Heaven's On Fire |Dimebag Darrell

Ozzfest 2000

August 20th, 2000

  This new year had been a busy one for Pantera. Reinventing The Steel had released New Years Day and took off! Personally, the song Goddamn Electric off that album was my favorite.

  The guys had been doing Ozzfest this year since July 2nd, opening up for the legendary Ozzy Osbourne. It was an honor. During the tour we met everyone from Godsmack, we instantly hit it off with them. They too were bat shit crazy like us, but with heavy Boston accents. Today we were in Houston doing a show over at the Houston Raceway Park. It was great to be back home. Today Darrell was turning the big 34. So, today it was my mission to make it a special one for my man. I was secretly planning a BBQ later and invited everyone who we were on tour with. Praying that everyone would keep their mouths zipped.

  Walking around the raceway with Grady, we were going over what we still needed, and hoping we had enough food for tonight to feed everyone. I just wanted this to go well, Darrell deserved it. "Shit, been a long time since we've run any errands for anyone," Grady joked as we were heading back to the buses. With eyes squinting from the sun, I tried to look around for anyone I could use. "Yeah, well we need runners, and so far, it' only us two. Sully has the boys entertained for us to sneak off to hit up a store nearby."

  Sometimes there was no one better to do this type of job except me and Grady. We made it back to the bus to call transportation to help load food and drinks up and bring it back. Didn't take long to have one show up. Going over our list of things, we made sure that the van was going to have enough room for everything that was on that list. Grady asked the drive to sit and wait for us once we did finally pull into a store parking lot.

  I looked down at my list and instantly became overwhelmed, I wanted this to go perfectly. Where was I to even start on this list? Grady, I think sensed my hesitancy, "maybe we should've asked for another set of hands?"

  No, we can do this. "Let's split, we can get more done that way. Why don't you handle the food while I make my way over to the liquor side for the drinks," offering up what I felt was a good plan. Grady quickly agreed before making his way to the other side of the store while I headed over to where the liquor was held.

  It was easy to see that I was going to need the van to back up towards the back as I looked back down at my list. "Can I help you?" the person behind the register asked. By how young he looked, he couldn't have been any older than 21 with his baby face. I bit my lip, "actually I do. I have a huge order to fill. Would you mind if I have my van backed up to your loading dock possibly?" I handed the list over to him to allow him a moment to check over what was requested. "Yeah, that's fine. I think we have all of these. I can totally help gather everything for you if you like."

  "I would greatly appreciate that, thank you!" I smiled at him before heading back out towards the parking lot where the van sat. I made contact with the driver and explained in what I need him to do. I approached the store when I saw that the kid who worked there had most of my order already waiting near the loading door, it was impressive honestly.

  We were just finishing up loading everything when Grady reappeared with two carts full of food for the BBQ. A store employee helping him with the second cart. I couldn't help but laugh a little to which it caught Grady's attention. "What is so funny?" he questioned with a confused look on his face. I smiled at his innocence. "Remember the good old days where we would be on a budget, that we could barely afford a room at a hotel? Forcing us to survive in an RV that was held by duct tape." I waited till it made sense in why this was funny. We used to be so broke that neither of us every saw us buying this much shit, ever. Grady chuckled when he realized in what I had meant.

  I looked through our stuff and turned towards the employee who helped me, "alright, just to make sure, we have the 4 Crown Royal bottles and 4 Seagrams correct?" The kid looked down the list that I had given him before and noted that we did in fact have 4 of each. I stuck out my thumb with satisfactory. "Perfect, because my old man will need both."