Dimebag Darrell quotes:

My heroes were Eddie Van Halen - especially after Van Halen I, II, III, and IV - Randy Rhoads, Ace Frehley and dudes like that. My brother played drums and we jammed in the garage and started writing our own stuff.

I was more influenced by players like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen than by the guys in southern rock bands.

I was lucky enough to get to see guys like Bugs Henderson, Jimmy Wallace, all those great Texas blues players.

... I got home, picked up my ax, turned on the four-track and just played it ... I played three solos back to back on Cemetery Gates ... the next morning, the second and third solos weren't bad, but the first had that first take magic ! .. I didn't touch it...

Lessons didn't really work out for me, so I went to the old school, listening to records and learning what I wanted to learn.

The worst advice I ever received from my dad was to play by the book. My old man used to flip out whenever I would try to branch out and do something different. Although he didn't do it on purpose, he really held me back in the beginning.

Musicians tend to get bored playing the same thing over and over, so I think it's natural to experiment.

Pantera is the only band I've ever been in, and at the start we used to play covers to make a living.

Between the record companies being the way they are and the fact that people can just download one song instead of buying a whole album, it's hard to make a good living nowadays.

When I tried to play something and screwed up, I'd hear some other note that would come into play. Then I started trying different things to find the beauty in it.

Music drives you. It wakes you up, it gets you pumping. And, at the end of the day, the correct tune will chill you down.

If you improvise a riff and the crowd immediately reacts to it, you know you're on to something.

Every song is different.

My old man was a musician - that's what he did for a living. And like most fathers, occasionally he'd let me visit where he worked. So I started going to his recording studio, and I really dug it.

I used to skip school and paint my face with Ace Frehley Kiss make-up.

Always have a collection of your favorite CDs with you.

The worst advice I ever received from my dad was to play by the book.

A lot of bands whine about the road and how tough it is.

It kills me when I see some metal band trying to pass themselves off as an 'alternative band.

We still get those kind of cats coming out to our shows. Once you're into it, you're into it for a lifetime.

I'm not saying I wouldn't play a seven-string. It's just that I've never needed one. Most dudes who play seven-strings don't sound any different than someone playing a six-string that's tuned down.

To get my sound in the studio, I double guitar tracks, and when it gets to the lead parts, the rhythm drops out, just like it's live. I'm very conscious of that.

I would just listen to records and learn what I could, then just roll it over and over and over.