Chad Gray says his 25-date solo tour is the real test of whether fans will turn up for him without Mudvayne or Hellyeah behind him.
Mudvayne decided to sit this year out. Their singer had other ideas.
Chad Gray goes out on August 28 for the first full tour of his life with his own name on the ticket, and he is open about not knowing how it will go. Speaking to “The Logan Show“, he explained that the whole thing exists because his band wanted a rest and he could not stand the thought of another year at home.
“The only f**king reason that I even put this together was because Mudvayne came back four years ago. We’ve toured once a year for four years. So it’s, like, a lot of sitting, eating at home. I’ve been going out once a year for six weeks, seven weeks, for the past four years, and I’ve been writing, recording, and touring for 25 years. I’ve been busy my entire career until we put Mudvayne back together. And then we did the [Rob] Zombie tour, and then we did one of our own tours, and then we did the Megadeth tour — we opened for Megadeth — and then we did the 25th-anniversary ‘L.D. 50‘ Mudvayne tour, which was f**king phenomenal. I mean, that tour, it was so great. Obviously, with the Zombie thing, f**k, we were playing to 10 to 17,000 people a night. People really wanted to see that, but you’re with Rob Zombie, which is… Let’s look at his lineage. White Zombie, which I was a f**king huge White Zombie fan. But I’ve been a Rob Zombie fan for a long time. Rob’s a great dude and definitely brings it. But that package, as far as attendance, that was the best package of the four years that we were on. But we did this 25th-anniversary Mudvayne tour, or ‘L.D. 50‘ tour, and holy f**king s**t, man. We were playing, like, 4,000 seaters, and it was just f**king nuts to butts. If they weren’t sold out, they were, like, five people from selling out. Every single venue… It was a lot of f**king fun, but then, all of a sudden, it was, like… We had done those last four tours for the last four years. We went to South America. We went to Australia. But we haven’t been to Europe. And I’m just sitting around going, like, why are we not going to Europe? Why are we not going to f**king Japan? Why are we not going to the places that Mudvayne has played? And, basically, all that s**t just comes down to dollars and cents,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Then came the decision that set this in motion.
“So, we get done doing the 25th-anniversary tour, the ‘L.D. 50‘ tour, and the band’s just kind of, like, ‘Well, we think we’re gonna take 2026 off.’ And I’m, like, ‘What? F**king take a year off? F**k this s**t.’ As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been taking the last four years off, ’cause I’m touring once a year for the last four years, and I’m not used to that,” Gray continued. “In f**king Hellyeah, in Mudvayne too, we toured ‘L.D. 50‘ for 26 months, and then we broke for two weeks. We got a residential studio, went in, f**king wrote The End Of All Things To Come, set that album up for probably a couple weeks, went out, toured that album, came off of that tour, f**king went back in, f**king did Lost And Found, f**king went back in, did the next one and da, da, da. And then here comes Hellyeah, and I’m playing in both bands. I was playing in Mudvayne and Hellyeah, so if I wasn’t writing in Mudvayne, but if I was writing in Mudvayne , I was touring in Hellyeah. If I was touring in Hellyeah and I was writing in Mud… That two years of my life was the most insane s**t ever ’cause I was constantly working. And then Mudvayne does the hiatus, and I’m in Hellyeah, and it was the same s**t, man. We did the first album. We toured the first album. We took a couple of weeks off. We went in, we did the second album. We toured that, did that whole cycle. We took two weeks off. We did that. We went and did the third album. We did Band Of Brothers. We took two weeks off. We did Blood For Blood. We took two weeks off. We did… We’re talking f**king full album cycles, man. These are f**king year-and-a-half, two-year cycles that we’re doing, constantly, constantly, constantly touring. I did that for 25 f**king years, man. And then all of a sudden I’m touring once every year for six weeks. And I’m just f**king sitting around here with my f**king d**k in my hand doing nothing. And then this happens and it’s, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna take 2026 off.’ And I’m, like, ‘I’m not taking 2026 off.’ I don’t give a f**k.”
Five trial shows in April and May gave him some encouragement. Whether that translates to a national run is the part he cannot predict.
“Well, the pressure is that I know that if I go play a Mudvayne show that people are gonna be there. I knew that when I went and played a Hellyeah show, people were gonna be there. And these first [solo] shows that we’ve done, the first five, three of them were sold out. Two of them did f**king phenomenal. One of them sold 200 less tickets than when Mudvayne played that venue, which was amazing. So, I have the idea stuck in my head that people do wanna see this. But now that I’m doing a full tour, this is kind of the big test. Like, do people really wanna see this? Like, if I go to f**king Paducah or f**king wherever… I don’t know why I mentioned Paducah, Kentucky. But if I go to Cleveland or if I go to f**king Minneapolis or if I go to wherever America, am I gonna have people standing in front of me or am I gonna be standing in front of 100 f**king people? It’s, like, ‘Well, ’cause it’s not Mudvayne, it’s not Hellyeah, so it’s just Chad Gray.’ All I can say to people is that the f**king band I have backing me is insane.”
