Though his dad was a country music songwriter and had many clients, Darrell’s musical influences came from mainly metal bands such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Eddie Van Halen and of course the reason why he began to play the guitar, Ace Frehley of Kiss. Darrell was such an admirer of the band Kiss that he actually has tattoo of Ace on his chest. Ace heard about the tattoo and gladly signed his name over the tattoo and Darrel had the tattoo artist ink in the autograph.

Darrell gave acknowledgement to Kerry King of the heavy metal band Slayer, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society and Metallica’s James Hetfield.
Dimebag over the course of many interviews gives credit to Tony Iommi of the band Black Sabbath for influencing his guitar riffs.
If you have ever heard Tony play then you will recognize the riffs in a lot of Pantera songs.
In some of Dimebags solo spots; if you listen closely you can hear the style of Tony Iommi.

Dimebag has also given a lot of credit for his musical influences on Anthrax, Metallica and MegaDeth even though it has been rumored that Pantera and Megadeth have been embroiled in an often-nasty feud. Dimebag has often said that the grunge band Alice in Chains were his favorite grunge band. Pantera even had the opportunity of touring with them back in the day.

When Dimebag played he often used the scales and slide of the guitar for his leads and in his rhythms. Dimebag also uses a blues scale in his playing and a start and stop dynamic with good pedal tones. One of his favorite guitar parts is the wah pad and he used it quite frequently and he does credit Metallica’s Kirk Hammett with that honor.