After brother's loss, music draws Vinnie Paul out of darkness.

Byline: Scott McLennan

Drummer Vinnie Paul figured he was done with music after his brother, guitarist Dimebag Darrell, was gunned down on stage by a deranged concertgoer during a Dec. 8, 2004, performance by the group Damageplan, founded by the siblings after the breakup of their previous unit, Pantera.

"I thought that was it for me, I didn't want anything to do with music. It was really my darkest time," Paul recalled during a recent interview.

But a fellow drummer who experienced an inexplicable tragedy of his own helped Paul put some things into perspective.

"I got a letter from Dave Grohl," Paul said. "He said during his darkest time, it was the music that got him through."

And just as Grohl re-emerged with Foo Fighters after the suicide of Kurt Cobain brought an end to their band Nirvana, Paul is back making groove-laden heavy rock with a new all-star unit dubbed Hellyeah.

Hellyeah teams Paul with singer Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett from the band Mudvayne and guitarist Tom Maxwell and bass player Jerry Montano from the group Nothingface.

Gray, Montano and Maxwell started the Hellyeah project back in 2004 when their respective bands toured together. Mudvayne's tour schedule after the release of the "Lost and Found" record put Hellyeah on hold, but did provide time for Montano to pester Paul with phone calls to join the Hellyeah project.

"His persistence paid off. I was busy starting up my record company (Big Vin Records) and just didn't want to start playing in a band. But he just kept coming, finally showing up with a fifth of Seagrams," Paul said.

Paul said that Hellyeah contained the three ingredients necessary for him to get active behind the drum kit again.

"It had to be a good time, it had to have great songs, and it had to have killer groove," he said.

Gray, Maxwell and Montano had already cooked up the thundering song "Waging War" before convening with the fleshed-out lineup of Hellyeah during a recording session in Paul's native Dallas. Then over the course of eight days the group produced seven more songs.

"You can always take five awesome musicians and put them together and still get nothing. Here, everyone came in without any ego and just worked well together," Paul said.

Earlier this year, Hellyeah released its self-titled debut on Epic Records. The disc boasts a dozen slash 'n' burn hard rockers that capitalize on all the different roots within the band. Some of the tunes are simply brutal metal shout-outs; others are debauched groove fests. There are even some slower-paced bits of soul-searching.

"It's truly a Hellyeah record. It doesn't sound like a Nothingface record or a Mudvayne record or a Damageplan record," Paul said. "There were no boundaries when we went in to make the record. We covered a lot of ground."

Hellyeah has already made some impressive inroads as a live act, such as playing in front of 100,000 people at the Download Festival in England.

"That was great. Everyone from the other bands was watching us from the sides of the stage. I'd look over and see the guys from Iron Maiden checking us out," Paul said.

To conquer the States, Hellyeah joined up with this summer's Family Values tour headed by Korn. The bill also features Evanesence, Atreyu, Flyleaf, Trivium, Droid and Neurosonic, as well as a side stage anchored by competitive rounds of the video game "Guitar Hero." Family Values rolls into The Tweeter Center in Mansfield tomorrow and has a 2 p.m. start time.

Paul said that after Family Values, Hellyeah intends to mount a headlining tour of its own, and the work cycle could last from 1-1/2 to 2 years. After that, Mudvayne, Nothingface and Big Vin Records will need to be tended to.

As for being a record label honcho, Paul said he is looking for all types of talent, not just groups cast in the image of his own successes with Pantera and Damageplan.

"I've already gotten 5,000 demo tapes," he said, noting he takes submissions right through the Web site www.bigvinrecords.com. "But to succeed, they got to be great live and they have to have great songs. It sounds simple, but those two key elements often get overlooked."

Necessary elements, though, not lost in the rebel sound of Hellyeah.

Scott McLennan can be reached at [e-mail]

Family Values tour with Korn, Evanesence, Hellyeah and others

When: 2 p.m. tomorrow

Where: Tweeter Center, Route 140, Mansfield

How much: $59.50, $39.50 and $9.99

ART: PHOTO

PHOTOG: Courtesy of STEPHEN JENSEN

CUTLINE: Hellyeah members, left to right: Greg Tribbett, Tom Maxwell, Chad Gray, Vinnie Paul and Bob Zilla.