Hellyeah's Chad Gray: Pantera can never do a reunion

Chad Gray (Image credit: Getty)

Hellyeah’s Chad Gray says Pantera “can never do a reunion.”

The supergroup frontman and former Mudvayne vocalist calls out fans for seemingly forgetting that drummer Vinnie Paul watched his bandmate brother Dimebag Darrell “get tragically murdered in front of him.”

He tells Revolver Mag: “Tragically, even if Vinnie wanted to, Pantera can never do a reunion. You can’t do a reunion without a member of a band.

“I think that people forget the emotional aspect of this. Vinnie watched his brother get tragically murdered in front of him, and what’s on their mind? They want to see a Pantera reunion.

“I’m not trying to call people out as assholes, but people are kind of assholes. They forget that he had to live this.”

Gray also insists there are “many reasons” why Mudvayne no longer exist – and explains that Hellyeah’s latest album Undeniable is inspired by their frustration at continued reunion discussions over their former bands.

He says: “It is what it is. I’m tired of stringing people along. I still talk to the guys – we’re cool. But for many reasons, Mudvayne doesn’t exist anymore.

“Someone posted that ‘Mudvayne 201?’ thing online, and they shouldn’t have done that because it’s fucking with Mudvayne fans emotionally, which isn’t fair. I don’t want to wind people up, but who am I to say that can never happen again? But I’m certainly not gonna say that it can.”

Gray continues: “As an artist – or whatever you do – you wanna be respected for your work. But even after all the records we’ve done, there’s still the stigma of Pantera and Mudvayne and everyone wanting the reunions and all this shit, so it was like, ‘Is what we’re doing not good enough?’

“I think it was this unspoken headspace that we had going into this new record, and when I was writing the song Be Undeniable, I came up with the line, ‘If you’re tired of being denied, be undeniable and dot your I’s on the bottom.’

“And dotting your I’s on the bottom is an exclamation point. So I think the name Undeniable kind of validates what Hellyeah does.”

Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot dead onstage while performing with Damageplan in Columbus, Ohio in 2004. He was 38.

Since then, Vinnie has consistently said a Pantera reunion is out of the question – though former frontman Phil Anselmo has admitted he’d “do it in a heartbeat” if given the chance.

In 2014 Gray said he “wasn’t ready to put a headstone” on Mudvayne, despite sacking long-term associate and Mudvayne co-founder Greg Tribbett from Hellyeah earlier that year.

Last month Hellyeah released a video for their cover of Phil Collins’ I Don’t Care Anymore featuring guitar work from Dimebag.

Hellyeah remaining tour dates 2016

Aug 30: Condesa El Plaza, Mexico
Sep 03: Santiago Rockout Fest, Chile
Sep 07: Sao Paulo Maximus Festival, Brazil
Sep 10: Buenos Aires Maximus Festival, Argentina
Sep 18: Chester Rock Allegiance Festival, PA
Sep 20: Greensboro Cone Denin Entertainment Center, NC
Sep 21: Jacksonville Mavericks At The Landing, FL
Sep 22: Baton Rouge Varsity Theatre, LA
Sep 24: Dallas Texas Mutiny Festival, TX
Sep 25: Houston Open Air, TX
Sep 27: Oklahoma City Diamond Ballroom, OK
Sep 29: Sioux City Hard Rock Hotel, IA
Oct 01: Louisville Louder Than Life Festival, KY
Oct 02: Janesville WJJO Sonic Boom, WI

Why the world doesn't need a Pantera reunion

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.