VINNIE PAUL Says His Long-Awaited Cookbook Will Finally Be Released This Year

On February 7, "In The Vault With Shanda Golden" (web site) conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott at the Knitting Factory in Reno, Nevada. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about his long-awaited cookbook, "Drumming Up An Appetite With Vinnie Paul", the drummer said: "I'm gonna get it out, I promise, by Christmas this year. About two Christmases in a row have kind of gone by. But we have a big tour coming up in Europe right after this [HELLYEAH U.S. headlining tour], so that way, I'll have a lot of time to myself to finish it up. I've already got about 125 recipes in it. It's called 'Drumming Up An Appetite With Vinnie Paul'. How clever is it? It's got a picture of me sitting behind a drum set. I'm holding two turkey legs, which are otherwise known as drum sticks. And it's all about cooking and having fun with it. I don't get too specific about it. But I do think a lot of people think cooking is throwing something in the microwave. And it's something that you've really gotta be passionate about, just like playing an instrument. And if you put your heart and soul into it, and then you feed it to people, and you [hear them say], 'Oh, man! This is so good.' It makes you feel good. It's just like playing music. [You want people to tell you], 'Goddamn, I love this shit!'"

Vinnie Paul also spoke about some of the other non-music-related interests he had when he was growing up. He said: "When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be an oceanographer. Jacques Cousteau was my hero. When I was really young, I used to always… When I go back and find stuff that my mom had saved for me, when I was 3, 4, 5 years old, [there are] all these pictures of me scuba diving and octapuses, and sharks and all that… crayon drawings… they weren't any good, but… I wanted to do that. And then I wanted to be an astronaut. And then I started growing up and fell in love with music… Then I thought I was gonna be an athlete; I wanted to play football. But even though I'm a big guy, I'm not big enough to play that sport. I got tired of my fingers getting crushed all the time, and so then I just started playing drums. And I went, 'Wow, man! I'd rather do this. This is what I'm supposed to be doing.'"

Back in 2010, Paul told the LimeWire Music Blog a little bit about his favorite dishes. "I love cooking fajitas. I'm from Texas and it's not a difficult thing to do, but a lot of people burn the chicken."

He also revealed that he was a fan of stuffed jalapeños. "I take fresh jalapeños, put cream cheese on them, maybe a little fajita seasoning, cheddar cheese on top and the key ingredient, which I learned in Australia, is barbecue sauce," he said. "Don't put hot sauce on it, just a little barbecue sauce on them. Put them on the grill."

He added, "When I have parties, I have little sandwiches. I always make sure I have two or three fresh habaneros and I only put them on one or two. There's always someone who comes running around the corner, 'Oh my god! I don't know what was in those, but my mouth is on fire! What do I do?!'

"It's fucking awesome. Somebody always gets one, but nobody knows who."