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KNAC.COM Recaps DIMEBASH 2020 And RITA HANEY Interview. Review Photos And Video!

By Krishta Abruzzini, Pacific Northwest Writer
Monday, February 17, 2020 @ 11:53 AM


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All Photos By Krishta Abruzzini

Dimebash 2020 featured 70+ artists gathered together in a sold-out show to pay homage to PANTERA / DAMAGEPLAN’s “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott on January 16, 2020 at the Observatory in Santa Ana, CA. To say it must have been a massive undertaking to produce and organize this show, is an understatement.

Hosted by Jose Mangin (Affliction/SeriusXM) and Riki Rachtman (Cathouse founder/Former Host Mtv’s Headbanger’s Ball), the night featured some of Dime’s favorite songs performed by the various artists in attendance.

The show featured artists, Art Cruz (Lamb of God, Winds Of Plague), Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Chris Broderick (Act of Defiance/In Flames), Cody Jinks, Courtney Cox (The Iron Maidens), Derrick Green (Sepultura), Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves, ex-God Forbid), dUg Pinnick (King’s X), Eddie Veliz (KYNG), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Gene Hoglan (Testament), Heidi Shepherd (Butcher Babies), Joey Vera (Armored Saint), Gonzo Sandoval (Armored Saint), Phil Sandoval (Armored Saint), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Lita Ford, Pearl Aday, Pepe Clarke (KYNG), Phil Demmel (ex-Machine Head/Vio-lence), Randy Weitzel (In This Moment), BMX legend Rick Thorne, Roy Mayorga (Hellyeah/Stone Sour), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Sebastian Bach, Sen Dog (Cypress Hill), Tommy Vext (Bad Wolves), Tommy Victor (Prong), Tony Campos (Static-X, Fear Factory), Tony Castaneda (ex-KYNG), Travis Johnson (In This Moment), and of course, Dave Grohl along with many others.

The annual show, produced by Dimebag’s longtime partner Rita Haney (Dimebag’s Hag), brings together many musicians and friends to keep the spirit of Dimebag Darrell alive. The all-ages show is also a benefit with proceeds going to music education and animal rescues.

Highlights of the night included Dave Grohl joining ten other drummers on stage performing SEPULTURA’s "Roots Bloody Roots" with Derek Green on vocals. Scott Ian (ANTHRAX) joined his wife, Pearl Aday, along with country music star Cody Jinks to perform PINK FLOYD’s "Wish You Were Here". Sebastian Bach singing, "Cemetery Gates". Dave Grohl along with Scott Ian, Ian’s young son Revel, Charlie Benante and Frank Bello performed FOO FIGHTERS"Weenie Beenie". And of course the biggest part of the night, was having the 70+ performers and friends coming to the stage to honor both Dimebag and his late brother, Vinnie Paul (PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN/HELLYEAH) with PANTERA’s "Walk".

After the show, VIP’s and artists were treated to a backstage party with music played by KNAC.COM’s own DJ Will, and the most ridiculously amazing BBQ cooked by Pitmaster Dave Grohl himself. With chicken legs, pulled pork, brisket and beef ribs, it was a vegan’s worst nightmare. I’ll just say it, it was hands down the best BBQ I’ve ever had. Grohl started his process at nearly 6am that morning, and by midnight, the effort certainly showed. Helping with the BBQ this year was Top Chef Alum, Chef Bruce Kalman. Also hanging out, was James North, the Creative Director of Sweet Amber Ventures, and home of METALLICA’s Blackened American Whiskey. I wouldn’t know if Dave Grohl used some of this Whiskey in his long BBQ process, or if it was a personal sipper, but either way, it was one fantastic night filled with love, music, food, laughter and most of all, keeping the memory of Dime alive.

To all at Dimebash 2020, Thank you.

RITA HANEY Interview

KNAC.COM: I wanted to do the interview with you in person at Dimebash this year, but mother nature wasn’t very cooperative. It was pouring!

HANEY: Yeah, and then I got totally swamped. I just had so much crap going on and nothing was going as it should be. I know I missed out on a few things being stuck in the production office. It’s always the guest list. It’s always such a pain in the butt. Why can’t people ask you the day before, or two days before, they always gotta wait till the last minute.

KNAC.COM: I worked a similar show a couple of years in a row. It’s so much work. The guests show up and it seems like party time. Not many realize the hours that are put into the production of these things, especially with so many artists coming in to play one show.

