It is no secret that both Machine Head‘s Robb Flynn and late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell used to party hard back in the day. During a recent conversation with Ola Englund – while on Ola’s show Coffee with Ola – Robb was interviewed regarding a variety of matters.
Among the topics discussed, Robb reflects on an old story that involves Dimebag getting ridiculously hammered. During an Ozzfest that took place in the late ’90s, Machine Head, Coal Chamber, and Pantera were all kickin’ it together; as folks are partying and having a good time, Dimebag seems to be getting a little extra rowdy. Speaking to how rowdy Dime was getting, Robb shared the following (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“It’s like 5:30, and I’m kind of like looking outside… and I see Dimebag, and he’s standing on top of a Volkswagen [Beetle]… and he’s got Rayna [Foss] from Coal Chamber, and… a little crowd of people, like 10 people, around him. And he’s just sitting there like, stripped down to his tighty-whitey underwear and his Chuck Taylors – naked, basically. And he’s doing back flips on the roof of [the car]… He’s just cracking up, doing backflips. And I was like, ‘Wow, okay…’ As I go to bed, and I wake up, and we’re at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
“And as I’m getting off of my bus to go and get breakfast, Dimebag comes out of his bus.. and I’m like, ‘Hey, dude, what’s up?’ And he’s like, ‘[makes inarticulate drunken noise].’ And I was like, ‘Oooh, shit! He’s still drinking!’ And fuckin’ all of Pantera’s tour managers [say], ‘Don’t give Dimebag a fucking drop of beer or you’re off this fucking tour!’ Everybody’s freaking out, they’re super pissed, ‘[Dime] hasn’t gone to bed!’
“So, he keeps on finding alcohol, he keeps on drinking, [and] it gets closer to the show now. Coal Chamber goes on. They’re opening, and they’re starting to play… And I’m on one side of the stage, and I see Dimebag come up on the opposite side…”
At one point, Coal Chamber get on stage and start performing; a drunken Dimebag then walks on stage and is playing air guitar and goofing around. He eventually makes his way over to where some guitars are located and picks up one that belongs to Robb Flynn. He then proceeds to take the guitar onto the stage where Coal Chamber is playing and…
“And it’s their last song… The song and then fanfare, ‘All right, thank you everybody!’ And he picks up my guitar, and he goes – headstock first – right into the fucking ground. And I was like, ‘Dude!’ I was fucking pissed. And he just walks off the other side of the stage. And I’m like, ‘Motherfucker!'”
At this point, Pantera is to go on later and play, so one might imagine that Dime would be in no condition to play at all. But as Robb puts it – Dime ended up playing a flawless show!
“Now everybody’s freaking out and everybody’s just like, ‘This is gonna be a fucking disaster, this dude’s fucked up.’ And so we go out front, partially to just go, ‘Hope it’s okay,’ and partially just to see the trainwreck we’re probably about to witness.
“And that dude gets out there – and literally plays a fucking flawless show. Just every fucking note, every lead… Dude doesn’t miss a note. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed that someone that fucking shit[faced] – he had been drinking for 24 hours straight at this point, and he fucking killed it. And I’m like, ‘You’re a fucker.'”
What a wild ass story! We can’t imagine how Dime felt the next morning after all that drinking. You can check out the full interview with Robb Flynn below.