Phil Anselmo (Down/Superjoint, etc.) had a particularly revealing chat with Rollingstone.com that of course touched upon his infamous ‘white power’ incident and the aftermath of it. When it came to addressing the accusations of racism that have dogged him since, he echoed his previous explanations: that it was a drunken response to hecklers calling him a racist in the front row. Anselmo also opened up considerably when discussing his culturally diverse upbringing, revealing that he was molested as a child:
“This is shit I’ve never fucking opened up about until now, but when people constantly talk about being a victim or something, there are going to be certain points where I have to step back and go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ Especially when people shout and scream about us living in a rape culture and men are this evil product. … Guess who was molested his entire child-fucking-hood by numerous people, both men and women…, Me. Me.
“I’ve never told the world this, but I am now maybe because I’m almost 50 and I don’t give a fuck anymore. But it happened. I never blamed the world for it like I’m seeing kids today do, putting everybody in one box. And the same thing goes for race and all this shit.”
Anselmo also spoke of his former Pantera bandmate Vinnie Paul‘s comments made earlier in the year regarding Anselmo‘s ‘racist’ outburst, in which Paul stated:
“I can’t speak for him. He’s done a lot of things that tarnish the image of what Pantera was back then and what it stood for and what it was all about. And it’s sad. But I carry on with what I do, which is HELLYEAH, which I’m very, very proud of. And, you know, I can’t control anything that goes on with that dude. I mean, honestly, I haven’t spoken to him since 2000. So there you have it.”
Anselmo said of that:
“Yeah, I saw that he said that but anything out of that dude’s mouth is … ugh … it seems sour. I don’t have anything in common with that guy at all. But Vince better be caref– … One day I’m really not gonna care about whatever the legacy of Pantera [is]. It’s great that we had such an awesome fan base and still continue to have this awesome fan base, but there will be probably be a whole lot of ’em that would be perhaps a little disappointed in my assessment of the whole situation. So I’ll just leave it at that. And that’s why I’m not going to speak out about it, even though I know when this interview comes out, people are going to say, ‘Well, you almost went off on that.’ And yeah, almost. Operative word.”
He continued:
“You have to worry about Vince‘s state of mind, just like you have to worry about all of our states of mind. I know in my heart I have to accept what happened to Dimebag because it’s just real. He’s gone. He was murdered. But there’s a giant chunk of me that will never understand it. I’ve spoken to the police about it. I’ve spoken to the cop that was on hand that ended things, murdered the murderer. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand it.”
Meanwhile, Anselmo also has plans for a new self-proclaimed “un-metal” album which will find him singing in his natural voice. He likened the material to that of David Bowie, Nick Cave and The Smiths, saying:
“That stuff is heavy in its own right. Extremities come in all genres. Like, there isn’t anybody alive that’s going to convince me that Björk ain’t extreme. So if it helps the project by using a cello or stand-up piano or a waterphone, then so be it. I’m going to use it.”
He plans to release that material under the name ‘Illegals In Minor‘. For a lot more from Anselmo, head to the interview over at Rollingstone.com.