HANEY: I think I’m definitely going to make a 24-hour mandatory cut-off period from now on. I know I don’t hit somebody up at the last minute. I’ll always give a couple of days. Just don’t do it right before doors. I mean, come on. I know most of these people aren't green.

KNAC.COM: I think NAMM kind of brings that out. There’s always so many shows going on each night. Most people are still deciding which party they want to attend the same day. “Ooh, I think I want to go to Dimebash. Let’s call Rita.” [Laughs]

HANEY: Yeah, well they should have thought ahead of time and committed. That’s one thing that I did too this year, is I went and picked up on anybody that skipped out on us. So I know who you are! You didn’t come here and you didn’t donate, so....[Laughing]

KNAC.COM: Next time, put them in with the masses. I bought my tickets. It’s a benefit!

HANEY: Yeah, next time, I’ll just tell them to donate, and I’ll put their tickets at the door. That way, even if they don’t show up, at least they donated.

KNAC.COM: Well, it was spectacular, even with it raining on us. We were drowned rats, but well fed drowned rats. That BBQ was SO good.

HANEY: I went into the production office for about three hours, I had to lock the door, because I thought I was all ahead of everything and got it done the day before, but I had all these add-ons and parking lists to sort out. So when I came out, I was like, ‘Why are all the tables scrunched up over here, and how come nobody’s put up these three other tents out here.

KNAC.COM: Wait. I would have personally put a tent up myself had I known there were more. I huddled with my friends inside DJ Will’s KNAC.COM booth. [Laughing]

HANEY: Nobody cared. They just stood out there and got rained on. Everybody was having a good time, so it didn’t matter.

KNAC.COM: We just kept trying to protect Will’s gear. We live in Washington State, so rain is at least something we’re familiar with. Rain. Gear. Not a great mix.

HANEY: When it first started, I moved the speakers underneath. When the wind started blowing, it looked like you guys had to adjust the whole everything. Somebody kept going over and messing with the volume, but they wouldn’t put the tarp back over his equipment. I kept weighing it down, and still I’d find it off.

KNAC.COM: I think that might have been the same person that kept hitting the play button with the same three songs playing over and over again.

HANEY: Oh good lord, did y’all finally figure that one out?

KNAC.COM: Oh no. Other than to save it from the torrential downpour, we all know better than to touch Will’s stuff. The other guy obviously doesn’t know him very well. [Laughs] So, I have to say, your love story with Darrell is one of my favorites of all time. Throughout history, there are just those couples that remain talked about forever, and I feel like you and Darrell fall into that category.

HANEY: Aww. Thank you. I appreciate that. Sometimes I get people that were around during that time, as far as a group of people in Texas, and they’re usually real sympathetic because he’s not here, and I’m like, no! Don’t feel sorry for me. I got to meet my one and only. I got to spend time. I got that whole true love thing. Just having the memory is enough. I’m grateful that I got the time that I did get. Hopefully there’s more down the line somewhere with whatever happens to us from here.

KNAC.COM: Life is so weird.

HANEY: I like to think of it like he got rewarded early, you know?

KNAC.COM: You guys met when you were eight. I mean, what a love story.

HANEY: He was my best friend.

KNAC.COM: Do you still feel his presence?

HANEY: Oh yeah, always. Like the rain, I’m like, thanks a lot. I know you did that on purpose. I don’t care what adventure that we’re on, or what project we’re working on, there’s always some obstacle or task that we have to overcome, and when you do it’s always last minute. It’s always some chaos. And I’m like, I know you do this on purpose. But it makes it an adventure, so when you do finish, it’s like, we pulled it off. He was constantly that prankster.

KNAC.COM: You guys bonded over KISS. I gotta tell you, I think I was around ten myself singing "Love Gun" to the top of my lungs in my bedroom. Zero clue what a ‘love gun’ was or meant. [Laughing]

HANEY: Oh yeah. Me either. I probably knew before he did.

KNAC.COM: Well, us girls are a bit quicker on the uptake growing up.

HANEY: You know what’s funny, is I still have my little Love Gun, pop gun. The little punchout from the album with the paper that said, bang! The paper is split, so it doesn’t pop anymore, but I still have it! I’m always good at not throwing stuff away. Not quite a hoarder, but I hoard stuff I like.

