Vinnie Paul, Metal Hammer, May 1997.
By Martin Carlsson

For a guy who claims he's not loaded with cash, Pantera drummer Vinnie 'Riggs' Paul is
doing okay. He's got a new million-dollar hillside house and a pool in the shape of a Crown Royal whiskey bottle! Martin Carlsson gets invited to a Dallas Cowboy football barbecue...

The House On The Hill
I lived with my mum till I was 30 years old and decided that I had finally made enough money from touring to
move out. When I started looking at houses, I didn't find anything I liked, 'cause they all reminded me of old
people's houses. I saw a couple with a contemporary design like this one, but I figured I might as well build my own one; it would cost me the same and I'd get what I wanted.
I started coming up with ideas of how I wanted it, the two big domes upfront, and I got together with a friend of mine who's an architect, and we started piecing it all together. There used to be a house here that was built
exactly like a castle. If you check out my mailbox, it's still shaped like a castle.
The owner, a Vietnamese guy, was running all these sweatshops and making a lot of illegal money. The
government found out about it and he burned down the house, collected the insurance money and went back to Vietnam before they could bust his ass. So this lot has been vacant for a couple of years, and as soon as I
found it, I knew this was the place I wanted to move to. It's like being in the country in the middle of the city. I have trees all around me, the neighbours can't fuck with me and I own two acres of land.
I'm not loaded. I wish I were. It's easy for you to not spend your money when you live at home and put it all in the bank. For the past six years, when Pantera has done all the non-stop touring and all the work we've done,
I've pretty much done that. I haven't had a lot of expenses and all I owned before I bought this was a couple of cars and a boat. I have enough to take care of this, and hopefully, we'll continue to be successful and I won't
have to worry about any of this.

That Elusive Hole-In-One
I like to play golf and I've been playing for about three years. Rex likes to play, and still does, and I always usedto make fun of him when we were on tour and he went, "I'm gonna go play golf." I said, "What the fuck? Golf?!" It was the dumbest thing I'd ever seen and it was boring to watch on TV. One day, I just said, "I'm gonna go along and show you guys how to do it", and I got addicted to it. It truly challenges and it's the furthest thing from rock 'n' roll. You can go play golf and forget about anything that goes on in your life, except you and your little ball and the fucking pleasure of being outside and having a good time.
Alice Cooper plays golf, Eddie Van Halen plays golf, Nick Menza plays golf and Tommy Lee plays golf. I've
played golf with all them dudes and tons more. To me, it seems like it's something that's getting more popular
than before. All kinds of people are playing, from pro athletes to musicians.

The Crown Royal Whiskey Swimming Pool
I've drank enough of this Canadian whiskey, Crown Royal, to fill this pool up probably three or four times. It's
what I've always drank, I get the best buzz out of it and I know what I'm gonna feel like when I drink it.
That's the shape of my swimming pool. That's all gonna be gold up there (the jacuzzi) and this whole logo is
gonna be painted at the bottom next week. It looks just like a Crown Royal bottle when you're up there on the
balcony. Given as much space as I had up here, I made it as big as I could. It's got a fountain that the water
shoots out of and it gets nice and warm.
I'm not into the rock star scene. But if you've worked since you're 14 -and I'm 32 now- for 18 years, and you
become successful, you should be able to deserve this stuff. If you manage your money correctly, you can havethese kinds of things. It's not something I got to feed my ego.

Dallas Cowboys Football
I love football, 'cause it's exciting. Of course, I live in Dallas, or Arlington, which is a part of Dallas, and I've beena huge Cowboy fanever since I was a little kid. It's a lot of excitement and I'm sure it's no different to European soccer. It's just where you're from and what you grew up watching.
When I was a kid, I started playing football in first grade and played till I was about 14. That's when I started
playing drums and I got tired of having my hands crushed and messed up from playing football all the time.
I usually go to all the Cowboy's games. As a matter of fact, I would've went today, if I wasn't doing this
interview with you. Unfortunately, we're on tour a lot and don't get to go, but when we were in Europe in 1995,we had all the games couriered over on video, 'cause they're not on TV over there. We're big fans and I go
whenever I can.
When the Cowboys won their first Superbowl in 1993, we were in Amsterdam. There was a hotel that showed the game and it came on at two or three in the morning. We were the only Cowboys' fans there, everyone else was, Buffalo Bills' fans, and we got into a big fight that night, a big brawl, and it was a lot of fun.

