VINNIE PAUL - Rebel With A Record Label
by Martin Popoff

The healing process is well underway, thankfully. Although one should never diminish what has happened, Vinnie Paul has started getting out of the house, playing music again, issuing product and meeting the fans (this chat took place at his Big Vin Records label's Toronto office, previous to a meet and greet at a musical instrument store). There are two items currently on the street (drunk in public?), the Rebel Meets Rebel album, which pairs Vin, Rex and beloved lost brother Dime hitched up with country outlaw David Allan Coe, and the Dimevision Vol. 1 DVD, consisting essentially of home videos featuring Dime blowing things and people up, or jamming with them... or busking.

Muses Vin about his road trip, "It's fun to just go there and hang out, and hear stories about this time and that time that they saw you, or something special that changed their lives. It's always good to hear. It's all good stuff. Canada has always been great to us, and it's one of the last places we played. I mean, we came up through here with Slayer and Damageplan. It was a great time. It was the first time we ever played eastern Canada. We played Moncton and Saint John. They were f**king insane. Those people were starving for music, and it was really, really kick ass - a lot of fun."

So what is it you do at these events?

"This right here (laughs). Shake hands, sign stuff, take pictures. No playing though. I never got into the drum clinic thing. I always looked at the drums as part of the greater picture, as part of the song. It just feels empty playing just drums. I like to have music accompanying me. So I don't really do those things. For me they're just for drummers only. And the people that listen to our music, very few of them are drummers. They just love music. Q&A too. They can ask me all the questions they want and I'll answer all the questions they want while I'm there (laughs)."

VINNIE PAUL - Rebel With A Record Label Page 2