KNAC.COM: Well, yeah. Those are treasures.

HANEY: Now I look back and I’m glad I didn’t throw any of the notes or any of the stuff away. Now when I go through it, it’s like seeing it again for the first time. Stuff that you forget about, and it’s like, ‘Aww, I forgot about this postcard’. Darrell was really big about writing, and sending me letters and love notes. I kind of find that a shame today. I love the idea of technology, texting and being able to facetime, and that would come in really handy with him being on the road, but it’s just kind of sad that a lot of schools don’t teach handwriting anymore. They teach them how to print. I cherish that. That someone would take the time to handwrite something. Just seeing their writing means more than a type. Just something about it is so groovy.

Darrell used to have this thing about postcards, because he knew the postcard wasn’t in an envelope, so whoever your postmaster was, could read it and see it. So it wasn’t really private. He would draw me all these little weird little stick figures...some really nasty shit. He’d say stuff like, ‘You’re going to eat my children when I get home’ and stuff like that. And he’d do it on purpose. He’d tease me saying, ‘Man, I wonder what your postman thinks’, and I’d be like, I know! Exactly. But he’d think it was the funniest thing to do.

KNAC.COM: Who do you think was the bigger KISS fan, you or Darrell?

HANEY: I’d say we’re pretty even on that one. I went to my first KISS concert before him in ‘77, and then we went together in ‘79. So I was like eleven years old, and we were almost thirteen when we went and saw the last tour of them all together on Dynasty. I told my mom and dad we were going to the circus. Same thing. [Laughs] I’d say between both of our collections of stuff, and compiling them together, it was pretty cool. I was in the KISS Army, and so was he. I still have some of my fan club newsletters that we used to get. I was definitely better at saving.

KNAC.COM: So you’re clearly the bigger KISS fan. We’ll just award you that. Did any of the members of KISS become fans of Darrell’s?

HANEY: As far as Ace goes, through the years, and of course I became really good friends with him, which I never expected that to happen, you know when you’re growing up and seeing KISS, I never thought I’d be able to just call him up on the phone or him just hit you up out of nowhere. I never thought that would come my way. I remember when Ace spent a weekend at our house, it was when they were doing some stuff with Psycho Circus, that was really the first time that Darrell and him really hung out and bonded. Basically just partied the whole weekend. What was really cool was there was a moment when we were laying on the floor in front of the jukebox, all of us laying on our stomachs on our elbows and just facing the jukebox and I remember Ace leaning over to me...we were listening to "Fractured Mirror", the instrumental that he had covered from Vinnie, and Ace leaned over and said, ‘Wow man, you know, he really likes me, doesn’t he?’ And I was like, wow. I told him that he plays the way he plays because of you. And then Darrel says to me, “Did you hear what Ace said?” And I was like, well yeah, he said it to me. I know. That was like the coolest compliment. You just kind of sit there and think, is this really happening? That I’m getting to sit here and play all these songs for my idol Ace, you know? I think that moment and the moment when he met Eddie Van Halen are two things that really stuck out in his world. He got to have both of those things.

KNAC.COM: What a beautiful life, you know? For both of you.

HANEY: Straight up. Because of him is why I know the people I know and have the friends I have. It was his whole vibe, and all the things he taught me and we taught each other growing up. I can never say thank you enough of course.

KNAC.COM: So usually young guys pick up an instrument partly to impress the girl. Did you encourage Darrel to pick up the guitar?

HANEY: Honestly, it was something that was already in him. I know when we met, he wasn’t trying to impress me. We were little kids. Puberty wasn’t even there. [Laughs] Like I said, we dug KISS right out of the shoot. When I was young, my dad’s younger sister came and lived with us for a few years and she was really into DOA and CREDENCE CLEARWATER and LED ZEPPELIN, so she turned me onto a lot of that music, and I was really young. Like first or second grade. My parents were all country/western, and outlaw kind of country, you know? So I kind of got a jump on it. Back then it was, are you ZEPPELIN or are you SABBATH? Of course I was SABBATH, and that went onto JUDAS PRIEST, and KISS was up there of course. Darrell started out with KISS and VAN HALEN, kind of going a little more toward the softer side, and I turned him onto PRIEST, the really early stuff. When Phillip [Anselmo] came into play, he had an ally. Because METALLICA was the thing. I remember the first couple of records, Vinnie and I and Darrell went to this little club in Texarkana, to see them on Kill 'Em All, and there were like maybe 30-people at that show, and maybe me and one other girl in that entire building. So Phillip joining the band gave Darrell an ally because he was really going for the heavier stuff. METALLICA was a big influence. Darrell would put James Hetfield right up there as that person that would give that chug out there. It would be him, James Hetfield and Scott Ian. Those were your three heavy chuggers back then. The riff masters.

