Visiting Dimebag Darrell’s Home | The Making of Stompbox Book

The only time I ever visited the late, great Dimebag Darrell at home was also the only time I ever got serious alcohol poisoning—a coincidence that I can assure you was not remotely coincidental. So when his widow Rita “DimebagzHag” Haney invited Stompbox to South Arlington, Texas to shoot Dime’s stage-used prototype of Dunlop’s DB01 Dimebag Cry Baby From Hell wah pedal for our book, I confess that I was slightly concerned for Eilon Paz’s safety. After all, Dime may be gone, but his larger-than-life brand of Texas hospitality lives on.

Thankfully, Rita and Grady Champion—Dime’s dear friend and loyal guitar tech—took it easy on Eilon; instead of lining up shots of “Blacktooth Grin,” Dime’s favorite tipple, they merely lined up a bunch of Dime’s favorite wah-wahs for Eilon to photograph. From Pantera’s Cowboys from Hell period up through his all-too-short time with Damageplan, wah abuse was a big part of the legendary guitarist’s full-throttle sound, and Grady was Dime’s closest traveling companion on the road to wah nirvana, a role which sometimes meant being a little more “hands on” than most guitar techs would care to be.

“When Pantera were playing small clubs, there would always be stage divers all over the stage,” Grady told us. “Whenever there was a wah part, I would have to run out there and hold the wah in place. I would have to ‘turtle’ over the wah, and there would be people stage diving off my back while he had his foot in there playing it. I had to protect it, because otherwise it would be stomped on and kicked around and become unplugged!”

As Eilon’s photos reveal, Rita still keeps their home very much as it was before Dime’s untimely death in 2004. The place is filled to the brim with rock memorabilia, crazy souvenirs from the road, trophies from various misadventures—such as the crushed stop sign from the infamous 2002 Guitar World shoot that ended with Dime and his best buddy Zakk Wylde going off-roading through the lawns of South Arlington in a borrowed SUV (Yes, this was the same night where I came down with Blacktooth-itis)—and of course Dime’s guitars and gear. 

“Darrell was really big on hitting all the pawn shops and buying boxes and boxes of effects,” Rita recalled. “He’d get ‘em home and run through ‘em all, just seeing what kind of sounds he could get out of them. It was part of his process, part of the way he discovered pedals and what they could do. Even the last time we were in LA with Damageplan, we probably spent four hours at all those shops they used to have on Sunset over by Guitar Center, spending a couple grand on two big boxes full of stuff. He was so happy that day; he told me, ‘You know, I’ve wanted to do this every time we were in LA. I can’t believe I’ve never gotten to do this before!’”

Full story and photo of Dime’s cry Baby From Hell is featured in the Stompbox Book. Available Now! 

Full story and photo of Dime’s cry Baby From Hell is featured in the Stompbox Book. Available Now! 

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