Despite fronting two successful bands over the past three decades, doubt was frequently knocking on Chad Gray’s door. Even as recently as last week.
First, the vocalist of Mudvayne and Hellyeah decided to embark on his first solo tour combining both of those musical chapters — only to be left wondering if fans would care enough to turn up every night.
Then before Gray could make it through the tour’s entirety, a broken vessel and inflammation in his vocal cords forced him to cancel two shows in California, putting his scheduled appearance this past Saturday at the Aztec Theatre with Butcher Babies and Devil’s Cut in jeopardy.
But Gray turned deaf ears to his doctor, and the beneficiaries were the patrons who chose the Aztec over Journey’s “Final Frontier” farewell tour a few miles away at the Frost Bank Center.
Billing it as “30 Years of Madnesss,” the extra “S” may as well have stood for sacrifice.
Or salvation.
Having visited an ear, nose and throat specialist in New York, Gray somewhat miraculously found himself speaking to fans at the Aztec.
After opening with Hellyeah’s “Moth” followed by Mudvayne’s “Happy?”, he shared a bit of his tribulations.
“The doctors told me to stay home,” Gray said. “Obviously, I don’t listen very well. They told me to take it easy, but that’s hard for me to do.”
Wearing paint on only the left side of his face and backed by Mudvayne touring guitarist Marcus Rafferty, fellow guitarist Joe Bonasorte, drummer Devin Attard and bassist Nick Villareal, Gray told the crowd, “It’s been a long time” since he had played in the Alamo City, though Mudvayne had performed 363 days earlier at the Boeing Center at Tech Port on its 25th anniversary tour of debut album L.D. 50.
Often singing with one leg propped up on a stage stanchion without extending much extra non-vocal energy such as headbanging while wearing pants with the insignia “Learn from the past; Live in the present; Look to the future” (see 65-photo gallery), Gray showed no signs of vocal tension when he held a scream for 15-20 seconds on “Nothing to Gein.”
He told fans, “You give me fucking purpose,” while introducing “Hush” as a song that he wasn’t sure he should put out for release, only to have “so many of you” approach him and tell him how much the song means to them.
Gray wasn’t the only vocalist spreading appreciation and screaming his senses off while doing so.
Heidi Shepherd and Butcher Babies hit the stage with such ferocity on the first beat of “Backstreets of Tennessee,” the frontwoman gave the impression she’s going to have neck and spinal issues later in life if she keeps that up every night.
Setting the tone in such a metal manner, Butcher Babies continued with “Red Thunder” and “Monsters Ball” before launching into some tracks from Night Bloom, which had only dropped eight days earlier.
Shepherd, however, stole the show in more ways than one.
On stage, her screaming was second to none, as if she felt freer and more in control of the band’s reins since the July 2024 departure of her one-time best friend and longtime vocal mate Carla Harvey, who has since formed The Violent Hour, joined Lords Of Acid and married Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante.
Shepherd put the security staff to work when she leapt off stage and leaned over the barrier on “Monsters Ball.”
But that was just an appetizer.
For “Spitting Teeth,” Shepherd commanded the fans to “open it up” not only because she wanted to see a pit in a venue that’s not very conducive to one, but because she wanted to sing in the middle of it (see photo gallery).
As boyfriend and original guitarist Henry Flury and the rest of the band looked on, Shepherd said Butcher Babies like to pick one fan in each city to “desecrate” Devin Nickles’ drum kit.
A young girl front and center named Alyssa was chosen as Shepherd said, “Come on down,” and the theme to “The Price Is Right” blared across the P.A.
The fan wrote her name, city and date on the side of the kit before Shepherd invited Alyssa to scream with her. After one try, Shepherd joked, “I just lost my job.”
During the lone slowdown moment of the set, Shepherd turned serious in sharing her own moment of salvation in part:
“This song is about the worst day of my life. I felt I didn’t deserve to be here anymore. I felt I didn’t deserve to live anymore. I know I’m not alone in this. But I would dream about jumping into the pit and circling among all of you. In December 2019, you came into my dreams, and you saved my fucking life! If you are in that moment now, I want you to take a look around at all the people who care about you. Your metal family cares about you. San Antonio, this song was written for you” as the band went into “Last December.”
Announcing that it would be “free poster Saturday” and that the band had two spots left on their party bus afterwards, Shepherd added, “We will be at the merch booth.”
Instead, the singer was the lone member of the band to do so, and she proceeded to sign autographs, pose for pictures and actually spend time speaking with each fan for as long as they wanted even though the line stretched from one end of the Aztec’s lengthy VIP section and bar to the other.
When the line wound down, ATM reacquainted with Shepherd after a 2014 interview with her and Harvey. Asked if she still speaks to her former singing partner and best friend, Shepherd smiled and disclosed, “Nah, she’s too busy doing her own stuff.”
Following Gray’s 75-minute set, Shepherd’s VIP line reformed the entire length again, prompting many stunned fans readying to leave the venue to ask, “She’s still signing?”
Rather than dividing his set halfway between Mudvayne and Hellyeah songs chronologically, Gray mixed up both of his bands’ tunes within his set. The Hellyeah tidbits enable him to pay homage to the late drummer and Pantera staple Vinnie Paul.
Saying, “We might as well give it up for Dimebag too,” Gray shared an anecdote about Paul that wasn’t exactly general public knowledge.
“When you write songs, they come with working titles,” Gray said. “You might have Song A, Song B, Song C. So, when you work on them, and you say, ‘Let’s play Song A,’ everyone knows which song it is.
“Well, Vinnie comes in one day and says, ‘I wrote this drum intro. But I don’t know if you want to hear it because it’s fucking heavy.’ Of course, I want to hear it. But before he started to play it, he looked up at the sky and yelled, ‘Fuck your mother!’ And then he started playing. So the working title was ‘Fuck Your Mother.’ Can you guys help me intro this song?”
And with that, Gray and his solo band tore into “Say When.”
Keeping staples such as the Hellyeah crusher “Demons in the Dirt” and Mudvayne favorites “World So Cold” and “Not Falling” ringing in fans’ ears, Gray said, “San Antonio, Texas. In all the time I was in Mudvayne, this was our No. 1 market. And it was No. 1 in Hellyeah too. You can’t fuck with you motherfuckers!”
Kentucky country inspired metalcore outfit Devil’s Cut opened the show with a 30-minute set with several tracks from its 2026 debut full length Roadkill, warming things up for what turned out to be an awkward ending to Gray’s set and the evening.
The band skipped Hellyeah’s most popular track “Alcohaulin’ Ass” though, to be fair, it had question marks around the title on the setlist (see photo gallery).
Still, after Gray performed Mudvayne’s most well-known tune “Dig” and finished it at 10:44 p.m. — with the Aztec’s large digital clock hanging from the balcony and facing the stage for all artists’ benefit — Gray took out his earpiece. Without saying thank you, bidding farewell or having the band’s photographer take a photo of the band and crowd, the singer simply walked offstage.
ATM asked a staffer if the show was supposed to end at 10:50 p.m., and she said 11, adding, “He still has 15 minutes.”
Nevertheless, that gave Gray’s fans who hadn’t yet met with Shepherd another chance as she was halfway through her second hour of doing so.
Mosh pits. Screams. And dreams coming true not only for young fans but for the performers themselves made for an ideal night of metal in downtown San Antonio.
The fact its leaders overcame the type of self-doubt that has claimed one too many lives in the metal landscape this century alone and persevered through it to entertain, and share lighthearted and dark moments with, the San Antonio masses made it another one to be added to the city’s history books.