VINNIE PAUL ABBOTT's long-awaited cookbook has finally arrived
12-03-2025
PANTERA and HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abott continues to be one of the most beloved personalities in the history of metal and now his legacy can fill both our hearts and bellies with the perfect companion for your summer barbecue, “Drumming Up An Appetite With Vinnie Paul”, available from Z2. The book commemorates the memory of Vinnie‘s legendary Sunday Funday dinners with this epicurean collection of his favorite family recipes. Opening with a foreword by comedian and friend Carrot Top, the book is broken into three chapters — main courses (Reinventing The Meal),side dishes (Far Beyond Kitchen) and of course, desserts (A Vulgar Display Of Flour)!
The book, as well as the cover art by Erik Rodriguez, was a lifelong dream of Vinnie Paul‘s, who said in 2016: “My cookbook will be called ‘Drumming Up An Appetite With Vinnie Paul’. How clever is that? It’s got a picture of me sitting behind the drum set. I’m holding two big, old turkey legs; those are otherwise known as drumsticks. And it’s got a lot of really cool recipes that I came up with on my own; a lot of them my mom taught me when I was growing up; and just a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, and it’s just a lot of fun. It’s not real serious.”
Vinnie added: “A lot of people think cooking is throwing something in the microwave. It’s really not. There’s a passion to it. It’s like playing music. If you love doing it, you really put everything you’ve got into it and want it to be special, and that’s what we do.”
The recipes are captured through the photography of Justin Borucki, with illustrations by Danny Hellman, Steve Chanks and Rob Schwager. The book is rounded out by an afterword from Vinnie‘s best friend and personal assistant Brian “Bridog” Jones who added: “Vinnie‘s BBQ action was most definitely not your average lineup. Whether it be at his Texas or Vegas casas, or on the road prepping and cooking for all the bands and crew and even the local venue personnel, his spread was legendary! Lots of very hard work from myself and many others made this book possible. Vinnie‘s recipes are now being offered to the world!”
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the drummer’s seat! Vinnie Paul, beloved drummer best known for his tasty rhythms in PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN and HELLYEAH, had another passion that fueled his days — incredible eats and delicious treats! He began writing this book over 15 years ago, this book contains his favorite recipes, written by Vinnie before his passing, and Z2 is honored to present them so that the cooking hostile tradition is carried on.
Through the loving support of his family and estate, the joy of Vinnie Paul‘s spirit towards cooking lives on through these dishes. Now, getcha’ apron on!
Josh Bernstein, president of Z2 and longtime friend/collaborator of Vinnie Paul, said: “Vinnie Paul’s passion for life, music and tasty food was immeasurable. Being able to publish this cookbook for Vinnie, Bridog and his family fulfills a promise I made to him during his lifetime and we hope his recipes, stories and passion fills no hearts and stomachs for years to come.”
“Drumming Up An Appetite With Vinnie Paul” will be available in hardcover via Z2 for a list price of $29.99 (ISBN: 9798886561234) at retailers everywhere on March 11.
There is a deluxe edition available exclusively for preorder at the Z2 online store, featuring one (1) hardcover mass market edition, one (1) butcher-paper protective dust jacket, one (1) Vinnie Paul “Cooking Hostile” apron, one (1) Vinnie Paul “Hellyeah!!!” 25-piece napkin set, one (1) Hellyeah University Vinnie Paul Cooking Diploma available for $79.99. There will also be limited amounts of the Vinnie Paul “Cooking Hostile” aprons available for $34.99.
Vinnie Paul died in June 2018 at his home in Las Vegas of dilated cardiomyopathy — an enlarged heart — as well as severe coronary artery disease, a heart condition. Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Vinnie died of natural causes.
Vinnie Paul‘s brother “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was shot and killed in December 2004 onstage in Columbus, Ohio by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts. At the time, Dimebag was performing with DAMAGEPLAN, the band he and Vinnie Paul formed after PANTERA broke up in 2003.
According to TMZ, Vinnie Paul left the bulk of his estate to his longtime girlfriend Chelsey Yeager and his best friend; Jones got 38% while Chelsey walked away with 37%. The rest was split between Vinnie‘s tour manager (10%),drum tech (5%),producer (5%) and friend (5%). In addition, Vinnie gave his interest in Dimebag‘s estate to the guitarist’s longtime girlfriend Rita Haney.
