Chad Gray Bringing Two Worlds of Fun in One Career-Spanning Show

"This is where my happiness lies," Chad Gray tells Full Metal Jackie for her weekend radio show about being back on the road playing music from both of his famous bands. Gray devised the idea after Mudvayne made the group decision to take the year off in 2026 and the singer was not content to sit at home.

Independently, he started calling up a few friends that led to jam sessions, an idea for an acoustic show and eventually the booking of several venues that has now turned into a full-fledged tour. It all brings the music of Mudvayne and Hellyeah together under one umbrella and Gray discussed the massive undertaking with Full Metal Jackie.

Of particular interest for Gray was bringing back the music of Hellyeah that had remained dormant since the band went on hiatus at the conclusion of touring in support of their final album that was completed after drummer Vinnie Paul's death.

"It's emotional for me. He was such a warm and generous man to everyone. And just to let his music die because he did is ridiculous," said Gray, later adding, "Vinnie is smiling ear to ear. I can feel him at every show, standing over me, him and Dime. I can just feel them over me, looking down proud. Proud of me for doing it and keeping his name alive. Vinnie's not dead if I'm still doing this."

In this first part of this two-part discussion, much of the questioning relates to Hellyeah and Vinnie Paul. Gray discusses putting together the setlist and finding the players for this tour, what Vinnie Paul meant to him and the traits they shared in common and he offers a great reflection on the type of bandmate and person that Vinnie was.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie this week. Very excited to welcome back to the show the one and only Chad Gray. It's been a minute. And this time we're here to talk about "30 Years of Madness" as Chad is revisiting his entire career playing both Mudvayne and Hellyeah as part of the same show. And I have to imagine that's fun putting together a setlist. You've typically been in one band or the other. Now you get to blend it all in one show and see what works well together. So what's been the most fun and most challenging of putting these sets together?

I think the most challenging thing was putting the set together. I've got 12 albums of material. I didn't realize what kind of an undertaking I was getting myself into. And outside of putting together the players that can play Matt McDonough stuff, Vinnie Paul's stuff, Ryan Martinie's stuff, Kyle Sanders' stuff, Tom Maxwell's stuff, Christian Brady's stuff, Greg Tribbett's stuff, I thought that was gonna be the big thing, which it was.

But the players are all great and putting together the setlist was just insane. I have so much material. Obviously I have deep tracks that nobody cares about unless they're hardcore Mudvayne fans or Hellyeah fans or whatever, but I have a lot of big songs just in my entire catalog and stuff.

The first show we played in Vegas was an hour and 50 minutes, which is an absolute marathon set. You can ask any headliner. Outside of Metallica, they play two hours and stuff. But the first of the four shows that we did, the first night of the Machine Shop, we did the hour and 50 and I had the band coming to me going, "Dude, we can't. We gotta cut some. There's no way." And I'm feeling it, obviously. And I'm like, "Okay." So we cut five songs, but we still ended up doing like an hour 35. Most headline sets are hour 15, hour 20, but yeah, we're still playing like an hour and 40. And it just feels like I was just scratching the surface of like the songs that I could really play.

I think I left a lot of stuff on the table when we did that cut. 'Cause in the hour 50 minutes that we were playing 19 songs, it's "Moth" and "Happy?" and "Dig" and "Not Falling" and "Nothing to Gain" and "Demons in the Dirt" and "Love Falls," the list just goes on and on and on with whether they were big top five, top 10 singles or something like that. If I didn't play "Dull Boy," people would be pissed. If I didn't play "Nothing to Gain," people would be pissed. People love those tracks, so you gotta figure out a way to work everything in.

it was a huge undertaking and it hasn't ended yet. I keep thinking, "Oh, I want this to be fun." I think that's the whole mantra of what I'm doing is, "Let's just get onstage and let's have fun."

After three decades of music, there's no shortage of songs to choose from. You were talking about how part of the fun has been sort of deciding which cuts deserve another chance to be played live, right?

II kinda wanna play "Drink, Drank, Drunk" because it is a fun song. We haven't played it yet, but maybe. We'll see. But we're playing "Alcohaulin Ass" and stuff again. It's a fun song and people love that song. And it just goes over huge.

