VINNIE PAUL On Possibility Of PANTERA 'Reunion' Shows: 'It's Better Left As It Is'

Benjy Eisen of RollingStone.com recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RollingStone.com: In the liner notes for [PANTERA's "Vulgar Display Of Power"] reissue, you say that METALLICA abandoned thrash metal when they released The Black Album, and that you guys saw that as an opportunity. How explicitly was that talked about in the studio back then?

Vinnie: I think the biggest goal of the whole record was to top [PANTERA's 1990 album] "Cowboys From Hell". We thought that with "Cowboys From Hell" we got really close to getting the definitive PANTERA sound that we wanted. We felt like the songs were really moving in the direction that we had grown into as a band, and we just were really, really hungry. We got in there and we worked so hard. Our intention was just to be a heavy metal band. When METALLICA put out The Black Album, it was kind of a letdown to a lot of fans and we felt like that was a window of opportunity for us to go ahead and step up to the front of the heavy metal plate.

RollingStone.com: Now that two decades have passed, do you feel differently about the album in any way?

Vinnie: Not really, man. I just remember at that point in time, we truly were an army. And if you fucked with one of us, you fucked with all four of us. We pulled the very best out of each one of ourselves, and with each record that we made, that mountain got taller and taller to climb. After "Vulgar", we had to make "Far Beyond Driven"; it was just another level to go to, and that was [reflected in] the title. We learned a lot during "Cowboys From Hell". We took all our experiences from playing live on the road, we knew what parts in which songs moved people and we really made sure that we incorporated lots of those kinds of parts in "Vulgar". We just did our thing, man.

RollingStone.com: What lies ahead for the band's legacy? Is there any chance of performing the material live in any configuration, or putting out additional archival material?

Vinnie: Stuff has always come out every two years consistently, so two years from now you'll be looking forward to the 20th anniversary of "Far Beyond Driven", and four years from now the 20th anniversary of "The Great Southern Trendkill", and on and on. So it will just keep building and keep growing. And the music will be untouched. It stands the test of time. It's better left as it is. It really was a great time and a time period, and it's time for all of us to move on with all of the other things that we're doing. And we're all doing our own thing and happy about it. But PANTERA definitely was special.

Read the entire interview from RollingStone.com.