Hellyeah May Not Be Finished Yet
Hellyeah is not dead, says guitarist Christian Brady. Despite the death of drummer Vinnie Paul and singer Chad Gray resurrecting Mudvayne after 12 years of dormancy, Brady says new ideas are being floated in the Hellyeah camp.
Vinnie Paul was arguably the spiritual center of Hellyeah from 2006 until his death in 2018. In 2020, guitarist Tom Maxwell admitted, "When [Vinnie Paul] died — I'm not gonna lie — my passion, my love affair died as well with him. I don't even know if I wanna make another Hellyeah record without him.”
Mudvayne currently have two shows booked — Welcome to Rockville in November and Voragos in February — but no full-on tour plans have been announced from the newly reunited band. For all intents and purposes, Chad Gray and new Hellyeah drummer Roy Mayorga are free and open for a new record.
"Chad's doing Mudvayne," Brady said on an episode of Todd Kerns’ podcast. "I'm assuming that'll keep him probably busy for a minute, at least through the next year, doing touring stuff. I don't know what their plans are as far as if they're gonna do an album or anything like that; I don't know … We do talk Hellyeah sometimes, and we're all in contact. And Tom's actually been writing a bunch, man. He sent some ideas out and they're really cool. It's kind of sparking that in me again, and [in] Chad. So we're talking about doing some writing.”
He continued, “None of us have said, 'Yeah, Hellyeah's done.' A lot of people probably assume that — 'Yeah, Chad's back with Mudvayne. Hellyeah's done' — but we've never said that to each other or publicly at all. Hellyeah's not done. We're just not sure what Hellyeah's going to be moving forward. Right now, we have no label. We have no management. We cleaned house. We're free and clear. It's actually very exciting, because now we hold all the cards; we're in control. So we can write whatever we want. We can release a couple of songs at a time. If there's a demand for us to tour and it financially makes sense, then I'm sure at some point we'll find a way to do that." [via Blabbermouth]
Todd Dammit Kerns Talks to Christian Brady
Hellyeah’s most recent show took place on the 2020 Shiprocked cruise shortly before the COVID pandemic struck. Hellyeah’s last album with Vinnie Paul, Welcome Home, was released in 2019 using Paul’s pre-production drum takes.