CHAD GRAY Says He Still Talks To All His MUDVAYNE Bandmates

Chad Gray says that there are no plans at the moment for MUDVAYNE to reunite.

It's been a decade since MUDVAYNE released its self-titled fifth album and little has been heard about the group during that time.

The singer, who has spent the past 13 years fronting HELLYEAH, was asked about the possibility of a MUDVAYNE comeback during a recent interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station. He said (see video below): "We're all good. We all talk. We're cool. Whatever. It just is what it is, man. This [HELLYEAH] is where I have to be right now. This is so monumentally important to not only me personally, but to us as a band and I think to us as a metal community, a metal family, just to carry this on and fucking run it till the fucking wheels fall off. I'm in. I'll do it for as long as I can do it. I love my guys; I love my band; I love our fans. They're not even fans — they're family. And it's worldwide. And it's a fucking beautiful thing."

Gray is currently touring with HELLYEAH, which will release its sixth studio album, "Welcome Home", on September 27 via Eleven Seven Music. The disc will mark the group's final effort with drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who passed away more than a year ago.

Last year, guitarist Greg Tribbett said that fans who are calling for a MUDVAYNE reunion "just need a little more patience." He explained: "We're all flattered that everybody still wants MUDVAYNE to tour and do a new record and come out and do all that stuff. The thing is is that everybody is in three different bands and kind of doing their own projects, and there's no time for that right now."

Tribbett's current focus is AUDIOTOPSY, which released its second full-length album, "The Real Now", last November via Megaforce Records. He is joined in that band by MUDVAYNE drummer Matt McDonough, SKRAPE vocalist Billy Keeton and bassist Perry Stern.

MUDVAYNE did not tour behind its fifth album, which was barely promoted and sold weakly upon release.

Gray previously expressed skepticism about the possibility of a MUDVAYNE reunion, noting in a 2015 interview that "the only way I personally would want to do MUDVAYNE is if everybody licked their wounds and got over it."

Tribbett was also part of HELLYEAH with Gray but was fired from that band in 2013.

Asked in Revolver magazine if Greg's exit from HELLYEAH hit him especially hard, seeing as the two of them started off playing together in MUDVAYNE, Chad said: "Yeah, man. He has always been my right-hand man. He's been the back I look at when I'm writing songs and the sounding board for my ideas. When everything went sideways, it was like losing a great friend. I was filled with fear and I had mixed emotions. At first, I was like, Goddamn, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to do this without him."