Real name of Dimebag was Darrell Lance Abbott. He was born in 20th August 1966 in outside of Dallas, Texas where he grew up. His father owned a recording studio there. He saw many great blues and country artists come through as clients of his father and he learned from them. He learned quickly. So quickly in fact that he was not allowed to enter any guitar contests in the whole state because he'd already won them all... He was 16. It seems though that, even with this prodigical skill, the band wasn't sure which direction to go artisticly until almost 1990 with the release of Cowboys From Hell. Before the development of their Power Groove, Pantera released a few unknown albums of cheezy-sounding glam rock (if you ever get a chance to hear anything from that era, I suggest you do. Songs like Ride My Rocket off of Metal Magic are quite entertaining. I can only decribe the sound as something like old Bon Jovi or Poison with amazing guitar solos). As far as the change of alias from Diamond Darrell to Dimebag Darrell, the six-string guru claims that it has always been Dimebag, there was just a bunch of confusion about it. Personally, I believe he was coaxed into toning the Dimebag handle down early on strictly for PR purposes.