Obviously since Vinnie passed is eight years or whatever, so these [Hellyeah] songs haven't really been played for that long. We did the Celebration of Life tours for him after he passed, but it's been a long time since we played any of these songs. And that one even more so, 'cause probably the last four years of Hellyeah, we didn't play "Alcohaulin' Ass" anymore 'cause we were more focused on our new stuff from Blood For Blood and Welcome Home and all that stuff and Undeniable.

So again, just from a setlist standpoint, we just didn't play it 'cause we wanted to play other stuff, so It's been a blast. It's been exactly what it is.

Hellyeah, "Alcohaulin' Ass"

I'm sure for many after that final album for Hellyeah after Vinnie's death, many likely wondered if we'd ever hear this music again. Can you speak to what it means to you to share these Hellyeah songs again?

This is such a huge part of what I'm doing, man. It is such a huge part of what I'm doing. Vinnie was my best friend and my brother and I was so grateful for him and what he gave me on so many levels. The friendship, the brotherhood, the knowledge that I got from him. He was just a consummate professional. He was such a pro and I learned so much from him.

And I know some people are gonna be like, "whatever," but Hellyeah to Vinnie Paul was as important as Pantera ever was. It was everything to him. Pantera had been Pantera and he was in Pantera, and he loved Pantera. But Vinnie was the guy that, "If this is what I'm doing now, this is what's most important in my world and what's most important in my life." And he just gave so much.

He ponied up money for us to be able to go do our European tours with Korn, to be able to go over there and open for Korn. We were over there for two months and our guarantees ... we definitely went huge in the hole. But he was like, "We're going." And he did that kind of stuff because it was so important to him to build this thing and he knew that that's what it was gonna take. And he had it. He had it to give and he did. And it's just so important to me to keep his legacy alive.

It's emotional for me. He was such a warm and generous man to everyone. And just to let his music die because he did is ridiculous. I just saw an opening and this idea was supposed to be me and Marcus [Rafferty] getting together and playing some casinos and doing it acoustic.

But playing the full catalog, playing everything, he's like, "Man, why don't we just get together and just play all the songs, but just do them acoustic and we can just play a casino or whatever. Who cares?.

But just to be playing because Mudvayne opted to take 2026 off. I wasn't a big fan of it. I was like, "I already only tour once a year and now you're telling me I'm not gonna tour this year." And I'm just like, "Man this is where my happiness lies."

After all these years, Chad, where's your happy place?

My happiness is onstage. Being onstage in front of the metal kids, that is where I shine. That's where I live. That's where I love. That's where I have an opportunity to give back to the people that have given me so much. And to be able to get on that stage and play these songs again is so powerful.

It's so powerful and I can see it on the faces of the people when we play it because there is this look of, "Holy [shit] we're seeing it." I think they thought they were never gonna hear those songs onstage again. I thought that and it made me so sour. I was just so heartbroken, because Vinnie, Hellyeah was everything to me. It was everything to me. Tom, Brady, Kyle, man, it was everything in the world to us. This is what we did.

I wasn't in Mudvayne anymore. I was in Hellyeah. And we worked our asses off for 12 years to make that band successful. And we did make it a success, you know? So to walk away from that and leave your fans that you know love it with nothing, man, just sitting looking at empty hands like, "What the [fuck]" It's always been very tough for me to deal with.

I think Vinnie would be happy to know that you are keeping his music alive.

Vinnie is smiling ear to ear. I can feel him at every show, standing over me, him and Dime. I can just feel them over me, looking down proud. Proud of me for doing it and keeping his name alive. Vinnie's not dead if I'm still doing this.

Right, you're keeping the music and the spirit alive.

Yeah.

I can tell you firsthand. We worked together when Hellyeah was around and I know exactly how important Hellyeah was to Vinnie. Vinnie would call me on the phone and be very frustrated. And I'm like, "Oh, my God. Vinnie Paul's yelling right now. I'm getting yelled at by Vinnie Paul right now because of what's going on at radio. Oh, my God." Like, it's very stressful.

It wasn't really. I don't think it was with you as much as how things were doing at radio. Things always did well at radio and you always made them do very well at radio. You've got great relationships and we were all very grateful for the, prowess that you brought to keeping those songs moving up the charts and stuff.

