ANSELMO: It Would Be Healthy For VINNIE PAUL To Talk To Someone Who Loves Him Like A Brother

Tony LaBrie of the Flint, Michigan radio station Banana 101.5 Rocks recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo. You can now listen to the chat in two parts at this location. A couple of excerpts follow.

On his relationship with other surviving members of PANTERA:

Anselmo: "Well, I guess for the most part, it's kind of the same. Rex [Brown, bass] and I talk, we support each other. But as far as Vinnie Paul [Abbott; drums] goes, I have not had a chance to really speak with Vince at all. I know we get [copied] in e-mails together, but that's about the gist of… Our relationsip is really making PANTERA decisions on these anniversary releases and stuff like that. I just wanna let everybody know that my door is wide open, man. If Vince ever really wants to talk and let he and I both clear the air and heal and move on with our lives, whether it be together or separately, I would love to have that particular moment in time."

On whether he thinks being able to speak with Vinnie Paul would be great for both of them in their healing process following the murder of PANTERA guitarist, and Vinnie Paul's brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott:

Anselmo: "To me, yes. But I cannot speak for Vince. He has been through something extremely traumatic, and it's not like the rest of us haven't — it's extremely traumatic for all of us — but he was there when his brother was murdered, and there is no way in the world that I'm going to judge what's going on in his mind. But I do think it would be healthy for him to talk to someone who loves him like a brother, and that would be me and Rex. We love the guy, and we were there with the guy throughout this entire process of creating this band together. Once again, my door is open, and I'm just gonna have to respect whatever Vinnie Paul decides to do."

On whether he thinks PANTERA would exist today if Dimebag was still alive:

Anselmo: "Absolutely. 100 percent. If Darrell was still with us, we would have buried the hatchet a long time ago and we probably would have done several tours and I would be very surprised if we didn't do another record, or two, or three. You never know."

On having a previously unreleased PANTERA song ("Piss") included on the "Vulgar Display Of Power" reissue as a way of celebrating the band's legacy:

Anselmo: "It's a positive thing. PANTERA is not the first band to end on bad terms. We're not the first band to have something tragic happen within our careers. So to choose to look at the positives and to re-live all the good things that were — and believe me, there were so, so many fantastic memories in comparison to bad — for me, in order to, I guess, take the proverbial step forward, I choose to really… not block out the bad, because that's impossible. There's not a day that goes by I don't think about Darrell nor regret what happened and the way that it happened. There's a part of me that will never understand the mentality it takes to murder — I'll never, never, never come to grips with that — but if I stay there, then I'm stagnating, I'm living in the past, I've not moved on. I choose to take that step forward, and that is my choice. And within that choice of taking that step forward, I think of all of the positives that PANTERA brought my life and everybody else's life."

On his upcoming solo album, "Walk Through Exits Only":

Anselmo: "[It's] basically done. It needs probably one more mix. And I'd like to have that sucker out by the end of the year, and if that's not gonna happen, maybe early next year. I have written over a dozen very extreme songs that I basically put a lot of thought into as far as genres go. Because extreme music comes in all genres in one way or another, but, of course, my heart is in heavy metal, hardcore, etc. I've done hardcore before, I've done heavy metal before, I've done American-branded black metal before. I've done the genre stuff before. I wanted to create something that, in my mind, is fresh and different, and can't be just slid into a slot. So it is an extremely extreme listen, but it's also, in my opinion, a very different listen. So I'm gonna leave where it belongs, genre-wise, up to all the media experts and all the kids out there and all the people out there that might be buying this record just out of curiosity, or if you're a fan and you wanna check it out. But I'll warn you once again: it is an extreme listen with a lot of involvement. I wrote every note of music on this thing. I did get a fantastic guitar player [Maziar 'Marzi' Montazeri, formerly of SUPERJOINT RITUAL] who executes to a tee, and he's a fantastic lead player. Really, man, I couldn't be happier with it, so far."