There Exists An Alternate Timeline Where Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Stole ‘Dimebag’ Darrell and Vinnie Paul from Pantera
· Vice
Did you know that somewhere out there is a lost timeline where Pantera, as we know them, ceased to exist before Cowboys From Hell? This is because Dave Mustaine once tried to recruit “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott for Megadeth, but the guitarist refused to go without his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul.
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In 2019, Mustaine shared the story in an interview with Tampa Bay Times. There, he said that he approached Dimebag about the opportunity in 1988. However, his brotherly bond kept him from accepting the offer. In the interview, Mustaine was asked, “Were you and Dimebag Darrell into each other’s gear? Did you have different philosophies on the instruments you played?”
“I did not,” he replied. “He may have, because he was a better guitar player than I am, and he was much more into that stuff. Being a bandleader/guitar player/rhythm player/lead player/blah blah blah, I don’t have the availability to spend as much time working on my solos as I’d like to. But I’m also very satisfied with what I’ve done with my career.”
Pantera released their breakout groove metal album, ‘Cowboys From Hell’, in 1990.
“And with Darrell, when you look at his playing, he’s a monster,” Mustaine continued. “He’s one of those guys that in trios, with the bottom dropping out, he was really able to keep that going. Of course, on the studio releases, there was an additional track going, but live, that’s the real litmus test, right? And he was a spectacle to watch.”
Mustaine then recalled the time he tried to get Dimebag to join Megadeth. “I actually called him up and asked him to play in Megadeth,” he shared. “Fate would have completely changed if I would have called him before I called Nick Menza.”
“I said, ‘Hey, Darrell, I’m looking for a guitar player,'” Mustaine remembered. “And he goes, ‘Can I bring my brother?’ And I went, ‘Who’s your brother?’ He goes, ‘Vinnie Paul! Don’t you know Vinnie Paul?’ He wanted to bring his brother and have him play with us, and I go, ‘Oh, man, I just hired Nick Menza.'”
The thrash metal legend then, very correctly, pointed out that heavy metal could be very different today with that one little change. “Can you imagine what Vinnie and Darrell would have been with me and Junior [David Ellefson]? Would’ve been pretty cool,” he mused.
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