Vinnie Paul, drummer for Pantera & Damageplan (1964 -2018)

[Zoneboy]

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Drummer Vinnie Paul, co-founder of metal band Pantera, has died. Currently a member of Hellyeah, Paul was 54.

His representative confirmed the legendary drummer’s death to Billboard, but added that no further details are available at this time.

"Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away," reads a statement on the Pantera Facebook page. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time."

Along with his brother, Dimebag Darrell, Paul (born Vincent Paul Abbott) formed Pantera in 1981. The group found mainstream success with second lead singer Phil Anselmo. Throughout its career, Pantera earned four Grammy nominations and charted nine albums on the Billboard 200, including its 1994 album Far Beyond Driven, which debuted at No. 1 on the chart.

Following Pantera’s demise, the Abbott brothers formed Damageplan in 2003. The band was performing on Dec. 8, 2004, when Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a concert in Columbus, Ohio.

Since 2006, Paul was the drummer for Hellyeah, a heavy metal supergroup that also includes Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray and Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell.

Born in Texas, Paul credited his Lone Star roots for his powerful groove. “The Texas thing is part of it, growing up on a healthy dose of ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but I also was a metal-head from day one. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Van Halen, all my favorite bands had really great grooves to their music,” he told OnlineDrummer.com a few years ago.

[ABlairican Pie]

Rock in peace, Vinnie. You have joined your brother in the great rock and roll heaven above.

[MA]

Hope you and Dimebag are having a jam session up there right now.

[ABlairican Pie]

Vinnie Paul Abbott was born on March 11, 1964, in Abilene, Texas, two years before his brother Darrell. His father, Jerry Abbott, was a country musician who owned a recording studio.

When he was in school, Vinnie enjoyed the thought of entering music. He joined the high school marching band as a tuba player--but while he ran around the house huffing and puffing blowing on it and making a ruckus, his father put a stop to it. His father explained he would never make a penny playing it. Vinnie was heartbroken that his father was trying to crush his musical dream, but instead his father said his son was going to take up drums. Vinnie took to this idea at once.

[MA]

Vincent Paul Abbott was born in Abilene, Texas, on March 11, 1964. His parents were Jerry, a country music songwriter and producer, and Carolyn Abbott.
Paul has said that his biggest drum influences are Peter Criss, Tommy Aldridge—also mentioning Bill Ward, John Bonham, Mikkey Dee, Alex Van Halen, and Neil Peart.

[ABlairican Pie]

The rock and metal bug had bit hard on both brothers. Darrell had become enamored by KISS and Black Sabbath, and was galvanized by Van Halen's "Eruption" on the radio.

In 1981, Vinnie and Darrell formed Pantera with vocalist Terry Glaze. Bassist Rex "Rocker" Brown soon joined the lineup and for the remainder of the decade, releasing three independent albums with a fairly generic "hair" metal sound. In 1988. vocalist Phil Anselmo replaced Glaze. In 988, the band decided on a change in their visual as well as musical style--Vinnie commented at a band meeting that,referring to the band’s spandex appearance, Vinnie Paul remarked at a band meeting that “These magic clothes don’t play music; we do. Let’s just go out there and be comfortable — jeans, t-shirt, whatever—and see where it goes.”

So in 1990, when the band was signed to Atco by an agent watching perform at a teen's birthday party, the band completely changed its sound and image, as if the "glam/hair" image had never existed. There was a new sound on their major label debut, 'Cowboys From Hell", something called "power groove" metal, incorporating elements of thrash, hardcore, shred metal, and a slight touch of the blues. This album, with tracks such as "Cemetary Gates", "Domination", "Primal Concrete Sledge", and the title track, would be one of the few metal disks to hold high the flag of metal during a decade where true metal was about to disappear under the radar. Pantera was about to become one of the few holdouts of metal during the next ten years.

Here is Pantera in 1988. You never saw too many hair metal drummers with facial fur back then:

[MA]

Pantera recruited vocalist Phil Anselmo in 1987. By 1990, the band had been signed to Atco Records and released Cowboys from Hell, which proved to be the band's turning point. Over the course of four more studio records, a live album and a greatest hits compilation, Anselmo and Pantera were nominated for four best metal performance Grammys for the songs "I'm Broken", "Suicide Note Pt. I", "Cemetery Gates", and "Revolution Is My Name".
In 2001, Anselmo decided to put Pantera on hold because of back pain while he toured and recorded with his side projects. Pantera's official disbandment took place in 2003 for several reasons, but mainly because of the ongoing dispute between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers, although Rex Brown remained neutral. In the years to follow, animosity would stir up between Abbott and Anselmo. Anselmo had publicly announced that he wished for Paul to forgive him and reform a friendship. However, Paul stated that he was not interested in speaking to Anselmo.

[ABlairican Pie]

Interesting note about Pantera's discovery by the major labels:

A talent scout for Atco Records was grounded at an airport during Hurricane Hugo in 1990, where Pantera were playing a Mexican teen girl's birthday party. Upon introducing himself to the band, the man was told by Vinnie Paul that "I guaran-damn-tee you" that Pantera would give him a great time live. The band began to play and after a few minutes, the man had left the party. The band was disappointed that the man ran off, so they continued with the show and the party with cake falling to the floor and general mayhem to ensue.

The man returned a few minutes later and said he stepped out quickly to make a phone call to the record label--to announce that he thought Pantera was the most exciting band he ever witnessed! He talked the label into signing them.

And the rest is rock and roll history....

[MA]

In November 2008, he handpicked several of his most memorable drum parts to demonstrate in a promotional video for the drum company ddrum: "Use My Third Arm", "Primal Concrete Sledge", "13 Steps to Nowhere", "Domination", and "Becoming". In 2009, he started American Drummer Champions with the aide of friend and influence M. Ludowise, former Downset drummer.
In August 2013, Paul featured in a music video for Black Label Society's cover of "Ain't No Sunshine", appearing alongside a horse-masked Zakk Wylde. Wylde and Paul were well known to be close friends, with Wylde also having been particularly close with Paul's brother Dimebag Darrell before his death in 2004.

[ABlairican Pie]

In 1991, Pantera were one of the American metal bands to play in the Soviet Union to celebrate the opening of its doors to the West at the festival called "Monsters In Moscow" with AC/DC and Metallica. Interestingly, the band was stopped in their hometown in Texas by police who had caught them throwing rocks at a stop sign. The band responded by saying that they were about to be flown oversees as rock and roll ambassadors of the United States to a major concert festival the Soviet Union, so they should not be arrested for their vandalism. The police just shook their heads in dismay and moved on.