I think that when Vinnie got really frustrated was more toward the label. Like, "What's the next single? What's the next single?" And you always had an input. I remember we were always like, "Jackie, what do you think?"

Listen, I was so proud to have even a small hand in getting to work with the band. And I knew from seeing you guys and speaking to people who were fans of the band how important Vinnie was in keeping that spirit of music in his heart alive and getting a chance to do another band again and this band meant everything to him. I'm just echoing your sentiment. I can say that I know full well that it was incredibly important to him.

Chad Gray on the show with us. We were talking about Hellyeah earlier and I wanted to talk more about Vinnie Paul. It was obvious that Hellyeah was so much more than just another project. We were talking earlier about how it really meant everything to him.

It did. It was the band that brought him back from despair. Dime passed and he was devastated to say the least. And now he's lost his wing man, so what do you do?  He's looking and just like, "What do I do now?"  I've only played with this guy and now he's gone. What do I do? And then he did that for years and here we come along.

A phone call was made and he's like, "You know what? Kinda sounds like something maybe I'd wanna do," And next thing you know, we're all on airplanes flying to Texas and the whole flight, I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" Vinnie was a hero. I mean, come on, dude. I was a huge Pantera fan, man. And he was just one of my absolute heavy metal heroes, And then to be doing something with him was just unbelievable, unprecedented. But we just had a lot of fun, man.

We had a lot of fun creating, making music and it just kept getting more and more fun. And still it wasn't until that day came and it changed every single one of us forever. But the idea that I can give back to him, it's a real big motivator for doing what I'm doing. And it's a lot of fun.

I'm loving doing it because obviously Mudvayne's a big band and people love Mudvayne. But Mudvayne's been back, and there was that same look on people's faces the first time I walked back onstage with Mudvayne after coming back after 12 or  however many years it was. That "holy shit we're getting to see it again" look, you know? I'm seeing that same face, just wearing a different shirt. That face is wearing a Hellyeah shirt now, not a Mudvayne shirt.

But it's been a lot of fun, and it's really cool too because, like, there wasn't necessarily a lot of co-mingling of Mudvayne and Hellyeah fans. So I think I'm getting to see that too. There's a lot of both fans.showing up. So we're actually getting to stir this pot up a little bit and mix these two groups of fans.

READ MORE: Chad Gray Is Finding His Independence as an Artist

I didn't know what it was gonna be. And now here I am, gonna do a tour. It started with the idea of, hey, let's just get together and go play some casinos and do it acoustic. Then it's like, well, let's just put together a band. Shannon [Gunz] and I booked these shows. We booked the Vegas show with friends of ours here. We booked the Machine Shop with Kevin [Zink] 'cause I know Kevin. We booked Epic Events Center because we know Ryan [Vander Sanden] and Mark [Skogen] and everybody that runs that place. And Ryan happened to book a place called the Rust Belt in Moline, so that show came together. So Shannon and I just booked these shows on our own. We didn't have an agent or anything and it was just kind of let's see what happens. And then all of a sudden, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, like they all sell out.

We play East Moline, Illinois, for Christ's sake, like the Quad Cities, which should be a stop on every tour. And we put 1,200 people in that place. Then we went to Epic Events Center and we put 1,500 in there and Mudvayne sold 1,700. So I was only short 200 from Mudvayne.I was feeling pretty good about myself. But that's what this is telling me.

Doing those five shows, like maybe there's something here. I still don't know. Maybe I go on this tour and I play to 200 people every night. I have no clue. I don't think so, but I hope it works because I just want everybody to get together, forget about life and let's just enjoy ourselves. Let's have some fun. That's just what metal is. We're all just emissaries of the metal world. We're all just messengers. I'm a messenger and I'm bringing the metal. So hopefully people show up and just have a real good time, man.

Mudvayne, "Happy?"

Chad, give us a better idea of what fans can expect from the setlist.

The cool thing is, with the setlist, is that now we've got probably about 27 songs learned. So what I wanna do on this tour is cycle like five or six different songs, switch them out every night and really make sure that we're changing it up.

So if you see that first night setlist that you see people post all the time and that is the setlist for the whole tour, with me the second night it's gonna be a different setlist. The third night's gonna be a different setlist. The fourth night's gonna be a different setlist. Let's just see how much I can mix in and have some fun with it. We've got 27 or 28 learned right now and I've got them working on three more. So hopefully we'll have about 30.

