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GW You’ve always struck me as a positive person. Have you managed to see that anything good has come out of this lengthy nightmare?

DIMEBAG Yeah, two things. One was that I got the time to sit back, look at the band, reflect on it and go, “Damn, look what it’s headed for!” Sometimes, when you’re driving at 150 miles an hour, you don’t have time to see the wall you’re about to smash into. I don’t dig the way the breakup went down or the reasoning behind it, but I’m glad it gave me the chance to watch the replay, recognize the warning signs, see all the mistakes that went down, learn from them and make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

The other good thing that came out of all this is Damageplan. The way I look at it, the misery of the last two years was a test—a big fuckin’ test—to see if I’d got the guts, the balls and the willpower to pick myself up, face what happened and overcome it, instead of running or cowering from it. All of us hit a point in life where we need resurrecting, and it’s up to you to make it happen, straighten things out and let go of the things that are fucked-up. Where I sit, man, I’ll never quit—I love music and I love the fans too much. So I put on my bad-ass shoes and started kicking ass with this band. It’s been a lot of hard work to crawl out of the hole and it hasn’t been easy, but at this point I’ve got my family, my brotherhood, my music and a crushing new band. I’ve got everything back that was taken from me, and I’m in a good fucking place. What was once a miserable nightmare has bloomed into a very sweet, comfortable place. Amen!

GW You seem very comfortable playing in this band with Vinnie, Pat and Bob.

DIMEBAG Yeah, it feels like home again. I’m in a band where all four dudes have the same goals and are very driven. We all live a beer-can’s throw away from each other, and when we’re not jamming we’re hanging out. There’s no drug dependencies, no excess baggage and no dead weight. It’s fun again, man, and it feels great. Everyone’s inspired and on the same page. We all have the same plan… the damage plan!

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