VINNIE PAUL Brings His Killer Kits To Island
Victoria Times Colonist (
www.canada.com ) has issued the following report from Mike Devlin:
One of the original "cowboys from hell" has saddled up once more and is ready to ride.
VINNIE PAUL, legendary drummer for metal gods PANTERA and, later, DAMAGEPLAN, has resumed his position behind his drum kit and is on the road to emotional recovery following a disastrous 2004.
In December of that year, Paul's brother and longtime band mate, Dimebag Darrell, was shot and killed on stage during a Columbus, Ohio, Damageplan concert.
It took Paul more than a year to recover from the horror of the incident.
"Things are different now, and that's the way I have to look at it, otherwise it is depressing and hard to try to live," says Paul, a native of Dallas, Tex.
"The most important thing for me to do is keep kicking ass because that's what he wants me to do."
Among his many new creative pursuits is a custom Pearl drum kit bearing his signature. He's on the road promoting the snakeskin-embossed set, with a promotional tour that stops tomorrow in Nanaimo. His return to the road - even though he's not playing any music - has been overwhelming.
He says 800 fans turned out for his in-store autograph signing Sunday in Prince George.
Paul has a number of other projects on the go, both of which fall under his new record label, Big Vin Records.
The first is Dimevision Vol. 1, a DVD tribute to his brother; the other is REBEL MEETS REBEL, a collaboration CD between three-quarters of Pantera (
Paul, Dimebag and bassist
Rex Brown) and country maverick David Allen Coe.
"Dime went to see one of his shows and they hit it off really great," Paul says of the collaboration's beginnings. "They had a super-duper conversation, and Dime gave him one of our CDs. Later that night David was driving down the road on his bus and he popped the DVD in and it blew him away. It just floored him.
"He didn't know anything about what Pantera was about. He called Dime the next day and said, 'You guys are the outlaws of heavy metal and I've always been the outlaw of country music. We ought to get together and write some songs.' That's how the whole thing started."
Paul is slowly returning to the stage, and is putting plans in place for a full-fledged return. He performed recently with DISTURBED and Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, of VAN HALEN fame, and is about to announce his membership in a supergroup featuring members of
MUDVAYNE, NOTHINGFACE and
DANZIG. Even Paul is amazed at his remarkable recovery. When his brother was murdered, Paul swore he would never play music again. "It was a long, long dark period of time. Time heals, that's what everybody keeps saying, and that seemed to be what did it for me."
"I got a really cool letter from (ex-
NIRVANA drummer) Dave Grohl, who went through something similar with Kurt Cobain, and he told me the same thing. He thought he was done with music, but eventually music is what healed him and brought him back. I feel the same thing is kind of happening with me."
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