HELLYEAH's VINNIE PAUL: 'I Think The Party Vibe Evolved As We Were Writing The Record'

January 26, 2008

Alan Sculley of the Asbury Park Press recently conducted an interview with HELLYEAH/ex-PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott and HELLYEAH guitarist Tom Maxwell. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On HELLYEAH's "party" vibe:

Vinnie: "I think the party vibe evolved as we were writing the record. We were having a good time making the record, so why shouldn't the lyrics be about a good time? Once we got started into it, and it started taking on the direction that it did, (I realized) music is so serious these days. There's nobody having any fun. . . . (we chose to) focus on everything we can positive. That really came through on the record."

On how HELLYEAH came together:

Tom: "I had a lot of music that I wanted to do that I couldn't do in NOTHINGFACE. With NOTHINGFACE, it was always kind of busy and nightmarish kind of stuff. I'm all about playing grooves and hooks and just having fun and rocking out. I always wanted to put a band together that was just all about that."

On HELLYEAH's chemistry:

Vinnie: "Everybody came into the thing with no ego. Everybody was full-on, gave everything they had. There was never any bickering about anything. It was just amazing to see five dudes who really didn't know each other coming into this thing and putting all their cards on the table and going for it. That's one of the things that really made the whole thing click."

On feeling uneasy at the very start of the sessions to be back in the studio he and his brother, late PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, shared:

Vinnie: "The first day when I was in there, the first song that we wrote, Chad ended up calling it 'Nausea' — that's how I felt the very first day we were in there. Once we started playing, and two o'clock in the morning rolls around, and we were just getting familiar with each other, all of that kind of went out the window. I really, really felt like Dime was behind us and saying, 'This is what you have to do,' and just driving us. Everybody felt a special motivation."

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