That was a crappy day.
2 years ago today, we lost one of the greatest drummers and human beings of all time…Vinnie Paul.
Vinnie died from coronary heart disease and an enlarged heart in his sleep. I remember finding the news on Facebook as I was just about to go to bed at my friends place because we were going to Cedar Point the next morning, I was probably going to get 5 hours of sleep tops. Then I saw the news on the Pantera/HellYeah Facebook page and I was floored. For the next hour I had to do the work thing and inform the Rock 108 listeners, friends, etc about the news….I ended up only getting about 3 hours of sleep that night.
I was fortunate to meet Vinnie a few times during my days in radio, even being able to ask Vinnie the hard question that if Pantera were to be inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, would he show up if he knew Phil Anselmo was going to be there. If you didn’t know, when his brother Dime was murdered, that was pretty much the end of any kind of relationship with them and us fans hoped that maybe there would be some reconciliation at some point, but once Vinnie died? That was never to be.
Vinnie was always the big brother you never had while on tour. Dude would find any reason to BBQ and would throw amazing parties!
2 years Big Vin, and we still miss ya.
Check out my old interview with Vinnie and Tom Maxwell.
