Back in January of 2016, Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, etc. fame was filmed giving a sieg heil onstage while uttering the phrase ‘white power’. That incident took place at the then annual ‘Dimebash‘ event, which was meant to celebrate the life of his late Pantera bandmate “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. As you’d expect, the fallout to that incident was immediate and highly consequential.
Machine Head vocalist Robb Flynn, a fellow performer during that tribute show, infamously called out Phil for the salute after Phil initially tried to brush off the incident as being a joke gone too far. In his initial comments on the matter, Anselmo attributed it to a drunken incident stemming from ‘white wine’ being consumed backstage. Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian was also quick to condemn Phil for his actions, criticisms Anselmo ultimately didn’t take kindly to.
Anselmo himself would go on to weather the storm of his actions, issuing several brief apologies, before publicly addressing the incident in an interview with Decibel, which was published in October of 2016. In that interview, Anselmo denied allegations of himself harboring racist beliefs and went on to apologize those who he upset with his actions that night. He also went on state in that interview that his actions onstage that night were in response to apparent racist hecklers in the front of the crowd.
Regardless of Anselmo‘s intentions, the blowback saw him removed from a number of large annual metal festivals, while uproar also saw several headlining shows spiked. Ultimately, while still divisive to some, Anselmo has seemingly overcome the controversy, having since relaunched Pantera with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante in place of the band’s late duo of Dimebag and Vinnie Paul Abbott. He’s also taken to recently reactivating Down, and fronts several other endeavors.
However, while despite a number of years having past and many having moved on, November of 2023 saw this Metal Hammer op-ed published, which accused Anselmo of ‘whitewashing his own legacy’ with the decision to reunite Pantera. Last fall even saw Power Trip face criticism for opting to tour with the reunited Pantera, given the opinion their late frontman Riley Gale had of Anselmo in the wake of the ‘Dimebash‘ incident.
One of Anselmo‘s ongoing musical ventures is Scour, a black metal collective that unites him with current and former members of Cattle Decapitation, Misery Index and more. That band’s guitarist/vocalist Derek Engemann was recently asked by John The Ninja of the ‘Dimebash‘ incident. Engemann said of Anselmo‘s actions that night [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net]:
“Yeah, that was an unfortunate event, to say the least. John Jarvis [Scour bassist/vocalist] and I were actually there at the ‘Dimebash‘ that night. We were backstage hanging out and drinking. There was a lot of drinking involved. It is what it was back then. But a lot of people don’t really realize what happened.
So, they jammed all night for Dime, bringing out supergroups of [different] people. Rex [Brown, Pantera bassist] was there; all kinds of people were there. And Phil came out at the end for three songs. I think they did [a cover of a] Motörhead [song], they did [Pantera‘s] ‘A New Level‘, I think, and something else.
The second [Phil] came out on stage, there was a group of these three guys that were just — they were just heckling him from the second he walked out on stage, like, You racist. You fucking racist,’ blah, blah, blah. And everyone’s, like, ‘Yo, shut the fuck up. We’re trying to enjoy Pantera. This is for Dime. This isn’t about your bullshit.’ And they just kept on heckling him the entire time he was out.
And at the end, he just lost it. And he was a little drunk and he did the most offensive thing he could to those people. And they were there with their camera. It wasn’t like he had pure hate in his heart, and he’s, like, ‘This is what I’m gonna say tonight. I’m gonna make a statement.’ It was, like, these motherfuckers were heckling him all night long, and he just threw gas on the fire. And it was super unfortunate. I know he feels terrible about it. [It was] probably a little embarrassing, I’m sure.”
He later added:
“It’s not the best part of history, but Phil‘s owned it. He’s apologized. That’s not who he is. I’ve toured with him around the world with The Illegals, Scour shows, Pantera stuff. It’s just not who is. Even our most recent videos were shot by Malcolm Pugh, who’s half black. That’s my dawg. We go back 20 years too. We used to live together and whatnot. But he said people kept asking him, like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you’re working with [Phil] after that.’ And he’s like, man, ‘Phil‘s been nothing but gracious to me, backstage, at his home.’ He’s, like, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about.’
So, I don’t know. I don’t know how else to say it, but it’s, like, that’s not who [Phil] is. It was a bad moment.”