A public memorial for Vinnie Paul was held on July 1, 2018 at Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas.
Before his death, Vinnie recorded the drum tracks for HELLYEAH‘s latest album, “Welcome Home”, which arrived in September 2019.
The current incarnation of PANTERA has previously announced its 2025 European tour dates.
Tour dates:
Jan. 21 – Helsinki, FI @ Ice Hall
Jan. 23 – Stockholm, SE @ Hovet
Jan. 24 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum
Jan. 26 – Copenhagen, DK @ Royal Arena
Jan. 28 – Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live
Jan. 31 – Ljubljana, SI @ Arena Stožice
Feb. 01 – Ostrava, CZ @ Ostravar Aréna
Feb. 03 – Budapest, HU @ Budapest Arena
Feb. 04 – Kraków, PL @ Tauron Arena
Feb. 06 – Hamburg, DE @ Sporthalle
Feb. 07 – Berlin, DE @ Max-Schmeling-Halle
Feb. 09 – Düsseldorf, DE @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle
Feb. 10 – Brussels, BE @ Forest National
Feb. 12 – Bologna, IT @ Unipol Arena
Feb. 13 – Zürich, CH @ Hallenstadion
Feb. 15 – Paris, FR @ Adidas Arena
The five-show U.K./Ireland run will kick off at the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow on February 18 before continuing the following night (February 19) at First Direct Arena in Leeds, a gig at the 3Arena in Dublin on February 21, making a stop at BP Pulse Live in Birmingham on February 23, and concluding at London’s OVO Arena Wembley on February 25.
In a recent interview with Sweetwater, Brown spoke about the decision to tour with a reformed version of PANTERA. The lineup has reportedly been given a green light by the estates of PANTERA‘s founders, drummer Vincent “Vinnie Paul” Abbott and guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Rex said: “The last show, man, I had a creepy, like a cold — something came by me. It felt like there was a cold feeling. And I’ve gotten this a couple of times before. When we were down recording with Charlie — me and Charlie just went down [in late 2022], put up eighty to a hundred hours of tape before Zakk [started rehearsing with us]. Zakk was still on the road. So we wanted to get the bass and the drum real tight, and we had this scratch guitar player. I felt that same chill. And, to me, they’re angels. And I think you know who they are. Those guys, I think they’re looking down, or they’re looking around us, with us, and I think they’re digging what they’re seeing, man. I really do. And that’s the only kind of way I can look at it, and get as close as we can with Charlie and Zakk. And God, it’s getting really, really good. And there’s so much more potential to get even tighter.”
Speaking about the opportunity to perform PANTERA‘s music to new generations of fans who never saw the band before, Rex said: “There’s a lot of memories in this band that are hard to put down. And losing the brothers, I just never in a million years thought that something like that would happen. Here we are 22 years later, and to see these new fans’ faces. You’ve got one kid sitting there, or man, woman or child crying, and you have this other guy just going, ‘You did it right.’ It’s just amazing.”
Regarding how he and the rest of the current PANTERA lineup have balanced honoring the band’s legacy with any new creative goals they might have, Rex said: “There’s many ways that we wanna keep this legacy alive, ’cause the music is still played all over. We have a whole new generation of fans that, they probably wouldn’t have heard this stuff if we weren’t playing out here playing these shows. And so, that generation of fans — let’s say the 15-to-18-year-old kids that come out — they’ll shortly have children, and that keeps that new generation alive. And Phillip even says it in the set, the parents of the ’90s, which I’m a parent of the ’90s, it’s a very important statement in the set because it’s about the gratitude.
“We’re not doing this for ourselves; we’re doing it for the name and the brand PANTERA,” he continued. “And by God, this music needs to be heard again. It does. It needed to for a long fucking time. And that’s what we’re here doing tonight… It’s just wonderful to be able to do this and pay homage to my music, the riffs that I wrote, or the riffs that Dime wrote, or the patterns that Vinnie played, and for what Phil came up with — tremendous impact on this music.”
Dimebag‘s longtime girlfriend Rita Haney in 2011 called on Vinnie and Philip to settle their differences in honor of Dimebag.
Vinnie, who was Dimebag‘s brother, and Anselmo had not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie suggested that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag‘s killer.
Haney told the producers of “Behind The Music Remastered: Pantera” that she forgave the singer after they found themselves unexpectedly face to face at a concert in California.
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