DOWN Guitarist Says PHILIP ANSELMO Shouldn't Be Blamed For DIMEBAG's Murder

Michael Christopher of the Delaware County Daily Times' Rock Music Menu recently conducted an interview with DOWN guitarist Kirk Windstein. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On DOWN no longer being just a project the musicians dabble in every so many years:

"It's a real band now and not a side project. It's everyone's main focus and we've toured extensively, we've been to 27 countries in the last two years, started touring before the record came out, and played everywhere. We're kind of, for lack of a better term, taking it more serious because it is everybody's main focus, and while we still do other things, it's our real band now which it never really was in the past."

On whether there are egos running amok and lots of disagreements over the direction of the music in DOWN:

"In CROWBAR I sing, write all the lyrics, write all the music — do everything, where in DOWN it's more of a democratic thing. I'm not saying we don't want to kill each other sometimes, but like everybody in every band. I always use the analogy that I have my girlfriend at home, and I have four other girlfriends with different personalities to deal with. Basically all I have to do with DOWN is concentrate on playing, then when it's writing time throw in some riffs to the guys and see if they use them and if not, they get used for something else."

On the tour in support of 2002's "Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow" during which bandmembers battled various addictions:

"We were all a wreck on that tour, everybody had a lot of personal demons they were dealing with at that time. It's just different now. Me and Jimmy [Bower, drums] are really laid back and Rex [Brown, bass] is pretty laid back where Pepper [Keenan, guitar] and Phil [Anselmo, vocals] are a little more opinionated and maybe high strung at certain times about stuff or whatever — which is good."

On dealing the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought on the band's hometown:

"Well, they [the U.S. Government] made a big to-do for a couple weeks but then they just left us alone and went back to the war or whatever. Some neighborhoods are struggling to come back, but you have some that are thriving. The thing is it's never going to be the same, but that doesn't mean it can't be good; and musically it's always thriving, as most of the artists that had to leave town because there was nowhere to play are back in and doing well, and as far as that goes, it's pretty much fine."

On DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo's war of words with his former PANTERA bandmate Vinnie Paul Abbott following the death of PANTERA guitarist (and Vinnie's brother) "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott:

"In my opinion, and I don't want to be rude, but the people, and I'm not referring to Vinnie or anything like that, but the general public, the fans who have blamed Phil [for Dimebag's murder] really need to think about the reality of what happened. It's one of those things to me where, if Phil had never 'temporarily' left PANTERA, or they had never started DAMAGEPLAN, this never would've happened. At the same time, if Joe Blow got killed in a car accident, if he would've left five minutes earlier, the truck wouldn't have hit him type thing; you can't really think that way. It's dying away a lot now because I think people realize that Phil genuinely loved the guy, but it was very, very difficult in the beginning."

On whether he thinks Anselmo and Vinnie Paul can get it together and reconnect at some point in the future:

"You never know. I would hope with time … but I have a sorta-relationship with Rita [Haney, Dimebag's longtime girlfriend] that's friendly; they can't comprehend what happened, and neither can I for that matter, and everyone wants to blame someone. But what my problem is, why don't you just blame the dude who did it? That's what I say to the fans that are negative toward Phil. I know Phil would love one day to have a relationship with Vinnie; they've gone through a hell of a lot together and made some of the best metal — ever, so I would hope one day that can happen."

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