Well, kiss my a s s. Never thought it would happen, but it has.
There has not been one thing to ask Darrell, one topic to talk about that I already knew what he was going to say. As far as I was concerned, if I had any questions, I already had all the answers. We had covered all the bases, from childhood to adulthood and a ton of wacky s h i t in between. In our renewed friendship during the Damageplan era, he would stay up all night, every nite, while I drove the bus, talking my f u c k i n g head off all the while doing shots, pouring s h i t on my head, pulling on the steering wheel and blasting Dokken, Van Halen, Metallica, Priest, April Wine, etc. etc. He had alot to say, and he wanted to tell me about it. Vince would get up to take a piss, & he would come up front & say "Dude, you're egging him on playing that music. He needs to get some sleep man." Darrell would look at him with his wide eyed, drunk, s h i t eating grin, and Vince would just shake his head and go back to bed. One time, Darrell noticed that while we had been playing Dokken, he had not heard "The Hunter" and wanted me to play it. I told him that I had the cd, but it was somewhere under the bus in the bays & I had no idea where it was. Well, perfect opportunity for some hijinks... So after a half hour of him yelling, pulling on the steering wheel, opening the door & assorted stupid s h i t, I finally relented & stopped on the side of the road to search the bays for the d a m n cd. I had so many boxes of s h i t and bags out there in the grass. It took an hour and a half to find the stupid cd. All the while he was running up & down the hill of the side of the road, pouring shots & then rolling down the hill, & just sitting out in the grass belting out "I'm the hunter!!!" Once we were back on the road that was it. He made me play that song over and over.... and over again. To my best recollection it was forty one times in a row. I know it was forty something. We played that song until we finally got to where we were going. All the while he was singing it, and wasen't happy if I wasen't singing it with him, briefly falling asleep, waking up, pouring a shot, and doing it all over again. I don't know what he liked about that f u c k i n g song, but he liked it. He loved it! "I'M THE HUNTER!!!"
Anyhow. I don't know how I got off on that, but since you guys like stories... there you go.

So, what I wanted to ask Darrell was if he ever really took notice of Akira Takasaki. When we were kids Pantera did cover a few Loudness songs, and I did have a few older Loudness albums laying around. But the most he did was learn the songs. Not a Loudness fan. What made me think of it was watching a shot of Loudness, this one to be exact, of an Akira solo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql1jPQp8dS8
Akira was playing stadiums, and had many albums under his belt when Darrell was just STARTING to come in to his own. The point is, their styles are VERY similar, which I believe to be totally by chance. There are obvious similarities, like Halen & Rhoads. But if you close your eyes & just listen, there are times that you can't tell the difference between Akira & Darrell. They are that similar!
Two stellar guitar players, each half a planet away from the other, & more often than not their fingers did the same talking! I just wanted to ask him what he thought about that, & if he tripped on it.
The catch is, I know he would have. But short of that, its something I will never know.

Sorry for all the misspelled words, I just don't have the time to go back & fix all that s h i t. Writing this took me almost three hours, believe it or not!

BLOW THEM GUITARS UP C'MON!!! I'M THE HUNTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!