HELLYEAH – "An Accident That Was Meant To Happen"
Special report by Aaron Small
Former
PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN drummer
Vinnie Paul, ex-
Damageplan bassist Bob Zilla, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and Mudvayne’s singer and guitarist, Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett, together these five men create southern metal known as
HELLYEAH. Their self-titled debut album was released in April and now the band is touring North America as part of the Family Values Tour, headlined by
KORN and
EVANESCENCE. During the Toronto stop, Vinnie Paul set time aside to chat exclusively with BW&BK.
The Family Values Tour ends September 2nd. What happens after that?
“We’re either going to go out on our own headline tour, which we probably will opt to do, unless we get an opportunity to support somebody that could really once again put us in front of a large audience. We feel this band can reach a lot of people. We had a whole lot of fun doing our own headline run! We went to Australia, New Zealand and England. We headlined in the States doing anywhere from 1500 to 2000 people just about every night. It kind of feels restraining being on the Family Values thing ‘cause on the headline tour we were playing the whole record and a couple cover tunes. On this, we get 30-35 minutes. It’s pretty stripped down. Bam – and it’s over. But it’s a great opportunity for us to play to a lot of people who probably wouldn’t be familiar with the band. It’s a different audience for us. It’s a good time.”
In the mid-‘90s, Pantera was the complete antithesis of Korn. Now you’re on the road with them.
“I’ve always been friends with them. I’ve always liked their band in a weird way. It pretty much was Phil (Anselmo). He was the one who had a problem with them, which I could never understand. Korn openly admit that Pantera was a huge influence on them. It’s just cool to be on tour with them. Things change. This is 2007, not 1997.”
Have any of the Family Values shows been filmed for the DVD yet?
“No.”
Are they going to?
“That’s a good question. If it follows suit with what they’ve done in the past, I think they will. But at this point, nobody’s said anything to us.”
Have you been filming your own stuff?
“Every fucking day! Everything you can think of. We’re thinking pretty seriously about putting a DVD out at the end of the year. There’s a lot of great stuff. We filmed the writing and recording of almost the entire record, so that was pretty special. We all learned from Dime that just having a video camera is priceless. So much great shit happens and it’s a lot easier to show people than it is to tell people.”
KnuckleBonz released a limited edition Dimebag Darrell sculpture, priced at $99. That’s just too expensive for a lot of people. Any thought of having McFarlane Toys create a Dimebag figure, as their renderings of Ozzy, Metallica, Mötley Crüe etc. were much more affordable?
“That was pretty much Rita (Haney-Abbott)’s deal. She put that thing together. They only made 3333 of them. So it was a very special collector’s edition. It wasn’t like it was mass-produced. I hadn’t really thought about it a lot. I’ve been really focused on what I’m doing right now with this. There’s always a possibility of anything that seems reasonable. I don’t want to market Dime, as a commercial product. I know there’s so many people out there that love him and appreciate everything he did. They still want to have a piece of him and the closest they can get is the memorabilia. I would like to try to keep it to a minimum. I don’t want to stop it because I know it’s something the fans really want. But I don’t want it to turn into everything you can think of Dime.”
You don’t want it to be KISS.
“You said it, not me.”
What’s happening with your label, Big Vin Records?
“We were really successful with Dimevision and Rebel Meets Rebel. I put out a Christmas record for my Dad this past year; I’d always wanted to work with him. We’re working on Dimevision part two right now. I definitely want to sign some bands and put them out in the future. I just haven’t had time, or found any that really made me excited. I got a busload of demos. I’ve got about 5000 demos that I brought with me out on the road. I’m going to be listening to them all summer ‘cause I got a lot of time to ride around in that fucking bus from point A to point B. I’m hoping I’ll find something really special. For me to want to sign somebody, it needs to be very original and different, stick out like a sore thumb. Something I feel could be possibly a new wave in music. I love metal and rock. I like all kinds of shit. It needs to be an unturned stone so to speak for me to get excited about it.”
If the aforementioned Hellyeah club tour happens, will you be doing a drum solo?
“Yeah. When we come back a drum solo would be cool to do. I haven’t done one in a long time. Dime used to always do his (guitar solo). He loved it. It was so much fun for him to get that time to do his thing. When we were in Pantera he used to do it. Then it got to a point where Phil just didn’t want him to do it. He felt like it took the spotlight away from him and he didn’t want Dime having it. So when we came out with Damageplan, he played a fucking guitar solo and it was cool.”
Anything else you'd like to add?
“I’d just like to say thanks so much for the support. A year ago I never thought I’d be sitting here now talking about a band that I’m in. It was an accident that was meant to happen. It just came along and I felt really comfortable. We had amazing chemistry and did a record that’s totally different from most of the records out today. It feels good to be a part of it.”
Visit the official Hellyeah website at
hellyeahband.com.
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