HELLYEAH // Nobody puts Hellyeah in a corner

On the eve of recording their fourth album Hellyeah’s longtime guitarist Greg Tribbett up and left the band.

Bassist Bob Kakaha soon followed suit, and in the blink of an eye America’s ‘heavy metal supergroup’ lay squirming like a wounded beast.

Members haven’t been immune to internal feuds, with Kakaha’s predecessor Jerry Montano allegedly assaulting band member Tom Maxwell, making several gun threats while boozed out of his brains in 2007.

Relationships strained once more in 2014 and by the middle of the year the band found itself at a crisis point. We’re sure lucky frontman Chad Gray ain’t no quitter.

“We got to a point where Greg basically, for whatever reason, was showing signs that he didn’t want to be in the band, pretty much on the doorstep of us going in to do Blood for Blood, and me, Tom and Vinnie really leaned on each other. It was like now we’ve got a member that had been a writer in the past and a solid member slowly start to taper off for whatever reason.”

Suddenly the band’s previous album Band of Brothers and its metaphoric title no longer seemed applicable nor appropriate; that was until guitarist Christian Brady and bassist Kyle Sanders joined the clan.

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Vinnie [Paul] and I have a long lineage with Australia you know, it’s a bit of a home away from home… we want to get in front of our people.

[CHAD]

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The two new members took defibrillators to a motionless Hellyeah, then nursing the band back to a state of health even better than before. The line up change means Australia is yet to see what Gray couldn’t be more excited to show off.

“I don’t think Australia and New Zealand have really fully experienced kind of the Hellyeah experience and where it is now. We are just hyper focused and with the line up changes and stuff and getting Kyle in the band, he’s a beast, and Brady’s a beast. The band has never really played better than we are right now in any of our ten years together as Hellyeah. We are playing at the top of our game right now. I don’t think we could be tighter as friends right now, I don’t think we could be much tighter as a band playing live performances and we are ready to bring it.”

Hellyeah will tour Australia in August outside of the festival scene-just how the band likes it. As much as Gray enjoys a good ol’ Soundwave stint, give the frontman the choice and he’d pick a sweaty club to perform at anyday. Combined with his new band Gray is itching to hit our shores and flaunt Hellyeah 2.0. You could hear the sheer excitement echo through his voice as he talked about his new band of brothers.

“I think that’s been the best part of this ride, watching everything develop. I’ve been in the driver’s seat of this thing since it started, since I started the engine. To have some breakdowns and flats, things like that along the way, it really makes you appreciate where we are at right now. Like I said we are just excited to get back there (to Australia)…Vinnie and I have a long lineage with Australia you know, it’s a bit of a home away from home… we want to get in front of our people. If you are going to sell a record in Australia you gotta be ready to go to fucking Australia and play. That’s the name of the game, that’s how we are, we believe we are this band as a family with the five members, but we also believe in this band as a family with our extended family around the world, like everybody can be as close to Hellyeah as they want to be, it’s up to you, but it’s our job to come down and deliver.”

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HELLYEAH Australian/NZ Tour 2015

Thurs, Aug 20: The Studio, Auckland NZ

Fri, Aug 21: Bar Bodega, Wellington NZ

Sat, Aug 22: Bedford, Christchurch NZ

Tues, Aug 25: The Gov, Adelaide SA

Thurs, Aug 27: The Metro, Sydney NSW

Fri, Aug 28: Eatons Hill, Brisbane QLD

Sat, Aug 29: Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC

Mon, Aug 31: Capitol, Perth WA

For more information on Hellyeah’s Australian tour, visit: http://on.fb.me/1S9uiLN