HELLYEAH's CHAD GRAY: 'Heavy Metal Music Saved My Life'

California Rock News recently conducted an interview with HELLYEAH and MUDVAYNE frontman Chad Gray. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On touring with SLAYER and KING DIAMOND as part of this summer's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival:

"SLAYER, to me, is one of those bands that I was…. Heavy metal music kind of saved my life. There were so many times when I was in the bottom alone, whatever… I didn't fit in, as a kid, being a metalhead, and not understanding why. And you hear heavy metal, and you're, like, 'Oh, I'm just hanging out with the wrong people.' SLAYER is one of those bands that I just gravitated toward. When I was really young, 'Show No Mercy', 'Haunting The Chapel', 'Reign In Blood', 'South Of Heaven'… those records changed my life. Like, literally standing at the record store door the day that those record came out. You run in, go out with your friends, you go out in the car, you put it in, you listen to it top to bottom… You know what I mean?! And you play it again, and you drive home to it. KING DIAMOND 'Them' was a huge record for me. MERCYFUL FATE also. So it's pretty cool."

On the HELLYEAH song "Hush", which Gray wrote about the violence he experienced at home while he was growing up:

"That song is kind of… It kind of sang to me. I do believe that there's a point where you catch lightning in a bottle and the song is kind of writing itself, and you're just guiding it. I have these little wrestling matches in my head about how much I wanna put out there. You know what I mean?! Do I really wanna say that? 'Cause you have to show them something and you're gonna have to see the reaction — whether they're gonna embrace it, or they're just gonna stab you. But you're not gonna be able to build that relationship unless you do it. So kind of the way I get to [the point where I feel comfortable sharing it] is: a) I wanna be honest in my music, and b) it's, like, if I'm sitting there wresting that hard with myself [while] wanting to tell this story, it couldn't have only happened to me. There has to be somebody else out there that's going through that. I think the whole overall mantra of that song is 'You're not alone.' That's a very powerful line, because, going through that part of my life, I did feel alone, and I think a lot of people that are in that situation, they see it happening, but a lot of people don't wanna disrupt the family. So, as fucked up as it is, they keep quiet about it. Or maybe they don't have anyone to tell. Or if they did have someone to tell, what happens if you tell someone… The way the world works sometimes, you come in, they yank you out, they put you in a foster home, your mom and dad are gone, and it completely breaks the family. So they keep quiet and just deal with it, rather than speaking out about it and telling somebody that they can trust about it, to kind of keep it within the family, and maybe have some sort of an intervention. And I think what I kind of wanna do is just to provoke that, 'cause I'm quite sure that that happens in the metal community. And we're here to protect each other — I think. I fully believe in metal family and metal community, and I think that we are here to help each other. For every action, there's a reaction, right?! So, like, some shit goes down and something gets heavy or whatever, if I can provoke to somebody that listens to our music just that second thought. Like, 'Hold on a second.' You know what I mean?! Maybe there's something between here and there that resonates in them and they go, 'Count to ten. Walk out of the room.' That song, to me, is part of my story, part of my past, and I think it's really… I can't take No More [the public awareness movement created to help stop sexual assault and domestic violence] enough for coming on [and helping get the message out]."

HELLYEAH's latest album, "Blood For Blood", was the band's first release since parting ways with guitarist Greg Tribbett and bassist Bob "Zilla" Kahaha in 2013.

The new members of HELLYEAH are bassist Kyle Sanders and guitarist Christian Brady.

"Blood For Blood" sold around 17,000 copies in its first week of release to land at No. 18 on the Billboard chart.