Dimebag Darrell, lead guitarist/songwriter of Pantera was shot to death last night. When I first read about this tragedy this morning, I was shocked and horrified. Let me explain this: what Kurt Cobain's death was to many of you, this was to me. It was extremely tragic.

When I was in high school, I worshipped Pantera -- and Dimebag Darrell represented not only the driving force of that band, but THE omnipotent guitarist of the nineties. As a guitar player and metal fan, I'd pick up the latest issue of Guitar World or Guitar Player, and without fail, Dimebag Darrell was there. Sometimes it would be a cover-page interview; other times the tablature to his latest impossible-to-play song; often he'd even be seen in a column, teaching young guitar players how to emulate his solos (that's how cool this guy was.)

Dimebag Darrell WAS heavy metal for the nineties. What Sabbath was to the seventies and Metallica was to the eighties, that was Pantera for the nineties for me -- THE metal band. I had a poster of him in my room at one point. While the rest of my high school was off worshipping Kurt Cobain, the true guitar players knew who the real musicians were. They weren't the guys who could strum a few barre chords. They were the fuckers who knew the fretboard like we know breathing -- and Dimebag Darrell, as well as Zakk Wylde, knew that fucking fretboard. They were, like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix before them, ROCK GODS. Fuck grunge, man. THIS was where the genius was.

I haven't listened to Pantera in years. I havent gone to see them live since I was in high school. It's a bygone era for me now. Even so -- hearing the news of Dimebag Darrell's death hit me hard today.

A guitar-playing god has been taken from us too soon. How much more could Stevie Ray Vaughan have given us if he hadn't been taken so early? What aural masterpieces could Jimi Hendrix have given us?

So too: what many more songs could Dimebag Darrell -- a versatile and ridiculously gifted musician -- have produced, had his light not been extinguished?

If you don't know the man's music, I admit you might laugh at that. But for me, one of the absolute greatest guitar players I've ever heard has been murdered. May the music you made live to the end of us, Darrell Abbott. And may your legacy inspire the musicians to come in time.