And if we're doing 15, 16 songs, that gives me a lot of room to maneuver.

Chad, everyone deals with processing death in their own personal way. The last album was completed out of love and respect for Vinnie, but you guys are all still grieving. Has playing these shows brought out any response, input or interest from the other living members of Hellyeah?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Tom [Maxwell]'s got nothing but respect. I was gonna have [Christian] Brady do it with me. But Brady's a Vegas player, so literally that dude plays on six different nights. He's just like, "I'm just too busy to do it." Tom's a homebody now. You know what I mean? Tom has got his boy who just turned 18, which is incredible. Kyle [Sanders] is doing the Kerry King thing, living his life.

Everybody's just kinda doing their thing. I haven't got any negativity from anybody. Everybody seems to be awesome, so it's been cool in that regard. But yeah. How long have you been Full Metal Jackie-ing? How many years of madness are you on?

It's about 20 years. Yeah, it's about 20 years. 

I figured you'd have longer than that.

No, it's about 20 since I was doing a radio as Jackie at a station in Los Angeles that Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols was doing middays on. He had his own show and one day he just called me Full Metal and then that became the name. And I was like, "Who better to name you than Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols?"

Exactly.

So I've been doing radio for a lot longer than that, but how long has Full Metal Jackie been around? About 20 years.

That's awesome. So 20 years of madness for you.

Playing these shows has likely allowed you to reflect on your time with Vinnie Paul. You had the pleasure of not only playing in a band with him, seeing how he works as an artist, but also getting to know the man. Do you have a story or a reflection from your time with Vinnie that best represents him as the man you knew?

Dude, Vinnie was just the king of the barbecue. We were on our old Eagle that we spent more time in the shop than on the road. But we would might do a one-off festival or something with any number of random bands, BLS, Five Finger, whoever. And when we would do that, we would roll into a Sam's Club, good morning, and I would wake up, and the entire front lounge would be full of food.

And when I say full of food, I can't express "full of food" enough. Literally, pans, chicken, steaks, sausages, carne asada, da, da, da, da. Literally, the entire front lounge, the tables, the couches, everything just stacked full. And we roll into the venue, man and we get out, and our bus had those big, big folding tables, the big long ones. That was part of our gear,  three or four of those big, long tables and grills rode in there with all sorts of appliances, margarita makers. We would just roll in and unload. And this is early. We'd get there 11AM or whatever and we'd start setting up.

Everybody in the bus is prepping, cutting peppers, cutting this, cutting that, getting everything prepped up, man. And then obviously we'd start getting ready for the show. Because we always played earlier, like 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon or whatever, we'd get offstage, man, and go right at it. We would cook for the whole goddamn place. The bands, the local crews, the staff of the festival, whatever. Didn't matter what it was. And these weren't all Wimmer fests. These were whatever rock radio fest we'd be at.

He never took a dollar from anybody. It was just like he probably rolled into Sam's Club and spent a fortune on food and just doled it out. Everybody was welcome, but that's just who he was. And it was like that at those kind of situations. It was like that at his house. Anybody could roll by. That's who he was. He taught me a lot about how to be a rock star. A lot of people are just too cool for school. I mean, this dude had been arguably one of the biggest bands on the planet and is arguably one of the number one drummers to ever play the game and was the most sweet, down to earth, genteel, genuine person you would ever meet.

I was already that type of person, so he and I gelled really well together in the sense that we believed in the brotherhood and we believed in the brotherhood of our fandom and fans. We're one and the same. I do what I do, but I'm still a metal kid. I'm still that kid standing the second row of Slayer or Metallica or whatever band I went to see, Korn, whatever. And he was, too. I mean, he was that same way. He was still just a fan of music, and there's not too much difference between the star of the band and the front row fan. They're pretty much one and the same. So that's what he always reminded me of and I'm grateful for that every day.

It's Full Metal Jackie. This is part one of a two-part interview with Chad Gray. Part two's gonna be coming your way next week.

Thanks to Chad Gray for the interview. Stay up to date with Chad's touring via his website. He's also on Facebook and Instagram Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.

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