Vinnie Paul Talks HellYeah Tour, the Strangest Thing He’s Ever Signed, and More with GRD [VIDEO]

Hellyeah comes to rock 20 Monroe Live next week!

To get us ready for the show, drummer Vinnie Paul called to talk about the tour, the band's cover of Phil Collins "I Don't Care Anymore" , the strangest thing he's ever signed, what's next for Hellyeah, and more!

Hellyeah is bringing their Undeniable tour across the U.S. now. Recently, the band was in Iowa, and I'd spotted a post on their Facebook page giving props to the Midwest,

"Ever since I started touring in 1990, the first tour Pantera ever did, with Suicidal Tendencies, and I asked Mike Muir, what is the best area in the United States to play and he goes, 'Let me tell you man-- the Chicago, the Detroit, the Grand Rapids, all the stuff in the midwest, that is absolutely the best place to play'... ever since then I've never forgotten that... Midwest is always the best!"

Some lucky WGRD listeners will get to meet the band before the show at 20 Monroe Live July 19 and maybe even get something signed-- so I wanted to know what was the weirdest thing a fan had ever asked Vinnie to sign:

I got a great answer for you, man. This one time I heard this guy yelling my name 'Vinnie! Vinnie!' and he runs right up to me... And he goes man, 'Will you sign my leg?' I'm like yeah, and I go squat down to sign his leg and he reaches down and pulls his leg off and hands it me.  And it's a prosthetic leg and it's got the Far Beyond Driven album cover painted on it... I signed his leg and I handed it back to him, he said, 'Thanks, man!' and he put it back on and he took off running again... And that's the weirdest thing I ever signed. That's a true story, man."

Vinnie and I talked about the new album Undeniable and how the band came to cover Phil Collins' "I Don't Care Anymore":

It was a beautiful accident... We were basically done recording the record and we were all just sitting around in the control room kinda talking about songs we might like to cover some day, and our guitar player Christian Brady goes 'Hey man I've always loved that Phil Collins song I Don't Care Anymore, and I went 'Wow man, you won't believe this but back in Damageplan, me and Dime actually covered that track, we just never put it out.' And about that time our producer, Kevin Churko goes 'Man, I worked with Phil Collins before, this is a great idea, what do you think about taking a shot at it?' So the next thing you know the guys grab the guitars and I went and got behind the drums and we just started putting a Hellyeah spin on it. We took a very familiar song and really, I think, turned into something that could be a trademark song for Hellyeah. The attitude is certainly Chad and it just felt great. So we started putting the track together and the next thing you know we were like man, how cool would it be if we could actually fly Dime's tracks in and make him part of this? So through modern technology we were able to do that. Man, it gave me just total goosebumps the first time I heard it. And really back in the day, Pantera never really had a lot of airplay, so in 2016, to be able to hear my brother Dime again, and blazing all over these great radio stations all over the United States and Canada, I think it's true justice and I love it."

Check out the rest of the interview above! And be sure to get your tickets for Hellyeah at 20 Monroe Live, with Avatar, and Kyng July 19!