Did You Know That An Unreleased Dimebag Darrell Guitar Solo Ended Up In A Nickelback Song?

a-dimebag-darrell-guitar-solo-was-used-in-a-nickelback-song
Dimebag Darrell: Rik Goldman, CC BY 2.0, Wikipedia / Chad Kroeger: Nickelback Facebook
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That is right folks – there is a Nickelback song that features an unreleased guitar solo from that of late Pantera member Dimebag Darrell. As reported by the folks over at Guitar World, that of the late Dimebag Darrell and late Vinnie Paul were friends with the guys in Nickelback; they met back in the early 2000s and would all get together and enjoy drinks and such. It seems that both Dime and Vinnie were fans of how the band incorporated elements of southern music into their material.

At one point, Nickelback were working on a song (this being their rendition of Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”); apparently, Dime was such a fan of what Nickelback had done, he wanted to jump in and he tracked a solo for the song! You can check out Nickelback’s cover of “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” below.

It goes without saying that, given how close Nickelback were to Dime, the band was devastated when they heard he  was murdered. Back in the day, band frontman Chad Kroeger told MTV “I was very upset, and for two months, if I saw his picture somewhere I would get angry. I hadn’t lost somebody to a shooting before – it wasn’t as though he’d been killed in some sort of accident. He was taken in such a horrible, malicious way that just made it more painful.”

Kroeger decided to explore his feelings in a song called “Side of a Bullet,” which is about a Pantera fan seeking revenge for Dime’s murder. Originally, Nickelback had asked for Vinnie Paul to play some drums on the song – but while Paul declined this offer, he did think up something to provide the band. After Vinnie had got permission from Dime’s girlfriend Rita Haney, he sent Nickelback several of Dime’s solo outtakes from Pantera’s albums Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven.

Back in the day, speaking to using Dime’s unreleased material, Nickelback member Mike Kroeger shared, “They were our brothers. And then when Dime was murdered, we wanted to pay tribute to him. We were able to get some of his unused solos and a few other bits of his playing that we would actually lay into the track… It was a really special thing for us.”

So if you listen closely to “Side of a Bullet,” you will hear unreleased Dimebag guitar material. Among the tributes that have been created to pay tribute to the late Dimebag Darrell, this is by far one of the most interesting. You can listen to “Side of a Bullet” below.