I Got to Interview Vinnie Paul

During the summer of 2006 I was working factory shiftwork fulltime and putting my journalism second. I was freelancing for a few magazines and web sites, but for some reason that is incomprehensible now, I was putting a deadend labour job ahead of them. One magazine I was writing for at the time, and still write for, would send out e-mails with random interview opportunities throughout the day and usually whoever responded to them first would get the interview. Because I was working most days, I often wouldn't get to check my e-mails until the evening, and by then it would sometimes be too late to claim an interview. I remember one night coming home and reading an e-mail requesting a writer to interview Vinnie Paul, ex-drummer of Pantera, who was promoting his new project Rebel Meets Rebel. I responded to it, anticipating a response that would probably say something like "Too Late." I was wrong.

By some sort of miracle, I was assigned to interview Vinnie Paul. I was 25 at the time and had been a fan of Pantera since I was 14. Vulgar Display of Power was one of the first metal albums I ever bought, and still to this day, Pantera is one of my alltime top-five favorite bands ever. Getting to sit down and interview Vinnie Paul is one of the greatest moments in my career as a young journalist and is without a doubt the best interview I have ever conducted.

Being the kind of guy I am (pat myself on the back) I invited my friend Brendan to tag along for the interview because he was also a huge Pantera fan. We ended up gettting stuck in traffic on the way into downtown Toronto for the interview and wound up showing up a few minutes late. I was incredibly nervous as we stepped into the office room where he was doing interviews. I saw Vinnie sitting there, and as the record label PR introduced us I aplogized for being a tad late. We shook hands and he was sincerely understanding of the situation. Brendan and I sat down with him and proceeded to ask questions, and as I watched him answering I realized how little he has aged since the Vinnie Paul of Pantera I knew in 1994. He looked very much the same as in the pictures I saw him in way back then - T-bones, cowboy hat and all. This was nearly one year after the death of his brother Dimebag, so I was sensitive not to ask any questions about that - he was strictly there to promote this new project.

He is evidently very appreciative of his fans as Brendan and I took pictures with him after the interview (very unprofessional of a journalist, by the way), and the following day he did an autograph session at a local music shop. This album and track always reminds me of the time I got to do the best interview of my journalism career with Vinnie Paul, as well as got to sit down and chat with one of my longtime idols.

R.I.P. Dimebag