There was a section near the end of the DimeVision DVD where Dime was holding up his video camera in the mirror and just speaking passionately about music and the “imperfections” that made so many classic albums great. It was just really awesome to see that side of him for the first time. Was it important for you to show that part of his personality to his fans?

I just thought it was beautiful. Everything he said was totally along the lines of the philosophy that we always had, and I just felt like a lot of people could really learn something from that. I just thought it was beautiful and Dime is the only person that would think of waking up first thing in the morning and standing in the bathroom with his own video camera and videotaping his philosophy on music. I just thought it was great, man.

Yeah, we’d seen the light side of Dime in the old Pantera home videos just kind of goofing off, and there was some of that on here, but this was different than anything we’d seen before.

Yeah, it was totally 100% him and that’s how he always felt about music.

How has the reaction been to the REBEL MEETS REBEL album?

Man, it’s been really good! The main thing that I’m really impressed with is that the people that have the record really get it. A lot of people had these different concepts of what it was gonna be like before it came out. Like “aww is it gonna be this lame Country record with Pantera trying to be Country?” No, it’s balls out. It’s a rock n' roll, southern rock, almost metal thing at times, and it borders on Country at times, but to me it was just a real magical record. We didn’t do anything any different than we normally do in Pantera and [RMR vocalist David Allan Coe] didn’t do anything different from what he does with his own solo stuff. We just put the two together, it wasn’t like we were trying to be Country or he was trying to be metal. That would have really messed it all up. We just brought the two types of music together.

How did you get hooked up with David?

Dime went to see a show of his, and long before that we were always fans of his. And on the ’97-’98 Official Live Pantera tour we used his song “Jack Daniels If You Please” as our opening tape every night, and it was always surprising how many people in the crowd knew the words and would sing along with it.
He was playing in Dallas when we had a tour break and Dime went over to watch his show and loved it. He stood in line for 30 or 40 minutes to get an autograph from the dude, and when he looked at Dime he was like “Dude who the fuck are you… look at you with a purple goatee and that curly hair and tattoos, you gotta be somebody!” Dime said “Yeah we play in this little band from Texas called Pantera, here’s our DVD.” Anyway, they hit it off really great and traded numbers. Later that night as David was driving down the road, he put on the DVD and it just floored him, it just blew him away. He said it was like discovering the Beatles for the first time.

Wow, so he wasn’t familiar with the band at all?

No, he wasn’t familiar with us at all. He called Dime immediately and had a great conversation and the next thing you know, they’re talkin’ about writing some songs together. So the next time he came through town we happened to have another break from being on tour. He came over to Dime's house where we have the studio and we got drunk… of course we had to do that right outta the chute. And the we ended up down in the studio y’know. The first song we wrote was “Nothing To Lose” which is the first song on the record, and it was just game on after that. It started off just like an experiment, but after we wrote the first couple songs we were just like “Let’s just fuckin’ kick ass, let’s keep doing it and see where it goes”.

So all the songs were original material put together specifically for this project? No pre-existing music?

No, we wrote all that stuff on the spot. It was just a lot of fun, man. There was no record company pressure, no expectations from the fans, nobody even knew we were doing it. It was just fun and I think it really comes through in the music.

Do you think it’s turned a whole new audience on to David Allan Coe?

Oh yeah. I’ve been to a couple of his shows recently and he has his usual diehard fans, but he’s got a lot of kids there that he wouldn’t normally have that are wearing the Pantera shirts and the Dimebag tribute shirts. And they’re totally into what he’s doing, and y’know he does a lot of the songs off the record. He does ‘em a little bit more hillbilly-wise, yknow. But it’s cool. You never know, if the record keeps doing as well as it has been we might try to put a version of the band together and go out and do 6, 7, 8 weeks of dates. That would be very cool.

What did you think of the recent VH1 “Behind The Music” on Pantera?

To be totally honest, I haven’t watched the entire thing. But from what I understand from my manager and people that were close to the band, like the tour manager, they feel like they did a pretty fair representation of the story. So I feel pretty good about that.

Do you ever get a chance to just go back and listen to the Pantera albums? Do you have a favorite one?

My favorite one is Vulgar Display Of Power. That’s the one that really launched everything. I think it’s the best songs we ever wrote, and it was just a record that came at a time when we just finished our first world tour, we were so hungry and so fuckin’ into everything that we were doing, and we wanted to make the best album ever. And to me that is the very best Pantera record ever. I feel like we did a great job on all of em, but that one had all the magic, man.

Yeah, that one definitely came out of left field. There was nothing that sounded like that. We would hear clips of “Fucking Hostile” on Headbangers Ball back in the day. They would constantly play those little clips and it was just like “wow, who is THAT?!”

When you hear the old stuff, are you critical of your own playing, or are you able to just enjoy it?

