Vinnie Paul’s Friend/Employee, Video Bob, on the ‘Pantera Reunion’: “If I listen closely, I can actually hear them (Vinnie & Darrell) spinning in the grave” – 2022 – VIDEO

Daze with Jordan the Lion: Home & Grave of DIMEBAG DARRELL & VINNIE PAUL w/ Stories From VIDEO BOB.

You can watch the entire segment via the embedded YouTube video below. An excerpt from the conversation has been transcribed.

EXCERPT

Video Bob:

(transcribed by full in bloom)

When Darrell (Dimebag Darrell Abbott) was killed, Vinnie (Vinnie Paul Abbott) wanted to kind of preserve his (Darrell’s) legacy and started his own record company in 2006 called Big Vin Records. He hired me to work at his record label. So, I worked for Vinnie from 2006 until his death, maintaining his social media, doing promotional stuff, videos, music videos. I drove his tour bus, limo, and he was just one of my closest friends.

When Vinnie hired me, he hired me because he did know that I was responsible. He knew he could trust me to drive for him, drive their tour bus, take care of things, so that he could take advantage of that and just get plastered. He liked Skyy Vodka; he would buy cases of that. He had a Big Gulp cup, and he would just fill that thing up with vodka and a little water and lime. He would just drink that all the time, and when you do that all the time…he had cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, and he just woke up one morning and had a heart attack.

He gave me opportunities that I would’ve never gotten had I not met him. I fully recognize that. He made my dreams come true of making music videos that played on MTV. I got to tour with him. I got to meet all these amazing people, and it was all because of him and his generosity. The dude would go to the store and buy two thousand dollars’ worth of steak and lobster and cook it for everybody, including the other touring bands. Everybody loved Vinnie because he was just so generous. When we were on tour with Hellyeah, some of the other opening bands, they were making so little money they could hardly afford food. He would cook for them. He would barbeque out by the bus and feed the other bands and crew.

When I put together a drum kit for my band, I said, “Hey, would you go down to Guitar Center with me so I could get a drum set?” He said, “Dude, we’re not going to do that.” He took me to his warehouse and pulls out a big Pantera road case, opens it up and says: “Man, Pantera hasn’t played since 2001. I play with ddrum now, this is all Pearl equipment. You can have it.”

“Vinnie did well with his investments. Some of the other band members, as we know, they didn’t do so well with their investments.”

Everybody in the world has been contacting me about my opinion on the ‘Pantera reunion.’ I try to reserve my judgement simply because I know that the people who are behind it are the people who now own the estate, and they need to make a living, and they want to do it. But I think if I listen closely, I can actually hear them (Vinnie & Darrell) spinning in the grave because every day this guy (Vinnie) would tell me about, you know, like, I was with him all the time. Every time we would meet somebody, they would walk up and say several things that would piss him off. They’d say, “Hey, I’m really sorry about your brother.” It’s like: “Oh, here we go. Every day of my life I’ve got to be reminded about the worst day of my life.” Then they’d follow it up with, “When is Pantera getting back together?”

He showed me an email, where he was offered, I don’t know, it was over ten million dollars to do a Pantera reunion tour, and he was just like, “Nope.” He goes, “Dude, I already got like six million in the bank, I don’t need more money.” He’s like: “Look, I love my brother. I don’t want to live in my brother’s shadow. I’m my own musician. There is no Pantera without Dimebag.” It’s like, there is no Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen. I mean, you can go out there and do it and call it whatever you want. Phil (Anselmo) has been out there performing Pantera songs for all these years.

He (Vinnie) was very bitter about it. He felt like if Phil and Rex (Rocker-Brown) hadn’t done what they had done at the time, Pantera would’ve continued. They never would’ve been playing a club where some fan would’ve jumped up. I mean, you can’t blame Phil directly for what happened, but at the same time, the butterfly effect of one person’s decision and how it effects the future is just the way he felt about it.

Vinnie was like, “Look, these two dudes destroyed this band. I’m not going to give them the satisfaction of cashing in on it later. I’m doing my own thing already, and it’s in the past.”