Top 60 Vinnie Paul Quotes

I’m a rock drummer. I couldn’t sit down and pretend to be a jazz drummer.

I did a lot of great things in the past, but I live for today and for the future.

It’s unfortunate that people go, ‘Oh, wow, man, they can get Zakk Wylde to jump up there on stage, and it’s Pantera again.’ No, it’s not, you know. It’s not that simple.

I’ve been married to music my entire life. I’ve been dedicated to it. I know what it takes to do it. And ever since my brother has been taken from me, I feel like I have to live for both of us.

Hellyeah have great fans.

I can appreciate people for being able to go that fast with their left hand, man. But I just can’t groove to that beat. I’m sorry. It’s just like somebody sweeping the floor or something – tik tik tik tik tik. It just doesn’t really jam to me.

Even though Peter Criss is a pretty simple player, he played with great feel and made the music get up and go.

Basically, a band’s first record is them coming together and really learning everything, and then, after they’re on the road and really become a unit, the next record slams.

The most important thing about drinking on the road is just you’ve gotta do it in moderation, first of all. You’ve gotta know your limits.

You don’t get anything easy when you come from a big band and you go and start another one. You learn real fast that, ‘Wow! I went from the top of the mountain to all the way back to the bottom, and I’ve gotta start over.’

I’ve always been a down-to-earth business guy.

We like to play to a lot of people – that’s what it’s all about.

I don’t understand why somebody would wanna scratch their name in somebody’s tombstone or anything. But fans are rabid, man; they do unheard-of things.

I like being able to own things, to not have to depend on music to support myself. Music hadn’t supported me since 2000. I mean, it really hasn’t. I just do it because I love doing it.

That’s where I think a lot of these guys today are just, ‘I’m the drummer, man. Check it out. Here’s my lick. I just learned this new drum lick. I’m just gonna blast all over the place.’ It’s like, ‘Man, you’ve got to let the song breathe.’

When I have parties, I have little sandwiches. I always make sure I have two or three fresh habaneros, and I only put them on one or two. There’s always someone who comes running around the corner, ‘Oh my God! I don’t know what was in those, but my mouth is on fire! What do I do?’

Sometimes you get too jaded, too seasoned. With Hellyeah, we’ve been having a lot of fun. From the minute we sat down in the studio, there was a lot of energy.

My life has been one gigantic comic book, and on the other hand, it’s been one gigantic book of laurels and amazing accomplishments, and on the other hand, it’s been a book full of horror stories. It’s a big book.

‘The Will To Survive’ is a great track.

It’s called the music business. We’ve all gone into it ’cause we love the music, and a lot of people end up with nothing at the end of the day, after they’ve done all of this great music, ’cause they never learned any of the business side.

When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be an oceanographer.

I had some proper training, but that was only on snare drum. Learning all the techniques in marching bands and realizing how important it is to play tight set a standard for me for when I did get into a band.

I’m really proud of what I do with Hellyeah, and I’m focused on it.

I remember, in 1999, when we did the last Ozzfest that we were part of, and I think Disturbed was on it, Static-X, obviously Ozzy, us, and we were the only band on the tour that had a rider that had any alcohol. Nobody else had it.

My dad was a country musician, so we had David Allan Coe and lots of other country music playing around the house all the time.

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can’t lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I’d really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn’t feel natural to me.

I love cooking fajitas. I’m from Texas, and it’s not a difficult thing to do, but a lot of people burn the chicken.

Music is made to be heard, whether you hear it in concert, you hear it on the radio, or you hear it in your car. It’s not for two people to sit in a closet and go, ‘That’s my band, the only band I’ve ever heard, and I’m the only person that’s going to hear it.’

I’m not married.

I play in a band called Hellyeah, and I really love doing it.

We are firm believers that the first time somebody hears a brand new song from the band, it shouldn’t be on a cell phone camera with the distortion or anything where you can’t make it out. We want to present it right.

So many bands would say that they were alternative, or they were this or that… ‘Heavy metal’ was a pretty uncool word after about 1992; it was almost like, ‘Stay away.’ But it didn’t bother us one bit. And our fans were the best ever.

To me, I always felt like drums have to be the support and the driving factor in a song, and there’s places where the drummer has to show off and do things and get the spotlight, but not all the time. You’ve gotta pick and choose. And it’s always gotta be about the song. That’s really the bottom line.

I’m a big kid.

‘Far Beyond Driven’ was a record that was probably ahead of its time, and to this day, it still sounds as fresh as just about any other band that’s out there. It was a record that was pushed to another level.

My drum parts are a song within the song; that’s the way I look at writing my drum parts. They follow patterns, and they’re written to interact with the rest of the band. There’s quite a bit of thought that goes into it.

Nobody knows the pain I’ve been through.

Slayer is one of my favorite bands of all time, and to be on a tour with them is absolutely a dream come true.

When heavy metal was really big in the ’80s, it was huge, and then it kind of waned down and kind of came back.

We did everything we could to hold Pantera together and fought for it until the very end, and now that it’s gone we’re 100% focused on Damageplan.

I like to live for today and what’s coming up tomorrow, and I love what we’re doing with Hellyeah. And that’s my focus, and that’s my goal, man.

I’m a veteran of Ozzfest.

I think the sound that I have had on all the records that I’ve been a part of have been important and special.

That was one thing I wanted to win because, my mom, she didn’t really know much else in music, but the Grammys were special to her.

I will never take anything away from Pantera. It was great; we had fourteen amazing years together. But it’s no longer here. My brother is no longer here.

I don’t have any kids.

If you take the riff from the song ‘Cowboys From Hell’ and really break it down, it’s almost a hillbilly guitar riff: dekka dekka dekka dekka dekka dekka dekka dek.

In 1994, we had the first record by a true heavy metal band to ever hit the Billboard top No. 1 slot. We paved the way. And we always waved the heavy metal flag.

I wouldn’t want my funeral to be a sad, sappy thing.

There’s nothing like having some fresh blood out on the road with you.

In 1999, we did a thing called the ‘Reinventing The Steel’ tour with Pantera, when I was still with them, and Slayer was part of that, and it was a great tour.

A lot of people are really hung on the past – they can’t get past that – but you’ve gotta get past that if you want any future.

We knew Hellyeah had to be a lot of fun. We got into it for one reason: to have a lot of fun.

It’s a dangerous world, man. You’ve gotta keep your eyes and ears peeled and be on the alert all the time.

You have a natural groove inside of you, but the more you practise, the more comfortable you will be with your instrument.

Vodka is much easier on your system than dark whisky and stuff.

Probably some of the most impressive drumming I’ve done is on the ‘Far Beyond Driven’ record.

I still feel like a 19-year-old kid, man.

I really felt like we were gonna be The Rolling Stones of heavy metal, and we could have been.

To me, a hockey player has to be every sport rolled into one: ice skater, baseball player, football player, etc. It’s just incredible to watch!