“I started hearing about these guitar contests that he would enter every year in Texas, and he was the best guitarist for six years running”: Jerry Cantrell recalls the first time he met the “otherworldly” Dimebag Darrell

Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell recently looked back on the first time he met Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and his brother, Vinnie Paul – a day that will be forever marked in his memory due to what he describes as Dimebag’s “otherworldly” talents.

It was back in 1985 – right after Cantrell decided to quit college and move to Dallas to join a band with a couple of friends.

“We would work all day, and we just spent all night in the club – we would just watch bands,” he recalls of those heady days in an interview with Gibson.

“We worked about half the year in Dallas and half the year in Houston. In Houston, there was a smaller club called Cardi's. And I loved that place because they had great acts coming through there.

“I saw Yngwie Malmsteen with Talas opening up on Rising Force. I saw Pantera roll through there when they still had Terry [Glaze, former Pantera singer], before Phil [Anselmo, Pantera’s longtime lead vocalist] was in the band. That's how I met Dime and Vinnie – in ’85 at that club.”

Describing what he remembers from the formative experience, Cantrell says that he's a “fan of anybody who is a master of their instrument [but] I'm more a fan of people who are who just have an innate thing that is just unlike anybody else. And Dime is one of those guys.”

He describes how the two, who happened to be around the same age, hit it off “right away” – thanks to a spot of gear talk.

Jerry Cantrell on Dimebag Darrell’s "otherworldly" talent on guitar - YouTube

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“After that show, going up to him and introducing myself and asking him about his amps and his tone, because he was just otherworldly,” he enthuses.

“And he's a huge Van Halen fan, and you could tell that by his playing. But he was also into heavier shit too, and that's why you got the kind of blend of what Dime was – but there's really nobody like him.”

He continues, “I started hearing about these guitar contests that he would enter every year in Texas, and he was the best guitarist for six years running. I think early on he just had talent, and he had an otherworldly thing, and he was just a great dude.”

In more Jerry Cantrell news, the Alice in Chains founder recently looked back on his involvement in Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning – or what he calls the “walk-off home run” of Ozzy Osbourne’s final show.