But yeah, Darrell was into music before puberty, so I know it wasn’t about getting the girls. He was so shy. You would think the way he was, as charismatic as he was, when people were being funny and joking, you wouldn’t see that in him, but he was. The more uncomfortable or shy he got, the funnier he was. His favorite thing was being at the jug bar, because people didn’t come up and bug you. But the second when chicks would come he’d get that uncomfortable thing, and he was the best to go out with, because he’d buy you all these dances. When they’d come and say, ‘Hey, let me dance for you’, he’d say, ‘Here’s twenty-bucks, go dance for my friends’. He just really wasn’t like that ladies man. It was funny. I think a lot of that, his sense of humor and just being funny covered up some of that uncomfortableness.

KNAC.COM: Did you know early on he’d be the love of your life?

HANEY: No! It was funny. He was my friend, and he was funny and I liked being around him and stuff. I was around seventeen or eighteen, and I was going to New York a lot, seeing a lot of bands. I was going to San Francisco, and the Bay Area and checking out all kinds of stuff. At one point, I was going to move to New York. I remember we were having this party after PANTERA had played. I was going up to New York for three and four weeks at a time, and then come home. We were sitting there talking, and he was telling me that I couldn’t go. It was funny, we were at a MALICE show in Dallas of all things, MALICE in Dallas [Laughs], and he left early that night. Phil had invited me to a party, and I told Phil that night, no, I think I’m just going to go home. I told him I actually liked Darrell. It was really funny, my phone was ringing when I got home and Darrell was like, ‘I didn’t think you’d answer’, and I said, ‘Well, why are you calling?’ I always remember that line. And he goes, ‘Well, I figured you went to Phil’s’ and I go, ‘No. Actually I told Phil I liked you’. And he goes, ‘Then I’ll be over to pick you up in twenty minutes’. That’s when we officially decided we were only seeing each other. When he told me he didn’t want me to move, I was like, well, why not? It dawned on me. Then I wanted him to tell me he liked me. So I guess I did like him, but I just don’t know when it flipped from him being my best friend to me liking him. It just kind of happened that evening.

KNAC.COM: Aww. That is so sweet! Speaking of boy stuff, I watched a couple bits from Dimevision, and it’s just so many boys blowing shit up and guitars and silliness. Did they always have some kind of fireworks or explosives going on?

HANEY: Always. Ever since I can remember since we were kids, that was our big thing. Having little Roman Candle wars. Running around, shooting each other in our front yards. Once we had a house together, and still to this day, that front closet is a box of fireworks and I replenish it every year too as it gets down. You never know when someone is going to pass out at the wrong time and you might need to light ‘em up. That’s just a permanent fixture at the house in Texas, at the Fortress is fireworks, you know.

KNAC.COM: It was really fun to watch. I know you had planned to release one episode each year since his passing, and it’s such fun footage.

HANEY: Yeah, it’s crazy how all of a sudden ten-years went by and we’re like, well where did that time go? How come we haven’t done another one? We were planning on releasing Pantera 4 the next year after we did Dimevision 2, and then of course Vinnie passed away, and that just put the brakes again on everything. All of a sudden, time just gets away from you. That just seems like that just happened a few months ago.

KNAC.COM: You know, there are times my husband drives me crazy with filming all the time, and after seeing this, and knowing the story a bit, I encourage every moment. It’s a gift.

HANEY: You know, it is. That’s the cool thing about today’s technology, I always think, how would he be today with a YouTube channel? Instagram right now? He would just be so on fire. I’d be so curious with the creative things he’d come up with. Because back then when nobody carried a video camera around or had access to it, he was on top of it. He’d either pass it on to me, or Bobby Tongs, whoever was with him. Of course Bobby would be on the road, and if I came out, we’d have double cameras. It’s just so crazy how so ahead of that game, of social media he was, when it wasn’t social media yet. That’s the other thing, sometimes I’ll stop and go, wow, fifteen years, like I said, to me it doesn’t seem like it was that long. Sometimes I wonder if, God, do I get on people’s nerves always talking about him still? I mean, hopefully they don’t feel sorry for me, but it’s like having all that stuff, it’s like having him here when you’re watching it. There’s a lot of things that you didn’t see, or weren’t there for. Especially like the audio tapes he’d record in the bathroom. I set up this stand, because I always called him the shithouse poet, because he’d always go run in there on the shitter, grab his guitar and start coming up with some riffs. I’m one of those people that get in and get out, he’s one of those people that would saute on the bowl.

