HELLYEAH, featuring former PANTERA / DAMAGEPLAN drummer Vinnie Paul, will issue their first single 'You Wouldn't Know' to radio on February 26th. The band's self-titled album will hit stores on April 10th.

As previously reported, Chris Harris from MTV.com recently issued the following report:

At first, Vinnie Paul Abbott wasn't at all interested in making music again.

Not even two years had passed since the onstage assassination of his brother — and PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN confederate — "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, and really, much of his spare time was being spent running his label, Big Vin Records. Committing himself to a new band was just something he couldn't bring himself to do. But that didn't stop NOTHINGFACE bassist Jerry Montano from trying.

"Since May of last year, I started getting phone calls from Jerry, who I've known for a long time, just saying that they planned on putting something together and they needed a heavy hitter — they needed me," the drummer explained. "And I was like, 'Man, I'm so busy with my record company, and I don't know if I'm really ready to do this again' and all that. And after about seven or eight calls, he finally caught me one night when I was in the right frame of mind. I had been drinkin' and listening to some music, and I said, 'You know what? Let's give this thing a shot.' The next day, I talked to everybody in the band, and everyone was so super cool and had the same mindset."

Abbott invited the rest of the group that would inevitably become Hellyeah — Montano, Nothingface's Tom Maxwell and MUDVAYNE's Chad Gray and Gregg Tribbett — down to his Texas abode, and within eight days, the band had written seven complete songs. The guys jammed inside the same studio where Abbott had worked with Dime on the final few Pantera LPs, Damageplan's debut offering and the REBEL MEETS REBEL album.

"It was just magic, man," Abbott recalled. "It was like it was meant to be. I think, just given everything I've been through, it's something that, if it hadn't fallen into my lap, I may not have ever been a part of again. It just sorta came to me."

And truth be told, Abbott's impressed with the final results: Hellyeah's self-titled debut, which drops April 10.

"I honestly think it's the best record I've been a part of since [Pantera's 1992 classic] Vulgar Display of Power," he said. "The thing that makes me feel that way about it is, when we made Vulgar, it was just magic. It happened. Everybody's mindset was in the right place. After that record, we never had that same vibe. We still made amazing records, but there were all these forces pulling us in different directions. So when we made [the Hellyeah] record, I had that same kind of feeling. It was just too easy. Everybody was into it. And I feel these songs are that strong, and I think everybody brought something special to the table."

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