chad grayhellyeahvinnie paul
18:00 Friday, 29 April 2022
While catching up with Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ on his web show Drinks with Johnny, Hellyeah vocalist Chad Gray said "I think there are, like, two or three songs that Vinnie [Paul, late drummer] actually tracked drums to that we didn't end up [finishing] for whatever reason. So, there is a potential for us to write maybe a couple of more songs with Vinnie's drums added on."
The news came on the heels of what Gray described as a period of time that has been emotionally taxing, in the wake of Paul's death in 2018. "When we lost Vinnie, I was just thinking about, 'We have to do the same thing that we did for Dime for Vinnie now. We have to keep going to keep carrying the flag for Vince.' It's been tough. And I've talked to Tom [Maxwell, Hellyeah guitarist] a little bit, I've talked to members, and we've talked about… writing some music. We don't know what the touring plans would be ever— maybe ever again—but we could still release music."
Hellyeah's last studio album was 2019's Welcome Home, and was the last to feature Vinnie Paul. Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga stepped in as Vinnie Paul's replacement to support the album on tour. The band then officially went on hiatus in 2021, as the pandemic dashed any further hopes of seeing Hellyeah back on the road.
"Hellyeah was obviously an emotional situation," Gray says during the conversation. "Although I don't think we could have gotten a better drummer to fill in than Roy Mayorga. He's fucking phenomenal and he's just such a genuinely kind and sweet person. And anybody who knew Vinnie, he was very warm, very giving, very loving, very just fucking cool and fun. And that was what Roy was. So, Roy, for us, was a round peg, round hole. But it was still emotional… But you feel like you've gotta embrace your brothers and continue on for yourselves and for your fans. That's what I felt like we had to do, because Vinnie was so much of a supporter of music — all levels of music."