KNAC.COM: Us girls just want in and out, you know? [Laughing]

HANEY: It’s just not that comfortable of a seat, you know? [Laughs] So yeah, I built him this little corner shelf with a recorder. He’d buy boxes of these clear cassette tapes. He’d just pop one in. You never know what’s going to be on there. It could just be him making noises because he’s drunk, or he’s hungover, or he’s talking about something serious, or riffs or ideas for songs, or gear. He’s got like his bridge pickups that I found on these tapes. Here we have this audio. It’s not being out there trying to put a product out that he didn’t use. He’s got his whole schematics and steps and why he wanted to do this. It was really amazing he did all that stuff. He was a firm believer in lists. I know his theory on lists, makes sense to me now, because I do it, to keep anxiety from just chewing you up or your brain in not being able to go to sleep at night, he would always write everything down. Then he wouldn’t spin, thinking, don’t forget to do this… It’s a blessing to have, his voice, his face, the sound of him. I know for a lot of people that fades for them because they don’t have that audio or that video. It’s kind of sad.

KNAC.COM: You kind of lose the essence of the person without that, you know?

HANEY: Yeah. I can hear his laugh, or one of his dimebombics that he used to use, and it makes me laugh. It’s really strong and loud and it hasn’t faded and I’m so happy about that.

KNAC.COM: Do you ever get tired of getting asked questions about him?

HANEY: Oh no! That’s why I was saying I sometimes wonder if people wonder if I talk about anything else. That’s the thing, I’m good at it. It makes me happy to talk about. Even just the tiniest of things about him. I know he was such a very exceptional person just when it came to his charisma and the kind of person he was inside. You just don’t find those kinds of people, at least not a lot of them in the world. He was just such a unique character.

KNAC.COM: How did he go from Diamond Darrell, to Dimebag?

HANEY: You know, it’s funny. He actually went from Diamond to Dime, for short. He was always Diamond Darrell on the records. He came up with his name when he was like fourteen, because I think their first record out he was about fourteen. I mean, that’s how you come up with a name like Rex Rocker. [Laughing] Please! I know Rex hates that name now. For short Vinnie and Rex always called him Dime. When Phillip joined the band, he moved from New Orleans to Texas, and he didn’t really know a lot of people, but he was an avid weed smoker and so was Darrell. He’d always ask Darrell for weed, and nobody really had any money, and Darrell always had a couple of joints on him and nobody could afford to buy a quarter bag, it was always a dime bag, but he would always split it with Phil. So Phil just started calling him Dimebag, because that’s what he always had. So from Diamond, to Dime to Dimebag.

KNAC.COM: I know you guys use a lot of humor with everything, which I personally think is so healthy.

HANEY: The easiest way to cope with stuff is humor. I’d much rather be laughing, than crying and being that person that puts that burden on everyone around you and makes everyone sad. Eventually, they don’t want to be around you anymore if that’s all you put out. I hated the fact that I knew that when I walked into a room, that Vinnie would see me without Darrell, that I was always going to be that person that reminded him of that. So it is that mechanism, you find that sense of humor out there and you find that people still want to be around you and not a constant reminder of what you lost. Darrell was always that person that could light the room. I remember being on the bus one time, all of us were crammed on it going from Texas to Shreveport, and it broke down. We were on the side of the road. It was so freaking hot too. AC wasn’t working, so we had to get off the bus. It was going to take at least a couple of hours for another bus to get where we were at, and of course Darrell pulled a twelve-pack of Coors Light off the bus, cracked them open, everyone had one to cool off. We were standing in this Johnson grass, knee high, probably being eaten up by chiggers. Anyway, he took that twelve-pack box and some duct tape and just wrapped it around it and we started kicking it in a circle, waiting for that bus. Then it turned into we were counting how many times we could keep it up without it hitting the ground. Something so simple. So stupid. And I remember when the new bus got there, we were like, well, wait, just one more game. Even after the show, we taped up another box and got another circle pit going, even the guys from TYPE O NEGATIVE joined in. It was just funny seeing Peter Steele kicking that box in a circle. I think we got up to like 70-something. We were doing good. But yeah, he was just that guy. Whatever the bad situation was, he would find something to still make you laugh. You always wanted to be around him. You wanted that Dime time.

