In a recent chat with the I-95 WRKI radio station, Mudvayne’s Chad Gray talked about how Vinnie Paul found Black Sabbath’s music scary.
When the interviewer asked who he thinks started heavy metal music, the vocalist answered:
“Man, you go back, you’ve gotta go back to Lemmy [Motörhead], you’ve gotta go back to Ozzy [Osbourne], [Black] Sabbath. It’s so funny because Vinnie [Paul Abbott, late Pantera and Hellyeah drummer] told me a story one time. I guess it would have been in the ’70s. And they were young — him and Dime [Vinnie Paul’s brother and late Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott] were young; they were like in high school or something.”
Black Sabbath’s Sound Was Not Appealing At First
Gray detailed Vinnie and Dimebag Darrell’s reaction to the Black Sabbath music:
“And he said they went to a party at somebody’s house, and I think he was, like, 17, Dime was, like, 15, or whatever, they go to a party at somebody’s house. And he’s, like, ‘Dude, we walk in there, man, everybody’s hanging out and people are smoking weed, people are drinking, da da da.’ He’s, like, ‘Man, somebody put on Black Sabbath, man.’ He’s, like, ‘Me and my brother looked at each other.’ He’s, like, ‘That sh*t was scary.'”
The musician explained why he found this story so funny:
“He’s, like, ‘We left,’ because he said it just sounded like f*cking devil music. And that was his first [exposure to] Sabbath. I just thought it was so funny. ‘Cause when he told me the story, he had this fear in his eyes. He’s, like, ‘Man, dude, me and my brother just looked at each other,’ and he’s, like, ‘Man, this is f*cking scary.’ He’s, like, ‘This is straight-up devil music.’ And I just thought that was so funny.”
Pantera Members Met Black Sabbath
Apparently, Paul and Darrell’s opinions on Black Sabbath changed over the years. Pantera covered three covers from them: ‘Planet Caravan,’ ‘Electric Funeral’ and ‘Hole in the Sky.’ Dimebag talked with Guitar World in 1999 about how they decided to work on ‘Electric Funeral’ and ‘Hole in the Sky’:
“Our first thought was to do an EP of Sabbath tunes, but we decided to deep-six that idea because so many people have covered the Sabs recently. But then we figured, what the f*ck? We’re going on tour with ’em, let’s do a couple of songs just for radio. Hell, who doesn’t like to play Black Sabbath tunes!”
Pantera shared the same stage with Sabbath in July 1992 at the Monsters of Rock Festival. In 1997, Pantera also performed at Ozzfest with Black Sabbath. They did it again in the UK in 1998, joining Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne once more, on their Ozzfest tour.
You can listen to Chad’s full chat below.
