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  • Hellyeah plays Streeters for one show on Saturday.

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February 8, 2008

'Hellyeah' is all about a good time

Band ready to raise some, well, you can figure it out

By Garret Ellison

TRAVERSE CITY-- Vinnie Paul has some advice for you:

"Get your beer-drinking helmet on and get ready to rock 'n roll," said Paul, drummer for the new supergroup Hellyeah.

They're coming to Streeters nightclub in Traverse City on Saturday. Special guests Nonpoint and Bury Your Dead will open the show.

Hellyeah is a fuse of heavy hitters from the hard rock/metal world. From Mudvayne, there's vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett. From Nothingface, guitarist Tom Maxwell. And from Damageplan, bassist Bob Zilla and drummer Paul, also of Pantera fame.

The Traverse City stop comes on the final leg of a lengthy tour schedule that kicked off last spring, after their self-titled debut was released by Epic Records. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 9 and topped 300,000 units sold over the holidays, according to Paul.

"It's been fantastic. Things have been going really, really good for us. The band's been very successful," Paul said, "more than any of us really thought would happen."

That's good news indeed for Paul, who took a hiatus from making music following the on stage murder of his brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, at a Damageplan show in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 8, 2004. Darrell was gunned down by a disturbed fan who also killed three and wounded two others before being shot and killed by a Columbus police officer.

Paul said the new project owes its start to the Mudvayne and Nothingface guys, who had been interested in collaborating on a group for several years, but were stymied by scheduling. When a window opened in summer 2006, Paul got the call.

"When they first called me, I said 'Hey, it sounds like a great idea, but I don't know if I'm really read to get back into playing music yet,'" he said.

In addition to mourning his brother, Paul had started his own record company, Big Vin Records. He was releasing posthumous Damageplan and Darrell material after the band's break-up.

"I guess persistence pays off," he said. "The phone calls kept coming and after about nine or 10 of them, I said, 'You know, this sounds like a pretty damn good idea to take a shot with and see where it goes."

The team flew to Arlington, Texas, to record at Chasin' Jason studio in Paul's backyard. He said the chemistry mixed well and they wrote seven songs in the first eight days.

"And Hellyeah was born from that point on," Paul said.

Vocalist Gray penned most of the lyrics and Paul did significant production work on the album. The first single released was "You Wouldn't Know" in March 2007, which peaked at No. 5 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. The second single, "Alcohaulin' Ass" peaked at No. 7.

"We just really wanted to put fun back into the music," Paul said. "We felt like things had gotten overly technical musically with the bands we were in. And we really wanted to kick it ... and that's what we did."

He described a different chemistry with different vibes from Damageplan and Pantera.

"It reminded me of making the early Pantera records -- just gung-ho, all-for-one, one-for-all, you know? Everybody was in it for the right reasons and it just felt comfortable."

Hellyeah "has that young vibe," Paul said. "The early vibe that people get before they get jaded, or have seen and done it all..."

Despite the chemistry, a member switch was necessary. Original bassist Jerry Montano was fired after assaulting Maxwell and allegedly making gun threats while drunk at the album release party. Zilla was brought in and the tour chugged on.

Paul said this tour is unlikely to produce a live album. They're choosing to let the releases rest on the laurels of the initial album and a DVD, "Below the Belt" released Nov. 2007.

Neither do they play any Pantera or Mudvayne material at their shows, preferring to let the new band stand alone -- no "flame-breathing dragons or laser light shows," he said. And the fan reception has been positive all-around.

"I think they (fans) understand that this thing is all about a good time," he said. "Our beers sales have been through the roof and people are there to raise some hell. And that's what it was all about from the start."

Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $27 plus handling. Attendance is limited to 18 and up. Call 932-1300, visit streetersonline.com, or hellyeahband.com for more information.

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