You get the feeling that riding the wave of a massive US Top Ten debut for HELLYEAH's latest slab, Stampede, former PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul wants to do anything but look back. But even the great pyramids are built upon geometrically sound brick and stones, each dependent upon another. The point is, Paul has a treasured history, and the legacy of Pantera becomes more powerful each year that passes. And lo and behold, the album that brought the spotlight to the band, following years of Texas pub-crawling and bar-brawling, is celebrating it's 20th anniversary. Of course we are talking about Cowboys From Hell, the album that kicked the proverbial shit outta the metal scene, at the same time grunge was shaking the foundations with pure, adrenalin-filled rock n' roll. Where most hard rock/metal bands slowly fell one-by-one, Pantera stood strong and managed to cruise through the early '90s with virtual ease, led by the bombastic frontman Phil Anselmo, the revolutionary leads of guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and the sturdy backbone of his brother/drummer Vinnie Paul and bassist Rex Brown.

"Honestly right now I’m really focused on doing my thing with Hellyeah," Paul begins while on the road supporting the aforementioned Stampede. "I really enjoy doing what I’m doing, and I guess if I was sitting around the house and didn’t have anything going on it would probably be more important to me, but right now it’s just one of those things. It’s pretty neat, it’s pretty cool. And the deluxe package that we put together, we worked really hard on that to make sure it was great quality and exactly what we wanted to give the fans. And it’s great packaging, great pictures people have never seen, some great stories in there. The whole thing’s been remastered, it’s got demos, it’s got a track that I forgot that we even recorded for the record, 'The Will To Survive'. And it’s also got some pretty amazing live performances on there, so it really is a special package."

BraveWords.com: When was the last time you actually listened to it from start to finish?

Paul: "Start to finish? (laughs)"

BraveWords.com: In the studio?

Paul: "When we were mastering it, would probably be the last time I listened to it start to finish. Somewhere around 1990 I would say would be the last time I listened to it start to finish."

BraveWords.com: Did you have a clue what you were creating was just going to have this long-lasting effect and Pantera would become one of the greatest metal bands that have walked the planet?

Paul: "I think that we knew that we were a pretty amazing live band, we knew everybody in the band could cut it, there weren’t any weak links anywhere. And you know after seven years of playing night clubs and being turned down by every record label on the face of the earth, we were pretty pissed off and pretty determined, you know. So I think all those factors led to us putting everything we had into everything and felt like we really pushed each other to another level on every record that we made after that.

(Photo courtesy of Joe Giron/Rhino Records)

BraveWords.com: Well it wasn’t like you were a new band. You’d been in the bar scene for years, trying to establish yourselves and figure out where your place was in this business. What made it click to actually create this sound, to create this image, this vibe?

Paul: "Well this was the whole theme behind Cowboys From Hell, too, is that we were out of place. Every band in the world at that time that made it successful pretty much came from L.A. or New York, and now all of a sudden Seattle came on the scene and here we were this heavy metal band from Texas, way out of place, just didn’t fit in character-wise or anything. And that’s basically where the theme Cowboys From Hell came from. And after we finished our fourth independent record and we were still being turned down by labels and things like that, we were just like, 'let’s get rid of the stage clothes, let’s just be raw, everything down to the bone.' And like I said, all the frustration and anger that we had built up over being told no and turned down, we just turned it into positive energy and wrote what we thought were some of the most heaviest, baddest songs ever, with the most important thing which was the groove, because we had to keep the groove there. So that was something that we felt like a lot of metal bands at the time were missing out on. They didn’t really have that groove element, it was just speed for sake of speed, so to speak."

BraveWords.com: Now when you were going through this material and listening to it the first time since 1990 apparently (laughs), do you think Cowboys From Hell has stood the test of time?

Paul: "Oh, I think it has, I think the audio quality was pretty superior for back then, and it still to this day Cowboys and Vulgar, bands use their records to try to emulate that sound as best they can. And so to me that’s a pretty stellar accomplishment right there. And just when you listen back to it, it really reminds me of the diversity of the band; how we had a dude that could sing, we had a guitar player that could fucking play. There wasn’t anybody that was limited in their abilities, and it really kind of set us apart from a lot of the bands that were out at that time, too."

BraveWords.com: After struggling with four albums (1983's Metal Magic, 1984's Projects In The Jungle, 1985's I Am The Night and 1988's Power Metal), Pantera were on a mission to get noticed. What was the driving factor?

Paul: "We had a lot of frustration that set in. Dime had been offered a job with MEGADETH to play guitar for them, and it was a very bold thing for him not to take the job, especially when they called him at the time and offered him a Nike endorsement, health insurance, a paycheque, all this stuff that he didn’t have. It was a really big decision for him to stick with the band, and I think that really kind of helped all of us realize that we were that committed to it, and just really put our head to the grindstone that much harder.

BraveWords.com: Who’s the archivist in the band then?

Paul: "I would just say that the bulk of the material that’s there was stashed at Dime’s place, my stuff, and of course the person that helps me out is Kim (Kimberly Zide Davis). She’s been around since way back at the very beginning, so she has a great collection of all the Pantera stuff."

BraveWords.com: Now were you working with Phil Anselmo or Rex Brown on this, or are there still some bad vibes there?

Paul: "No, I didn’t work with them directly on anything and I never will, but I think everybody was pretty good about putting all their input in and giving their ideas and opinions of everything. We didn’t talk to each other. We won’t talk to each other and that’s all there is to that."

BraveWords.com: Can you recall the writing sessions for this particular record? A lot of this stuff was done before 1990 correct?

