CHAD GRAY: Revisiting HELLYEAH Songs For Upcoming Solo Shows Has Been 'Really Weird'

In a new interview with "The David Ellefson Show", MUDVAYNE and HELLYEAH frontman Chad Gray spoke about his upcoming "30 Years Of Madness" live appearances. The gigs will mark Chad's first-ever solo performances and will take place during a year when MUDVAYNE is not scheduled to do any touring. It will also be an opportunity for Gray to play songs from HELLYEAH, which has been inactive since early 2020 when its U.S. tour was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, Gray had reunited with his previous band MUDVAYNE, which played its first two shows in 12 years in 2021 and has since completed several tours, in addition to releasing two new songs, "Hurt People Hurt People" and "Sticks And Stones".

Regarding what it has been like to revisit some of the HELLYEAH material after so long, Chad said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's been really weird. I'm obviously rehearsing all that stuff now. And I haven't played, I haven't touched those songs in seven fucking years, or eight years, whatever it's been since Vinnie [Paul Abbott, HELLYEAH drummer] passed. And [HELLYEAH] did the 'Celebration Of Life' tours after he passed, which, honestly, we did those way too early. We were still fucking all mourning, and we did it 'cause we wanted to pay tribute to him. And those tours really kind of fucked us up as a band, 'cause we were all just still mourning and grieving. Needless to say, when we were on stage, they were fun. And we had Roy Mayorga fucking playing drums for us, which he absolutely crushed it and did just such a great job.

"But coming back, there's a little bit of that in revisiting these songs, there's a little bit of, like… There's some remembering penning them, there's some remembering recording them and stuff, but there's a lot of remembering playing them with Vince," Chad continued. "There's some memory of me playing without Vince. It's kind of a big fucking ball of emotions when I [revisit] those [songs]. And that's part of the reason I'm doing it, man. This is an exercise in autonomy. I'm taking ownership of my own independence, my own career, celebrating 30 fucking years… 1996 is when I started this shit, and celebrating 30 years of me doing this with 12 albums, six with each band. And it's been cool, but it's been difficult. But I'm excited about it, man. I wanna pay homage to Vin. I want to keep his legacy alive. You put those songs away and you put that part of his life away and you're putting him away. Bringing these songs back out and playing them and servicing such a large number of fans that have just been — HELLYEAH's been removed from their life — it's really cool too. But a big part of this is to celebrate my own independence and doing what I've done in 30 years. Part of it is paying it forward to Vinnie, paying homage to Vinnie, keeping his legacy alive. Part of it is servicing the HELLYEAH fans. I mean, we ground that motherfucker for 12 years. We built HELLYEAH from nothing. Just fucking five dudes that jumped in a garage — Dime's [late PANTERA guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott] garage, where they did '[The Great Southern] Trendkill', they did 'Reinventing The Steel' in that, they did the DAMAGEPLAN record in there. It was their own personal studio that was on Dime's property in his garage. So, that's what it was. It was just us showing up and walking in the room with no relationship. I didn't have any kind of relationship with Vinnie. I'd met him one time."

As for how the idea for his solo gigs came about, Chad said:  "Since we brought [MUDVAYNE] back in '21, we've done it once a year for the last four years. And it's just, like, management, everybody's just, like, 'We should probably give it a break. We should probably just take 2026 off.' And I'm just, like, I'm 54 fucking years old. I'm not taking a year off. That's like me putting my happiness in a cage for a year. That's where I shine. I love to service my fans. I love to fucking help however I can and give back. And just sitting around my fucking house with my thumb in my ass, doing fucking projects and shit, it's not the way I'm wired, man. I wanna work. I'm a worker bee."

Gray continued: "I was writing, recording or touring nonstop in one band or another for 20 fucking years. And Vinnie passed. It took a little bit [of time to get back into it]. I came back to the MUDVAYNE table, put that back together. And then we did it. And then we were off 46 weeks. And then we did it, and then we were off 46 weeks. And the old days of like writing, recording, touring, writing, recording, touring, which is what I loved, that was out the fucking window. So even though I'm going out once a year for six weeks or seven weeks or whatever, I'm just sitting around the fucking house all the time. So the whole idea of this, honestly, was when we said we were gonna take the year off, and it's just, like, I don't wanna do that."

Gray will launch the "30 Years Of Madness" tour dates on April 24 at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Backing Gray at the "30 Years Of Madness" shows will be HELLYEAH guitarist Christian Brady and MUDVAYNE touring guitarist Marcus Raffety, among other musicians.

Vinnie Paul recorded a total of six albums with HELLYEAH over a decade, including its latest, "Welcome Home", for which he laid down his drum tracks before his passing.

STONE SOUR drummer Roy Mayorga stepped in as Vinnie Paul's replacement for the touring activity in support of "Welcome Home", which came out in September 2019.

Mayorga previously played with HELLYEAH bassist Kyle Sanders in MEDICATION, the early 2000s outfit which also featured guitarist Logan Mader (MACHINE HEAD) and singer Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE).

MUDVAYNE guitarist Greg Tribbett sat out the band's summer/fall 2025 "L.D. 50 25th Anniversary" tour after his wife reportedly lost her year-and-a-half-long battle with cancer.

The "L.D. 50 25th Anniversary" tour kicked off on September 11, 2025 in Dubuque, Iowa and concluded on October 26, 2025 in Uncasville, Connecticut.

In 2024, Greg sat out the remaining shows on MUDVAYNE's "Destroy All Enemies" tour with MEGADETH due to what at the time was described as a "family issue". Filling in for him was Rafferty, who has served as a guitar tech for several metal bands over the years, including LAMB OF GOD and HATEBREED. He also worked for HELLYEAH, which originally featured both Tribbett and Gray.

"Sticks And Stones" and "Hurt People Hurt People" were released through Alchemy Recordings, a record label created in partnership between Dino Paredes, former American Recordings vice president of A&R, and Danny Wimmer, the founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, the premier production company for rock music festivals in the United States. Other Alchemy artists include STAIND and CHEVELLE.

Prior to the arrival of "Hurt People Hurt People", the reunited metallers hadn't put out any new material since 2009, which means more than a decade and a half had gone by without a single fresh MUDVAYNE song.

MUDVAYNE formed in 1996 and has sold over six million records worldwide, earning gold certification for three albums ("L.D. 50", "The End Of All Things To Come", "Lost And Found"). The band is known for its sonic experimentation, innovative album art, face and body paint, masks and uniforms.