| B-SIDES | t Music Unreal Estate Vinnie Paul’s ‘Heavy Metal Grace- land’ in Arlington appears to have been bought. BY CHRISTIAN MCPHATE N Mon- Wed 5PM-12AM Thurs-Fri 5PM-2AM We’re open! Sat-Sun 12PM-2AM Please check our Facebook Page for more up-to-date info! 2714 Elm St • 972-803-5151 armouryde.com early four years after Pantera and HELLYEAH drum- mer Vinnie Paul’s death, his 3,784 square-foot Arlington home with 30-foot barrel ceilings and checkered tile floor went on the market in early February for $750,000, a steal for a mansion with a safe room, a hid- den sex room and decades of rock star mojo on a hilltop in the hottest retail market in the country. Among those expressing an interest in buying the house was Avenged Sevenfold singer M Shadows and guitarist Zack Ven- geance. Shadows laid out their plan in a Twitter thread in which he said they wanted to preserve Paul’s legacy by allowing fans to pur- chase digitial tokens and using the proceeds to buy the four-bed- room, five-bathroom house. “This is the place where any musician that came through Dallas would come after a long night at Vinnie’s famous strip club or after the shows. Musicians, actors … you name it … It was like the ‘Grace- land of Heavy Metal,’” Shadows tweeted. And it’s quite a legacy to preserve. It started in the ’80s with Paul’s brother Dimebag Darrell in the glam version of Pantera at the Heavy Meadow parties on the outskirts of Arlington. It continued into the ’90s and early 2000s with the Cowboys from Hell version of Pantera. Paul had a short stint with Damage Plan, a band he joined with his brother after Pantera’s implosion in the early 2000s. Together they produced 2003’s New Found Power, a debut album that prom- ised a possible repeat of the Pantera phenomenon until Dime was gunned down on stage by a disturbed fan in early December 2004 at a small venue in Ohio. After his brother’s death, Paul only left his house to drink at The Clubhouse, his golf-themed all-nude club in Dallas, and avoided the drumkit for a year. In February 2005, he finally returned to the drums for a tribute show with Drowning Pool at the Arlington Ballroom. He’d go on to form heavy metal supergroup HELLYEAH with a few other rock stars, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell, Mudvayne singer Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett. Over the next 12 years, the band produced six albums: HELLYEAH, Stam- pede, Band of Brothers, Blood for Blood, Undeniable and Welcome Home. Though their lineup changed, Paul remained a consistent force driv- ing the band from his drumkit until his sudden death in 2018 at age 54. Paul’s legacy as a rock star unfolded at the “Heavy Metal Graceland.” The 1.5 acre property on a man-made hill was more modest than Elvis’ $55 million, 13.8-acre-sprawling estate. Paul designed the house in the early ’90s, with a hidden room behind a bookcase, a balcony with views of Dallas and Fort Worth and a Crown Royal-shaped swimming pool that would later be replaced. The Arlington mansion became known for its annual Super Bowl parties, with food themed around the teams who were playing: seafood for the Seattle Seahawks, for example, BBQ for the Atlanta Falcons and 100 Big Macs for the Pittsburgh Steelers be- cause, according to website Uncovering PA, the first Big Mac was sold in Pittsburgh in 1967. At Vinnie’s, friends and rock stars would mingle with Dallas Stars players and, of course, strippers, sometimes 20 or 30 at a time, de- pending on whom you ask. Legend has it that the Stanley Cup, which the Stars won in a six- game series against the Buffalo Sabres in 1999, received a dent at an afterparty at Paul’s. Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley’s car may or may not have rolled down Paul’s steep driveway at an after-party. (People normally rode golf carts up the hill to reach the property.) KNON’s heavy metal DJ Alan Tuggle referred to the home as 18 “Vinnie Paul’s Playhouse,” as he says it was affectionately known. “I have roughly 20 years of precious memories from [his The Arlington house owned by Pantera’s Vinnie Paul is being sold. Frazer Harrison/Getty images house],” he wrote in a Sunday night Facebook message. “Going there for the first time in the late Pantera days was like you’d think going to a ‘rock star’ style house in Beverly Hills would be. Through the years, I would spend countless holidays, special oc- casions, late night throwdowns and Sunday Fundays around the pool. The most important thing I’ll always remember about that house was the owner. VP made you feel right at home, whether he had known you for years, or had just met you. He was BE- YOND welcoming and his generosity knew no end. In addition, some of the best food in the DFW metroplex was made on that hill, in that house. I’m forever grateful for my times there.” But it wasn’t all rock star parties at the Playhouse. Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, one of Paul’s close friends, sought refuge there, says Paul’s business partner Jeff “Murder” Murtha, who’d sometimes stop by after a long night at The Clubhouse. He remem- bers fondly the Christmas Eve gatherings hosted by Paul, where he offered mostly gag gifts to all in attendance. His generosity was one of several reasons people gravitated to his place. “He never forgot where he came from and never played the rock star part,” says Murtha. “He always had a Sharpie in his back pocket. He was just a great guy.” When Paul died of heart-related issues on June 22, 2018, he left his fortune to his girlfriend Chelsea Yeager, his best friend Charles Jones, to a tour manager, a drum technician, a producer and another friend. In a thread on his Feb. 3 Twitter post, Shadows laid out his idea for token holders to have a vote over what actions were taken by the token committee and offered his take of what would happen if fans didn’t rally together. “Option 1: Someone that doesn’t give a fuck about Pantera buys it and lives in it, remodels or tears it down,” Shadows wrote. “Option 2: A @Pantera fan buys it, lives in it and treats it as their own per- sonal trophy. Option 3: The @Pantera community buys it, governs it and decides what’s best for the legacy of this important piece of Heavy Metal History. Anyway, this may sound crazy to some ... and if I’m way off I’d love to get opinions. I’d love to discuss it and hear an- other side.” Shadows and Vengeance weren’t the only ones wanting to pre- serve Paul’s legacy by purchasing the estate. When news spread that Pantera’s Graceland was on Zillow for the low price of $750,000, fans and friends flooded social media with “I wish I could buy it” comments. But someone already has a contract pending. Zillow indicates the sale is pending. Given its size and history, the $750,000 price tag was low — un- less you add in the foundation work that may need to be done be- cause Paul built the house, as Murtha points out, on a “man-made mountain.” “[Still] everyone wanted to buy it,” he says. FEBRUARY 17–23, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