KNAC.COM: I love that. I’ve attended the Dimebash for the past couple of years. It’s indescribable. You know, just having so many artists and people coming together. I don’t even want to call it a show, it’s a gathering.

HANEY: It’s unity, and it’s fun. Yeah. I always tell people, you have to be there. It’s family. It’s like a big family reunion. It’s just a good time.

KNAC.COM: I love it for that. It’s a benefit, with the proceeds going for music education for kids and animal rescues.

HANEY: We distribute at the end of each year. I do the two events, which are Ride for Dime in August and Dimebash in January. You know, this thing sold-out this year before we even announced the lineup, which was kickass. I want Dimebash to have that reputation of, hey man, it doesn’t matter who’s playing, it’s about Dime and it’s always a fun party. That’s how I want people to think about it.

KNAC.COM: A couple of highlights from this year’s gathering: Standing in Will’s booth trying to keep it all dry, a guy came up to Dave while he was barbequing and asked him if he was going to play some PANTERA song, I can’t remember which one it was, but Dave says, 'no way to that one man'. That’s too complicated for me to play and show Dime the respect as he played it.

HANEY: That’s actually awesome. You know, Dave told me, he says, those home videos, watching those over and over as a kid, that he knew that was the kind of rockstar he wanted to grow up and be. They stamped the pattern out and that’s how you want to be. He said that’s how he based how he was, from those videos. That’s just really cool.

KNAC.COM: I saw Scott Ian crouched behind the drum kit with a young kid, both just grinning from ear to ear, as were several kids up on the stage.

HANEY: Ah, yeah. That was Cody Jinks' family. They’re awesome too.

KNAC.COM: Do they realize how cool their parents are? Do you think they get it?

HANEY: I don’t. [Laughs] Like around Dave and his daughters, I think that too. Like do you realize how people see your dad? Recently, one of the holidays, I think they were in Hawaii, he was sending me a video, saying like Merry Christmas or whatever and his daughter Violet was sitting in the background, and he was just being Dave, being kind of goofy, and he made some goofy sound, and in the background she just rolled her eyes and said, ‘You’re such a dork.’ It’s the funniest video because she’s like, ‘You’re embarrassing me.’ And I'm thinking, do you know what people would think if they received this video? [Laughing] They would be so happy and think it was so cool of your dad. It’s just so funny how kids don’t see their parents in a different light. I kind of can relate to that, like when you see PANTERA play in Texas, and they’d play a big show in Dallas, but when you left and saw them outside of Texas? It be so different. Just the way the crowds were. I don’t know why that is about hometowns, and people feeling entitled, or looking at it like, it isn’t a big deal. “Can I be on the guestlist?” But it is a big deal, and you should be proud that someone from your neighborhood is doing good. I don’t know why people knock that. I know a lot of people are trying to be better about that today. Maybe it’s because of social media, but like empowering other women and things like that instead of trying to find the flaw. Knock them down to feel better. It’s like that about hometowns. Considering when I do Ride for Dime, it was like pulling teeth there compared to the way people are about Dimebash here in California. Just makes you not want to bust your butt because people are so unappreciative. It’s how it comes across. But then the second you’re doing it somewhere else, people ask why we’re not doing it in Texas, but I did! I don’t understand that vibe.

KNAC.COM: I was wondering if you’d want to take Dimebash out on the road?

HANEY: I would love to! I’d love to get someone behind us on that. You put together a really cool lineup, like a little mini festival kind of thing, and then you’d have the right band in the house and we could pull from each show and put together the cool jams. That’s the thing I think is so cool about it is the combination of people playing. That’s what makes it so fun and unique. Even when the song’s not played perfectly, I mean, that band’s not playing it so of course it’s not going to be perfect, that’s the whole fun of it. When you get that little tweak or weird off key issue. It makes it special too, because you’re never going to hear it like that again.