Paul: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of it was written before we actually recorded Cowboys From Hell, and a lot of it started at a place called Joe’s Garage that we used to play all the time. And we didn’t really have a rehearsal space at the time because we were constantly playing. We played five, six nights a week. And then we had our P.A. that we had to pay for, our truck, and all our gear. Anyway, we were only a touring band, but we only played three states - Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana - so we didn’t really have a rehearsal space, but this guy that owned Joe’s Garage would let us leave our stuff in there. We’d come in on Monday or Tuesday and jam our asses off, and then whenever we got a chance we’d go in the studio and demo, so it definitely started at a place called Joe’s Garage."

BraveWords.com: There was a recent tragedy with the owner of Joe’s Garage Abboud "Abb" Greig?

Paul: "Yeah, he got killed a few years ago. Just some ‘hood rats just took him out so they could take his wallet and that’s all there was to it. Just another sad day for a lot of people in this world. He was a really great dude, and it’s too bad that it happened to him. We made him lots of money, lots of money along the way, and we made some money and paid our bills. And we had a good friendship with a guy who was a good dude."

BraveWords.com: Why do you think you guys were committed so much to the road? You must not have had a hell of a lot of family life!

Paul: "You know, I think Rex was the only one that ever got married. For sure me and Dime didn’t and I’m pretty sure Phil’s never been married, so we were very committed to the road at a very early age, and we just learned that those kind of commitments didn’t work for us. I see plenty of people that are married or have kids and the road just destroys everything. You have to be able to give that time and that effort to that."

BraveWords.com: Can we talk quickly about the Terry Date experience and what he brought to the band to try to build this monster, Cowboys From Hell? What did you learn from him?

Paul: "Oh, man, Terry was great. The original producer that we had picked out was Max Norman. He did the first couple OZZY records, a MALICE record, ARMORED SAINT. His records were always just fucking slamming. And he came and saw us, loved the band and agreed to do the record. Then about two days before we were to go into the studio with max, he got a phone call from LYNCH MOB and they were able to offer him more money than we were. So he opted out of the Pantera situation and went and did Lynch Mob. A bad move on his part. (laughs) Anyway, so our A&R; guy goes, 'look, we have two days, we gotta find a producer. Have you guys ever checked out this guy named Terry Date?' 'Who the fuck’s Terry Date, never heard of him.' 'Well, he just did the new SOUNDGARDEN record, he did the new OVERKILL record,' which was slamming at the time. And we said, 'aah, man, this guy’s got ears, he knows what’s going on.' So he flew down and saw us play the next night, right before we were due to go in the studio. He flipped out on the band, definitely understood what the vibe was all about and we just started working together. He was really quiet and really shy at first, and there was a couple times right out of the bat that we didn’t know if he was going to work out just because he was really quiet and it was just odd getting used to having that extra person around. We had always done everything ourselves. And once we got to know each other and he saw how hungry the band was, he went and dove in headfirst into the material. The main thing that he brought to the table for us was we’d never worked with any really quality analog recording gear at the time. All the stuff that we had was pretty good, but wasn’t what people would consider A-notch stuff. Terry brought in some really high-end stuff that was very expensive that we could never afford, but with a major label recording budget were able to. So we learned a lot from each other, but he definitely was instrumental in the Pantera sound and obviously we kept him around for many records after that."

BraveWords.com: I find it quite interesting that this kind of landed at the end of that whole hair metal thing and then before grunge took hold. But this didn’t affect your climb. You tore strips off of everybody and the Pantera phenomena ignored these other scenes that were developing at the time.

Paul: "Well thanks, man. I think all we ever cared about was playing live, man, and getting that opportunity. We knew we could get there, we just had to have that opportunity. And for us to get that opportunity everything had to fall into place. The thing that really I think led to our success, besides us just being a great live band and people wanting to come see us, was the fact that we never, ever depended on radio or MTV to take our music to the fans. We did it ourselves. We toured non-stop two years for every one of those records. We never took a break, we just stayed at it, and I think our fans appreciated how dedicated and loyal we were for them and they did the same for us."

BraveWords.com: This is also a very emotional time because you’re dealing with Dimebag's music and memories. It must be stirring up a lot of feelings inside you.

Paul: "Yeah, well I haven’t been able to deal with it, and of course his birthday was recently (August 20th) and that was a pretty difficult time. But in retrospect, looking back at the Pantera stuff, it’s something that I’m very proud of. He put his heart and soul into and I’m glad his legacy and spirit and energy will live on through that music, and it’s important for me to keep that alive that way."

BraveWords.com: And you mentioned celebrating every 20th anniversary; have you started to put your thinking cap on for Vulgar then yet?

Paul: "Well, we got two years to go for that, so... (both laugh) I know that it’s already in motion and there’s another track that we discovered that we’d never put on the record, so it’ll have one more gem that nobody’s ever heard. We were always a band that believed when it came to song-writing that it was all about quality and not about quantity. A lot of bands will write forty songs hoping they get ten good ones to put on a record. We wrote what was on the record, ten or eleven and that was it. We rarely had any extras, and that’s why there’s never been any hidden B-side tracks. This track came up, 'The Will To Survive', from Cowboys from Hell. And then we found this other track that is going to be included with the Vulgar one, so there will be something there that people haven’t heard."

BraveWords.com: Well that was my next question and you’ve answered it. There really is not a lot in the archive then?

Paul: "No, not at all."

The Deluxe and Expanded editions of Pantera's Cowboys From Hell is out now at all retail outlets, including Pantera.com and Rhino.com. Complete details can be found here. The Ultimate Edition will feature all three discs included in the Deluxe Edition and will be housed in an intricate box including several replica memorabilia pieces from the Cowboys era. The Ultimate Edition will be available on November 22

Check out a 20th Anniversary Edition of Cowboys From Hell widget below: