DIMEBAG, VINNIE PAUL: 'Dope-Fucked' PHILIP ANSELMO Can't Keep His Story Straight

Former PANTERA members Dimebag Darrell (guitar) and Vinnie Paul (drums) have slammed ex-bandmate Philip Anselmo over his assertions that he "wasn't the one" who wanted to end PANTERA, calling his claims "bullshit" and implying in no uncertain terms that Anselmo's alleged drug problem is largely to blame for the singer's often-bizarre public statements.

During an appearance on Cleveland's "The Metal Show" (www.themetalshow.com) on 92.3 FM (Xtreme Radio),interviewer Chris Akin questioned the brothers (who are once again reunited in their new project DAMAGEPLAN) about a quote from an earlier interview with Anselmo in which Philip deflected some of the blame for PANTERA's break-up away from himself and towards the rest of the band.

Asked if there was any chance down the road that he and Dime and Vinnie could get past their issues and rejoin forces, Anselmo said, "Man, it's not really my thing. Some people can say I'm the one that started all these side bands. But look, I'm a fuckin' musician. To limit yourself to one fucking band and one form of music to me is just treading shallow water. You need to plunge in fucking deep. There's a lot of different forms of heavy music itself, and it doesn't all need some form of heavy guitar. I've played all kinds of music. That's just how I am and that's just what I do. I'm not the one that fuckin' totally fuckin' wanted to end the name or the working relationship with PANTERA. That was those other guys. They wanted to end it, OK. Who am I to argue besides Philip Anselmo."

In response to Philip's quote, Dimebag said, "I'll just say this… Well, you can call it 'shallow', if that's what he wants to call it. What I call it is fuckin' thoroughly full, 1000 percent blood-and-heart-and-fucking-soul, from where me and Vinnie were coming from. 'Cause when you put as much into PANTERA as me and Vinnie did, you ain't got no time to go fuckin' jack off on no side fuckin' band, OK?! That's where we're coming from. And we ain't the ones that took off and left everybody hanging. And he did NOT communicate with us. Dude, we had fuckin' meetings set up… I mean, we even… At the end of the rope, after trying to hook up conference call after conference call, him blowing us off — in-between blowing us off, he'd go out and play shows, and people would call us and go, 'Man, he's doing it again. He said Dime fuckin' sucks and Vinnie's…' Whatever, all this ridiculous shit, for no good reason. It finally came to a head where we were talking to the record company, just trying to get cut loose to move forward and do a new band, and we even offered to prove to them that, 'Look, man, we'll do a meeting with you in your office' — Sylvia Rhone's office, the head of Elektra Records — 'We'll do a meeting with you to and we'll sit down with these cats and do our goddamn very best to iron everything out, whatever the hell the problem is.' You know, I've got no fuckin' problem — I'll sit down with them fuckin' cats and look them right in the eye and say, 'What is the hang-up, man?' And he blew that off — he would not do it. And then next thing you know, here comes his next SUPERJOINT record. And in interviews… That's [the story] he gave that one time. Like Vinnie says, he's not giving the same answer every time, so you've gotta wonder about somebody like that. That don't mean somebody is telling you exactly 100 percent the fuckin' truth."

The Metal Show: Is that the Phil that you guys knew, though?

Vinnie: "No, that's the dope-fucked Phil, how's that?"

Dimebag: I mean, tell it like it is. I mean, the fuckin' brutal truth's the brutal truth."

Vinnie: "People have been covering up and hiding the truth behind what's going on with that dude for way too long. When it started out, he really had a lot of fun taking potshots at us. And when he realized his audience was dwindling and dwindling and dwindling and he was playing to fewer and fewer people, right at the very end of his tour he started a whole new story, 'Man, I love those guys. I wish them the best of luck.' Bull-fuckin'-shit — that's all I have to say."

Regarding the widespread rumors that Phil's alleged drug problem is at least partly to blame for some of his more bizarre public statements, Vinnie said, "People wanna question if somebody's high or not — you can either tell by their actions or not. People don't come in the room and just tie off and say, 'Watch out guys, I'm gonna shoot up right now. Hold on for a minute.' You don't see it. It's a secretive kind of thing that goes on."

Dimebag: "[in another person's voice] 'Man he was drunk.' That ain't fuckin' booze, dude, you know?! Give me a fuckin' break."

An audio recording of DAMAGEPLAN's entire 25-minute interview with "The Metal Show" can be heard in Windows Media format at this location. Several photos taken immediately following the interview (including a shot of the band with WARRANT's Billy Morris) can be viewed here.