Drummer Matt Cameron filmed a video on behalf of Soundgarden for late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul’s public memorial, held Sunday, July 1st in Dallas, Texas. Cameron’s comments have been transcribed as follows:

“Hello, this is Matt Cameron. On behalf of the entire Soundgarden band and crew, we would like to offer our deepest condolences to the Abbott family on the passing of the great Vinnie Paul. I thank you for the invitation to the memorial service, but I’m on tour, and I really appreciate the invitation, I wish I could be there. I was in awe of Vinnie’s playing, his double kick, precision, his power, his groove. The style of drumming that Vinnie helped create and perfect, was incredibly technical, and incredibly difficult. He did it with such grace and power, and you could tell he loved what he was doing. He had so much charisma onstage, he loved his fans, he loved his band, you could tell he just loved what he was doing.

There was a tour in 1992 that Soundgarden was on. We opened for Skid Row and there was one show where we shared the bill with Pantera. We had the difficult task of following Pantera. I had never seen them at that point in 1992, and at that time I was pretty confident with my band, I wasn’t really intimidated that easily. But after watching Pantera smoke us, I was a little intimidated. I was in awe of the band. After the show, I kind of sheepishly went up to Phil and Rex, and I introduced myself. They were total sweethearts, they could not be nicer.

They invited me to the bus, and I met Darrell and Vinnie. Vinnie gave me a beer. They were really hospitable guys, and I just remember that being a life lesson where I decided to stick my tail between my legs, and go meet the masters. I’ll never forget that experience of working with Pantera in the early 90’s. I miss those guys a lot, I wish they were around, they were taken from us far too early, but their music will live on forever, and Vinnie Paul will live on forever. God bless.”

Vinnie Paul was laid to rest in his forever hardware, identical to that of his late bandmate and brother... courtesy of none other than Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.

He was buried in a custom KISS casket, offered as a gift at Vinnie's family's request. His brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was buried in the original prototype in 2004 after his untimely death.

According to records of the event, officers were dispatched to a dead-body call at 5:41 PM on Friday (June 22nd) on the 6900 block of Procyon Street (Paul lived on Procyon). Medical personnel were summoned, and Paul was pronounced dead at the scene.

Metro spokeswoman Laura Meltzer added that responding officers did not take such further action as calling homicide detectives to the scene, further indication that Paul was considered medically deceased.

The Clark County coroner’s office has since picked up the investigation into the cause and manner of Paul’s death. The founder of the bands Pantera and Hellyeah died at age 54. Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said today that official cause of Paul’s death is still pending and would likely take several days to be issued.

Updates to follow.