7 rare Dimebag performances you need to hear

When Anthrax found themselves making Stomp 442 without a lead guitarist, they approached Dimebag. Scott Ian recently told us, “He came to the studio, we hung out for a couple of days. We wanted to pay him but he wouldn't take our money because we were friends. We said we had to do something for him and he said, 'Alright, I want this video camera.' We bought him the best video camera that was out at the time.”

Hear Dimebag's solo, at 2:21.

Dime gets dark on this guest slot with King Diamond, the title track from the concept album of the same name. There are a couple of solos, both short but brilliant, appearing at 2.11 and 3.40 respectively.

Nickelback and Dimebag join forces with Kid Rock to cover Elton John. You probably didn’t expect to read that sentence today, but it happened for the Charlie's Angels: Fill Throttle soundtrack in 2003. Chad Kroeger told MTV in 2003 “We were driving and I slipped it in [the CD player] in his vehicle, and he just flipped,” Kroeger said. “So I said, ‘Dude, wanna play the guitar solo on this?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.”

This tribute to Dimebag was written after his death, but features an unused Dime solo from Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven era. Vinnie Paul and Dime’s wife, Rita sent Nickelback the solo for them to use on the track, which appears on Nickelback’s All The Right Reasons.

While Pantera had some downtime, Dime, Vinnie Paul and Rex got together to record a cover of ZZ Top’s Heard It On The X. It shows Dime’s more classic side, throwing out some typically impressive country-metal licks while handling lead vocals. This version would go on to be included on the ECW Extreme Music soundtrack.

Dimebag pays tribute to another fallen guitar hero, Randy Rhoads, on Sebastian Bach’s cover of Ozzy’s Believer. Taken from Bach’s second solo album, Bach 2: Basics, it’s atmospheric, and Dime nails his idol’s style here, with screaming pinched harmonics and a belter of a solo starting at the 3.09 mark.

Okay, so it’s not really a guest slot, but you’ve read the tales of a young Dimebag conquering guitar competitions in Texas bars and music stores, now it’s time to see him in action. Note the Van Halen and Randy Rhoads references, as he melts the fretboard on his trusty Dean ML with his playing.