HELLYEAH's CHAD GRAY Doesn't Know If MUDVAYNE Has A Future

On September 6, Gastão Moreira of Brazil's Kazagastão (KZG) conducted an interview with HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott and singer Chad Gray. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On working with producer Kevin Churko on the last two HELLYEAH albums:

Vinnie: "It was time to have somebody else come in. I had produced the previous three records, along with our good friend Sterling Winfield, and I just felt like… When we started tossing names around, I had met him in Las Vegas. I knew his studio was real close to my house. I loved his work that he had done with Ozzy [Osbourne] and many other bands. And it just felt like, 'Man, you know what? Let's let somebody else steer the ship for a minute and see where it goes.' And he really pushed me as a drummer, to get more out of me. I know he pushed Chad all the way to the wall. And I think both records that we've done with him are just miles and miles above what we did before that. Not to take anything away from that, but I just think he really brings a very, very special element to the table."

On whether PANTERA fans and MUDVAYNE fans like HELLYEAH:

Chad: "We're trying to turn 'em." [Laughs]

Vinnie: "I think for the most part, the ones that have given us a chance and will come and see the band, watch us, they get it and they love it, man. And they understand it's a new entity. It's almost a melting pot of those bands all in one, because you get what he [Chad] brought to MUDVAYNE, you get what I brought to PANTERA, Tom [Maxwell, guitar] to NOTHINGFACE, so you get this conglomeration of all these bands that you already heard and do like. And for us to get back to what we call our metal roots with the last two records and really go balls out, that's what people want from us, you know, and we feel like we've really delivered."

On the future of MUDVAYNE:

Chad: "I don't know. I live for right now. I'm about sitting here right now, and tomorrow it's gonna be about playing in São Paulo, you know what I mean? But that's tomorrow, and I'm not gonna deal with that until I get there. It's, like, you've gotta live your life in this kind of vertical moment that we're living in right now. That's the way I wanna live. I don't wanna talk about that, 'cause we're trying to break down the walls to do what we do. We love what we do, we love what HELLYEAH does, and the more of that other stuff is talked about, the more you're kind of not letting that wall crumble; you're just letting it sit there in the way. You've just kind of gotta shut up about it and just let it be what it is and focus on what's important, and what's important is right fucking now. That's what's important."

HELLYEAH's fifth album, "Unden!able", was released on June 3 via Eleven Seven Music. The effort marks the first time HELLYEAH's current lineup — Gray, Abbott, guitarists Tom Maxwell and Christian Brady, and bassist Kyle Sanders — has recorded together as a unit.