He added: “Yes, it’s not Mudvayne. Yes, it’s not Hellyeah. But it’s me. I’m the voice of both of those bands and with an incredible backing band. So if you like these songs, you’re gonna get these songs.”
The tour, billed as “30 Years Of Madnesss“ with the extra S the campaign has kept throughout, runs 25 dates from The Castle Theater in Bloomington, Illinois on August 28 to Nashville on October 29, taking in Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, New York, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Festival stops at Louder Than Life on September 18 and Aftershock on October 2 sit alongside it; he played Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisconsin in July. Butcher Babies and Devil’s Cut support the headline shows.
The band Gray keeps praising is Marcus Rafferty and Joe Bonasorte on guitars, Nick Villarreal on bass and Devin Attard on drums. Rafferty has been Mudvayne‘s touring guitarist since 2024 and worked as a tech for Lamb Of God and Hatebreed before that. The first of the five test shows was on April 24 at Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas.
Announcing the run in June, Gray said at the time: “The initial five ‘30 Years Of Madnesss‘ shows were absolutely incredible! The band, the fans, the venues and all involved completely blew me away.”
“Since the beginning, I’ve wanted to bring this to all my fans everywhere. From here in America and everywhere abroad. And now I have the opportunity, so I’m gonna take it. This fall, I’m hopefully going to come to a town near you and we are gonna walk in a room, let go of life and its problems and have some f**king fun! That has been my mission statement and mantra from the beginning of this. Let’s just have fun! So I’m hoping with everything in me if there’s a stop near you I will see YOU! My favorite people in the world. My FAMILY!” he added.
He continued, highlighting the deep personal connection he shares with the metal community: “Heavy metal saved my life and each and every one of you have done the same for me. We save each other because we lean on each other when things are as bad in life as they can be. You all have always been there for me and I want to be there for you. So let’s get together this fall and once again…HAVE SOME F**KING FUN! Hope to see you at a show near you sooner than later.”
“So until then please stay safe, happy, healthy and METAL AS F**K!”
The Hellyeah material is the part that has been sitting unused longest. That band has not played since early 2020, when a US tour was scrapped as the pandemic hit. Drummer and co-founder Vinnie Paul Abbott died on June 22, 2018 at 54, of dilated cardiomyopathy and coronary artery disease, having already recorded his parts for Welcome Home. The album came out in September 2019, with then-Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga handling the touring that followed.
Mudvayne formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996 and reunited in April 2021 after eleven years away, playing two festival dates that summer. Last year they released “Hurt People Hurt People” on August 28 and “Sticks And Stones” on September 11, their first new music since 2009, both produced by Nick Raskulinecz for Alchemy Recordings and BMG.
Guitarist Greg Tribbett missed the entire “L.D. 50 25th Anniversary” tour, which ran from September 11 to October 26 last year, after his wife Debbie died following a long illness. He had also stepped away from the closing stretch of the 2024 run with Megadeth.
Chad Gray “30 Years Of Madness” 2026 Tour Dates:
- Aug 28 – Bloomington, IL – The Castle Theater
- Aug 29 – Kansas City, MO – VooDoo at Harrah’s Kansas City
- Aug 30 – Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
- Sep 1 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall
- Sep 2 – Lincoln, NE – The Bourbon Theatre
- Sep 3 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
- Sep 5 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave/Eagles Club – Eagles Ballroom
- Sep 6 – Chicago, IL – Outset
- Sep 8 – Cadillac, MI – The Venue
- Sep 9 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
- Sep 11 – Boston, MA – Big Night Live
- Sep 12 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount
- Sep 14 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
- Sep 15 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
- Sep 17 – McKees Rocks, PA – Roxian Theatre Presented by Citizens
- Sep 18 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life Festival
- Oct 2 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival
- Oct 4 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
- Oct 5 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
- Oct 6 – Santa Ana, CA – Observatory OC
- Oct 10 – San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theatre
- Oct 11 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
- Oct 12 – Dallas, TX – The Studio at The Factory
- Oct 14 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
- Oct 16 – Clearwater, FL – OCC Road House & Museum – Music Hall
- Oct 18 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte – The Underground
- Oct 19 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
- Oct 20 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
