Outside of some disagreement with the family of their late frontman Riley Gale, Power Trip‘s decision to reunite has gone relatively smoothly. However, it would seem that the Texan crossover band have found themselves in choppy waters with their latest tour annouuncement.
Gale passed away back in 2020 and the band were shelved in turn until late last year, when the surviving members of the group took to the stage for a brief set with Skourge/Fugitive vocalist Seth Gilmore behind the mic. A few months later, the group announced their comeback with that lineup and have played several well-received shows together since.
Yesterday (September 16th) saw the Texan crossover band announced as support for Pantera on an early 2025 European/UK tour. Some Power Trip fans have pointed out that Gale had previously turned down a tour offer with Superjoint Ritual, citing his concerns with vocalist Phil Anselmo (also of Pantera) at the time.
In 2016, Anselmo was infamously captured on film engaging in a racist remark and salute onstage at the annual ‘Dimebash‘ event. Anselmo would later go on to deny allegations of racism put towards him, while also apologizing to those he offended in several follow-up interviews. In 2019, he later downplayed the incident as an “off-color joke”.
As history has shown, it was not the first time Anselmo has made some problematic assertions regarding race though, as speeches from past concerts in the 90s found him expressing questionable viewpoints. Footage and audio of those speeches resurfaced in the fallout from the 2016 incident mentioned above.
Given the success of Pantera‘s ongoing reunion run, it would seem that many fans were willing to forgive Anselmo for his past actions, or at the very least give him a second chance.
In light of Power Trip just landing the upcoming Pantera tour, the below 2017 interview with Riley Gale has resurfaced. Conducted by the Toilet Ov Hell Podcast, it finds Gale being asked if he would ever turn down a tour offer with a band if he “vehemently disagreed with their political stance.” Gale responded as follows:
“We already did. Superjoint Ritual asked us to go out… It was hard, it was hard, but you know what? It was one of these things where you know it was only a year ago since Phil got busted seig heiling on camera. And one of the guys from Pig Destroyer — I believe it was Blake — he plays in a band with Phil, and he was there [at the 2016 ‘Dimebash‘ event], and he kind of explained what Phil was doing was actually being sarcastic, he was trying to address the hecklers.
But you know what? He’s done some really… He’s done some stuff that made us too uncomfortable. And I didn’t want to go out there and feel like I needed to be the guardian for Phil Anselmo regarding his politics. And I certainly didn’t want to come out there and end up disagreeing and then being on tour with a band that hates us for our politics for the next few months. It was a really hard thing to turn down. I would love to see what Phil really is like as a person.
I believe that he probably is a good person at the end of the day. And we’ve toured with Eyehategod and Jimmy Bower is a pretty good guy. So it was one of those things where, do we want to… It more so had to do with his fans that kinda follow him around. Do we want these sort of lower income, kinda trailer trashy metal guys who just worship Phil Anselmo, do we want them to be exposed to our band, and then maybe become associated with a scene or a group of people that we don’t necessarily agree with.
So it was tough. I would love an opportunity to maybe play with Phil and get to know him as a person. But to commit to a five-week tour with a guy who has done and said some questionable things that we don’t agree with was something that we just kinda said wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth the risk. We didn’t need the tour, as cool as it would have been. Power Trip didn’t need to go on tour with Superjoint Ritual.”
A separate interview conducted by the Chicago Tribune in 2018 found Gale stating:
“We turned down a Superjoint Ritual tour, mainly because I don’t want to be associated with (former Pantera singer) Phil Anselmo. I didn’t know him personally, but I know he has gotten in trouble for saying a lot of stupid s— (celebrating ‘white power’ on stage, for which he later apologized). I didn’t want to be in the position of defending that. It’s down to what kind of band we want to be associated with, as people as much as anything musical.”
It’s these conversations that have resurfaced in light of the Pantera tour announcement, with some pushback being seen on Power Trip‘s social media accounts. Power Trip‘s overseas touring with Pantera is set to run as follows:
01/21 Helsinki, FIN – Ice Hall
01/23 Stockholm, SWE – Hovet
01/24 Oslo, NOR – Spektrum
01/26 Copenhagen, DEN – Royal Arena
01/28 Amsterdam, NET – AFAS Live
01/31 Ljubljana, SLO – Arena Stozice
02/01 Ostrava, CZE – Ostravar Arena
02/03 Budapest, HUN – Budapest Arena
02/04 Krakow, POL – Tauron Arena
02/06 Hamburg, GER – Sporthalle
02/07 Berlin, GER – Max-Schmeling-Halle
02/09 Dusseldorf, GER – Mitsubishi Electric Halle
02/10 Brussels, BEL – Forest National
02/13 Bologna, ITA – Unipol Arena
02/13 Zurich, SWI – Hallenstadion
02/15 Paris, FRA – Adidas Arena
02/18 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
02/19 Leeds, UK – First Direct Arena
02/21 Dublin, IRE – 3Arena
02/23 Birmingham, UK – Resorts World Arena
02/25 London, UK – OVO Arena Wembley