KNAC.COM: One of the things I really love about Dimebash too is that it’s really supportive of women. One thing I’ve noticed about all the after-shows centered around NAMM, most are a lot of man-heat. [Laughing] You might expect that for this one, but each year, you have a lot of women represented. They’re spotlighted. It’s very cool.

HANEY: Man, I’m telling you. Those girls are shredders. I’m like, Jesus! Yeah! The cool thing this year was having Lita Ford come up. It was like, wow, man, she was one of the original pioneers from this genre of music, and it was just awesome for her to come show some love, and to give love to her. She deserves that respect.

KNAC.COM: Agreed! Another fun thing I saw was while Charlie Benante was playing drums, Dave Grohl was off to his side trying really hard to get his attention, doing this silly dance, trying to mess him up.

HANEY: Oh yeah. I was standing right next to him. I grabbed him to bring him up because his songs were coming up. I think it was during the KISS song "Black Diamond", and Kirk Weinstein wanted to sing some KISS and I was like, yeah! People see him in CROWBAR and DOWN, and seeing up there singing and not playing guitar was fun. But yeah, Dave had that whole little dance going on, and I could see Charlie looking out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t want to turn and look because he was going to lose what he was doing and start laughing.

KNAC.COM: We were all waiting for it, but he powered through. [Laughing] So many come out and donate their time because this is such a lovefest, you know?

HANEY: You know that’s the thing that people don’t realize I think because this is around NAMM, people start hitting us up for guest list, passes, and the difference is, this is a charity event. No one makes anything off of this. I even donate the profits of the merch. This isn’t about anybody putting anything in their pocket. At first people get a little offended when I tell them, if you do this, then I can hook you up with this. On top of the fact that there are over 70-players in this thing, and they have a plus-one, that’s about 150-people already. So if you’re not planning on coming, don’t hit us up. Any of the musicians that play, donate their time and they don’t ask for anything. Like you were saying, they just all come and have a great time and have fun.

KNAC.COM: And they get fed the absolute best barbeque on the planet. Ridiculous.

HANEY: This year, we probably had a lot more cooks in the kitchen than we needed, but last year, Dave and I couldn’t even look up, we were so busy.

KNAC.COM: I remember that! It was a pretty well oiled machine this year though! So, what’s in store for you, personally?

HANEY: I really want to get back to releasing Pantera 4. I’d like to release another Dimevision, but you know I’ve been kind of messing around with memoirs. I’ve kept a journal since I was 8-years-old. I’ve stuck to it really well since I’ve gotten older. And I was detailed, like I’d write down what I made for dinner, and what Darrell and I ate, where we went, what we did.

KNAC.COM: I’m actually surprised you don’t have a book out.

HANEY: I want people that have seen the videos, seen him play live, I want them to know how he was outside of that. That’s what was so exceptional, was his humor, his charisma, just him being at home cooking in the kitchen. He’d have his own little recipes that he’d write down. The postcards and some of that funny shit.

KNAC.COM: It would be a bestseller. Get on that!

HANEY: I’d also love to do a Dimeboat, and have a fun cruise. (C’mon Larry Morand!) Or like we were talking about, a little run of Dimebash shows, just having a really cool lineup and having Darrell and Vinnie’s music celebrated.

KNAC.COM: All of that would be a huge success. Or a cool documentary! So many possibilities.

HANEY: I think that would be really cool. I love the bio-pic kind of thing, having actors, with actual events in there. I think they have a really cool story to tell. It’s got all the stuff in it. Tragedy, all that crap. I think it would be nice if someone did tell their story, and did it properly.

To further celebrate Dimebag’s life, fans can order Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over – a true celebration of Dimebag and how he lived his life. The DVD/CD set includes classic video clips as well as five demos picked from a vast catalog that Dimebag accrued starting in 1984 when longtime girlfriend Rita Haney gave him his first 4-track. Dimevision Vol. 2 also includes never before published photos from Stephanie Cabral, dates, stories, and notes on the five tracks. Rita worked in collaboration with Daryl “Bobby Tongs” Arnberger–who was one of Dimebag’s closest friends and an official videographer for PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN–and film editor Rob Fenn to choose 33 segments for Dimevision Vol. 2.

For info on all things Dime, including Dimebash, please visit the official site: http://dimebagdarrell.com/

Check out some more photos from Dimebash!
All Photos By Krishta Abruzzini


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