After you go out and play the songs live so many times you don’t really listen to your own music, and when you do it’s kind of exciting. You know, to hear the excitement, the energy, and what we captured on tape. And when I say tape, it really was tape back then!

I know that being in a band, sometimes you go back and listen to thing from a few years back sometimes you just cringe, and sometimes it’s actually cooler than you remember it being.

Oh yeah, you definitely have your cringe moments, but not very often, I think we did a pretty good job of getting things right in the studio.

What was it about Pantera that made it so special to such a large audience? Certainly more than your average metal band.

I think it was a bunch of things. We were a band of fans. We loved all the other kinds of music that was out. We didn’t feel like we were competing with ‘em you know. We just wanted to be fans and friends with them, and I think our musicianship was a little bit of a level up from a lot of bands. We spent seven years in night clubs playing cover tunes, and we could play anything from Van Halen to Metallica to Priest, I mean all our favorite bands. We really knew our instruments well and we felt like we could put a lot into our songs that maybe other bands couldn’t and that just kinda made it more special. And then just like with any band, it happened to have the right chemistry with the people in it.

Is there anything at all that Phil Anselmo could possibly do, to make amends with you on a personal level? Or is that out of the question?

Absolutely not. That’s it.

Are there any newer bands out right now that interest you?

I think there’s some cool bands out there. There’s a band called 69 Eyes from Finland who’s a cool band. It’s a little different than what I always listen to. It’s kind of a cross between Type O Negative and Billy Idol, and I’m a huge fan of both of them. Disturbed is probably one of my favorite modern metal bands out there. They do a really good job, and David Draiman is kind of a modern-day Rob Halford… he has it all he can do all sorts of great things with his voice. Those are the main ones. I think Slipknot is fuckin’ incredible, I love everything they do. Its almost like a modern-day Kiss so to speak.

Do you have any “guilty pleasures” in your music collection? Albums that no one would ever expect Vinnie Paul to be listening to?

I think it’s pretty well known that I like all kinds of music. I mean, the only kind of music I can’t take is Rap. I love everything, like Enigma and I mean, I love my old school stuff, it’s hard to get past all that. Van Halen, Priest, Kiss… all that is just the greatest. But I dig some Country music, there’s nothin’ wrong with that once in a while. If you listen to metal 24/7, I just don’t know how you could do it. There comes a point when you need to put something on to chill out, when you lay down, shit like that.

Who is your favorite drummer of all time?

The dude that made me wanna play double bass was Tommy Aldridge. The first time I ever heard him play all those triplet bass drum fills on “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)” by Pat Travers, it just freaked me out and I had to go get another bass drum. Pat Travers, Black Oak Arkansas, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Ted Nugent, you go down the list, he’s played with all these people and he’s still goin’. The dude’s like 58 years old and still can play circles around 98% of the people that play drums today.

What do you think of the current crop of new heavy bands in general? The kind of bands that are getting airplay on “Headbangers Ball” for example?

I think the biggest problem I have is that I miss the groove. It’s all about as fast as you can go and all the double bass. The way I approached double bass is that if you saved it and used at certain parts of the songs, you really get that thunder that you’re looking for, that boost that pushes the music over the top. But if you start every song with it and it goes like that all the time it doesn’t have that effect. That’s what I miss with these bands, they all have the big yelling and the same double bass on everything. What ever happened to the groove and some dynamics? I’m not against ‘em because I think they’re great players, but I’d just like to see ‘em groove more.

I think the return of Headbangers Ball may have had an effect on all of it. I mean, years ago that’s how I discovered tons of bands. It may have even been how I discovered Pantera for the first time. It seems like now they’re playing a certain kind of sound, so bands may be conforming to a sound in order to get that spot and be heard.

It’s tougher these days, I know that for sure. Labels are not willing to develop bands. They’re not willing give them the opportunity to put two or three records out, you know. They wanna see who has the next hit. If you don’t have a gold record you’re off the label. It’s difficult, these bands don’t have as much of an opportunity as we had back in the day.

Do you think you will join another band full time?

Oh yeah, definitely. I miss playing, I know I still have a passion for it. It’s something that I will do, and I’ve had the good fortune of being able to play with a lot of my friends over the last year and a half. Everybody from Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony from Van Halen, who I jammed with again the other night, to the Disturbed guys, Anthrax, Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society. All these bands have given me an opportunity to play, and every time I got on stage it was just so great to have every one be so supportive.

What are your plans for Big Vin Records? Are there some specific types of projects that you’re looking to release?

Oh, anything really. I have a comedian who we’re putting out, so it’s not just metal bands, but obviously I am looking for some kick ass bands like that. I’ll know it when I hear it really, we’ve gotten thousands of demos so far and I haven’t heard it yet.

Alright Vin, I won’t keep you any longer, it’s been great talking to you, I’ve been a fan since I was a kid.

Thanks man, this has actually been one of the coolest interviews I’ve done. I really appreciate it.

Joseph Rose
Contributing Writer