James Hetfield says Dimebag Darrell “inspired” him: “What a blessing to have been in his life and him in my life.”
James Hetfield has a lot of respect for Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell after years of sharing the spotlight together
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Metallica’s James Hetfield said he and Dimebag Darrell “inspired each other” after the Pantera player introduced him to the solid state amp.
In a recent interview with SiriusXM‘s Jose Mangin, Hetfield, who was close with the late heavy metal guitarist, revealed the impact Darrell had on him:
“Well, what a blessing to have been in his life and him in my life. Yeah, some of those early days … just travelling down there to the Dallas area and meeting with those guys and just hanging out.
“Dimebag introduced me to the solid state amp. I remember he had this freaking amazing crunch going on. It’s like, ‘What is that?’ You know?
“So yeah, [we] inspired each other. He inspired me as well. No doubt.”
Pantera did not release their debut album, Metal Magic, until 1983 – two years after Metallica formed but the same year Kill ‘Em All came out.
Pantera would go on to release nine studio albums before Dimebag Darrell, real name Darrell Lance Abbott, was shot and killed during a performance in Columbus, Ohio by fan and former Marine Nathan Gale.
At the time he was playing with his band subsequent to Pantera, Damageplan.
Sophie has been writing news and features for Guitar.com since 2021 and writes elsewhere including for NME, Kerrang! and TicketmasterUK. She is a classically trained flautist who’s always finding new ways to understand music theory.