HELLYEAH Drummer VINNIE PAUL: 'I'll Always Have To Play Music'

Carolyn Nikodym of Vue Weekly recently conducted an interview with HELLYEAH/ex-PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On continuing to play music even after his brother's murder:

"I'll always have to play music, man. It's been a huge part of my life, ya know. When December 8 happened three years ago, I thought that was the end of me musically, and really, I felt like it was the end of me period, just because Dime was such a big part of my life, ya know. It took me a long time to get my bearings and to get going. But I got some great friends ... things just started falling in to place and HELLYEAH was a big part of that process."

On HELLYEAH's musical approach:

"We just wanted to get back down to fun, do things where it wasn't so over the top that it took everything you had to play. And if you listen to AC/DC, ya know, it's simple as simple gets. We didn't go that far, but we wanted to groove, and it's just too easy to get carried away and try to take things over the top — you lose what it's all about in the first place, and that's the song."

"I think the music's just that strong, ya know. It's good-time music, it's the kind of music that you want to get into your car and drink a six-pack to and drive fast to, or … I'm probably not supposed to say that, but the fact of the matter is, is that it is that kind of music — call it hell-raising music — the kind of music that got me motivated and made me excited before I was on my way to see my favorite band, or go to a nightclub or whatever."

On whether HELLYEAH is a "side project":

"We look at it as a real band. It just has to co-exist with everybody's previous commitments, and we plan on being around for a long time. It's just when we finish our touring cycle at the end of this year, MUDVAYNE's going to do a record and do a tour. When they're done, we're going to do HELLYEAH again — a year and a half, two years from now.

"It's kind of a comfortable situation for me in that aspect, that I'll have some time to myself to do some other things — ya know, my record company, my strip bars and that kind of stuff, and hopefully we'll do it again. Hopefully it'll be bigger and better each time."