We Opened for Pantera

"We opened for Pantera and White Zombie at [former MTV personality] Rikki Rachtman's birthday party in 1993. It was at the Palladium in Hollywood."

Norm Leggio recalls when his local band Psychotic Waltz played on the same stage with guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, who was then with Pantera.

"It was '92 and Pantera was blowing up. Their album Cowboys from Hell made them the band of the day."

Abbott was murdered onstage last week while playing with his new band Damageplan at a small venue in Columbus, Ohio. His murderer killed him and three others before getting killed himself by a policeman.

"He [Abbott] was always a real down-to-earth dude. Whatever was in his hand at the time he would share, whether it was a drink or a joint or whatever. He was always very cordial and polite."

Leggio, who now plays in Broken Foundation, also owns Blue Meannie, a CD/record store in El Cajon, and is cohost of Another State of Mind, the all-metal Sunday night show that has aired on Rock 105.3 for five years. He said he interviewed Dimebag on the air two years ago. "It was just as Pantera was breaking up." Leggio divulges that Abbott used to have a different nickname than Dimebag. "He went by Diamond Darrell back in the early days of glam rock. Lately his close friends just knew him as Dime."