his waistband. He remained silent while the other guy kept saying they were going to kill me for writing lyrics like that. Just at that moment, my tour manager at the time, Doug Goodman, came on the bus and saw the situation. Doug has a real positive attitude and personality and luckily somehow in like a split second, he talked to these guys and got them off the bus guarding me at the same time. It was so fucked up and I wouldn't have played the show that night if it weren't for Doug Goodman, Mike Faley from Metal Blade and about 15 other people, and fans from the club surrounding me as they escorted me into the club for the show.

"I'm tellin' you — I have always known ever since that day that it is possible that one of us could be easily be killed doing what we do. But dwelling on that does no good at all, you really can't protect yourself too much from fate or whatever. But I know what we can ALL do. We can celebrate each of our lives every day by doing the things we enjoy like going to shows and embracing music with all our heart and not being afraid. Because that's what its all about. Doing all we can while we are here and have a good fucking time doin' it — that's what I've been doin' and what I plan on doing for a long fuckin' time, because life is too short, my friends.

"R.I.P., Dime. You fuckin rule!"