Gargoyle Collecting
I'm collecting gargoyles for the house. This set here is my favourite one and it only cost me $100 for the whole set. It's something I'm into, 'cause they're so neat-looking and there's so many different kinds. They're hard to
find and I've been looking around for some more to put in here. I didn't used to go looking for stuff when I was on tour, but when I got the house, it became something I really dig doing.

King Of Barbecues
I wouldn't call myself a master cook. Being at home with my mum alot, I learned how to cook certain things. I
don't really like to go eat at fast food places like McDonald's, unless I have to. When you are home, it's
something to do and it's a lot of fun. I like spicy food, so I usually spice my food up, and restaraunt food tastes pretty bland.
I was down to 162 pounds. I weigh about 180 now, but it's coming off when we go on tour. It's not anything I've ever been embarrassed about. I don't eat that much, I just don't burn calories real well.
I'm not noted around the world for physique, I'm noted for my drum playing, and that's what I do. I'm the
backbone of this band and I'm not the frontman or somebody that's out front all the time. I've never really seen too many slim, slim drummers that can beat the fuck out of the drums. They're always kind of hefty guys.
That's who I am and everyone's got their own characterisitics about them, the good side and the bad side. It's something I've always been conscious about, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on how much we play and where we're playing.
I used to eat late at night. After we played and got on the bus, there was always Taco Bell and Pizza Hut stuff and it just turns into fat. I didn't really go on a diet, I just stopped eating late at night, and it came off when we went on tour.

Platinum Records
I collect Pantera stuff. Not as much as I should, because one day, I'll wish I had all that stuff. When we first got into magazines, I used to hang onto the stuff, but nowadays, you get so used to it and you've done it so many times. It's nice to see it, and then you just go about your own business.
The platinum records are something that means more to me than anything the industry or anyone could give me. They're given to you basically by the fans through the amount of records you sell. It's not a Grammy, it's not something you're voted on within the industry; it's something you get for achieving acertain amount of success. I'm proud of my accomplishments.

Computer Music
I do some computer-type music that I like to fuck around with as a hobby. I've been into Nine Inch Nails ever since they came out and Trent Reznor is a good friend of mine (Phil Anselmo did his 'Trendkill' vocals in Reznor's New Orleans studio). As a musician, the only instrument I can truly play is drums, but I can play enough on the piano to get by and write songs.
Doing computer program music enables me as a drummer to write my own songs. I can program into the computer what I wanna play and when I make a mistake, I can go back and correct it.
The kinda music I make is a cross between Enigma and Nine Inch Nails. It's really moody and all instrumental. It's listening music, something you'd hear in a movie. That's what I eventually wanna do, a movie soundtrack.
When it comes to Pantera, heaviness is what we're into and it's what we do. But when I'm away from it, it's good to expand musically, more so than just going upstairs and beating my head against the wall playing the drums.
But it's nothing for Pantera. We're a fucking traditional rock 'n' roll band - real drummer, a real guitar, a real bass player and a singer - and we've never been moved to go in that direction. We're a live band.

Over The Limit
I get a rush out of driving fast. I probably should be dead someday because of how many times I've driven extremely fast and being a little bit intoxicated when I shouldn't have been. I haven't been in any wrecks and always have a radar detector, and whenever that goes off, you wanna be cool, 'cause you don't wanna fuck with the cops, no matter what country you live in.
I've been stopped by the cops. Sometimes they're cool. One time I got stopped going about 120 miles an hour and it was three in the morning. I got pulled over and the guy was being an asshole to me and got me out of my car. He started searching my car and I had a big box of Pantera CD's in the back.
He comes over and goes, "Pantera, what do you have to do with that? Do you work in a record store or something?" I said, "No, I'm the drummer."
He went back to his car and came back and went, "Man, I tell you what: if you sign two CD's and give them to me, I'll let you go, if you drive 50 miles an hour, go straight home and go to bed. My son is a big fan." I said, "Fuck, I'd love to do that for you!" That was one time I was lucky. Other times, I've been thrown in jail when I shouldn't have been. You just don't wanna give them a reason to fuck with you.