PHILIP ANSELMO On 'Dimebash' Incident: 'I Did Something Extremely Stupid That I Know Was Absolutely Stupid'

Former PANTERA frontman Philip Anselmo say that he has “nothing but love” in his heart despite the fact that a video surfaced of him earlier in the year giving the right-arm salute and yelling a white-supremacist slogan at a California concert.

Anselmo performed the PANTERA classic “Walk” at the January 22 “Dimebash” event at the Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood in honor of late PANTERA guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. As he left the stage, he made a Nazi-style salute. He appeared to say “white power” as he made the gesture, but later claimed he was joking about drinking white wine backstage and was reacting to the audience members up front who he says were taunting him.

Speaking to Clrvynt, Anselmo once again denied being racist and explained that his actions at Dimebash were him “being crude and lewd and showing an extension of a joke from backstage.”

“First and foremost, I’ll take that one. I’ll own it,” he said. “I did something extremely stupid that I know was absolutely stupid. If anyone in this world believes that I go through life judging anyone — no matter what color, size, shape, sexual preference — they are sadly, sadly mistaken. I might have gone and been successful in my life at what I do, but I still to this day don’t think that I could walk five minutes in someone else’s shoes. Just like I don’t think they could deal with the pressure I have on me as the person that I am and all the crap I deal with every day, so it goes both ways, man. I am no rustic fool, despite what I might get sometimes get into on a stage. That part of my personality is like pro wrestling or something. It’s part of me — I don’t know where that came from. But ‘racist’ is a very strong word. Truth be told, I have more love in me for everybody than I do [loathing]. If you don’t [believe me], look at my track record and you’ll see a lot of love there, I do believe. If you see the loathe part — well, maybe that’s my expression as an angry vocalist. Still, that doesn’t equate to someone that hates someone else for their fucking skin color. That is absurd.

“I was raised in the French Quarter. My earliest memories are of living in the French Quarter, raised by women, with theater folk in and out of the house. If you’ve never been to the French Quarter, you would have to know that it is one of the most diverse, character-driven, all-walks-of-life type of place. If I really and truly upset people that I work with, or that really took offense to what I did that particular night, that hurts my heart. I wish everybody nothing but everything they could ever possibly dream of to come true in their damn lives.

“I want people to understand that I have nothing but love in my heart. The whole Dimebash thing was me being crude and lewd and showing an extension of a joke from backstage. I made myself out to be the ugly face of it all. I did that. I accomplished it, and now I’m, like, ‘Fuck, why?’ Really, I should have just walked away from the situation. It is what it is, but hopefully the truth comes out in the wash, and I love everybody. I do. The sad truth of it all [is] I love everybody, almost to a fault.”

The new album from Philip‘s SUPERJOINT project, “Caught Up In The Gears Of Application”, was released on November 11 via Anselmo‘s Housecore record label. The disc was recorded at Philip‘s New Orleans-area studio, Nodferatu’s Lair and was produced by Anselmo and Stephen Berrigan. The effort was mastered by Scott Hull (AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, PIG DESTROYER) at Visceral Sounds.

SUPERJOINT‘s current lineup includes guitarists Kevin Bond (CHRIST INVERSION, ARTIMUS PYLEDRIVER) and Jimmy Bower (DOWN, EYEHATEGOD), drummer José Manuel Gonzalez (WARBEAST, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS) and bassist Stephen Taylor (PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, WOVEN HAND, 16 HORSE POWER).