Phil Anselmo on being branded racist: It takes one to know one

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Phil Anselmo says critics will always find something to be offended by if they look hard enough – but he says he can still learn from Dimebash incident

Phil Anselmo
Phil Anselmo (Image credit: Getty)

Phil Anselmo says being branded a racist says more about his critics than it does about himself.

The former Pantera frontman has apologised for the hurt he caused following his ‘white power’ outburst and Nazi gesture at Dimebash in January – but later added it was “utterly ridiculous” that people thought he meant any harm.

Now he says people will always find something to be offended by if they “look long enough through a certain lens.”

He tells The Classic Metal Show: “If I truly, truly upset anyone with that gesture and those two words, then my apology is sincere. But then there’s the flip-side where I get the feeling that if you look through a certain lens long enough and you’re desperately trying to spot something, you’re gonna eventually find it, no matter what it is.

“No matter how vague it may be, you’re gonna find something. I was blatant and doing what I did on purpose, but with a sense of humour behind it. And anyone with a logical mind knows for a damn fact that my love extends to every person in this crazy world of all colours, creeds, kinds, shapes, sizes, sexual preference. You name it, I’m for you. I’m on your side.”

Anselmo added: “Sometimes these certain people that do look through these lenses – and maybe this is just speculation, but perhaps – like they used to say on the schoolyard, ‘It takes one to know one,’ or maybe the fact that you’re looking through this lens is kind of showing who you are as well.”

Listen to the full interview below.

Anselmo’s band Superjoint will release their third album Caught Up In The Gears Of Application on November 11. They also streamed track Ruin You from the record last month.

Superjoint Caught Up In The Gears Of Application artwork

Superjoint Caught Up In The Gears Of Application artwork

Superjoint Caught Up In The Gears Of Application tracklist

  1. Today And Tomorrow
  2. Burning The Blanket
  3. Ruin You
  4. Caught Up In The Gears Of The Application
  5. Sociopathic Herd Delusion
  6. Circling The Drain
  7. Clickbait
  8. Asshole
  9. Mutts Bite Too
  10. Rigging The Fight
  11. Receiving No Answer To The Knock

The 10 best vocal performances by Philip H. Anselmo

Christina O'Neill

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.