Chad Grey’s Contribution To Vinnie Paul Overcoming Dimebag Darrell’s Death

In 2004, Damageplan, a band formed by brothers Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell, was unexpectedly disrupted when the latter was killed at a concert. The incident led to Paul’s decision to withdraw from the music scene, marking an 18-month period of inactivity. This hiatus ended when he was approached by Chad Gray with a proposition to return to music.

The vocalist, alongside Tom Maxwell, was in the process of starting a new band in 2006. Their initial drummer choice, Tommy Sickles from Nothingface, was not aligning with their vision, which led them to seek out another drummer. Given their familiarity with the former Pantera and Damageplan member, they chose to contact him in the hopes of enticing him to join their band.

According to Paul’s statements in a 2011 interview with the Scream Queen, his initial response to Gray and Maxwell’s offer was a refusal, as he did not wish to return to the music scene at that point. Nevertheless, the persistence of the two resulted in him reconsidering and ultimately accepting their offer.

During the same interview, the drummer noted the immediate productive collaboration between the new band members. In their first week together, they managed to write multiple songs, indicating strong compatibility within the band.

The musician’s account of the events went as follows:

“It was one of those things that I didn’t think I’d be a part of this ever again without him, and after about a year and a half had gone by, these guys called me up, Chad and Tom, they were like, ‘We’re thinking about putting this band together, would you be into it?’

First couple of times, I told them, ‘No, I don’t think I’m ready to do this yet.’ And they just were real persistent; they kept calling me. And one night, I had been drinking some red wine and listening to some KISS on 12 [vinyl record], and I said, ‘You know what, let’s take a shot at this; let’s see what happens.’

They came down, and we all really liked each other, got along great, we did some barbequing, did a lot of drinking, and the next day we got up and wrote our first song together, which was ‘Nausea,’ on the first record, and we wrote eight songs the first seven days we were together, and we were like, ‘Wow.’ We came up with the band name and were like, ‘Let’s f*ckin’ do this! Let’s do it, man!’ So that’s how it happened.”

Vinnie Paul continued his musical career with Hellyeah until he died in 2018. The band proceeded to record and perform after his death, even holding a tribute show in his honor in 2019. However, they also announced a hiatus in 2021.