Former Pantera man Phil Anselmo says it’s “infuriating” that Machine Head’s Robb Flynn and Anthrax’s Scott Ian accused him of being racist.
The vocalist hit headlines after he made a Nazi salute and shouted “white power” at the end of his performance at Dimebash in January. He faced a backlash from the music world, led by Flynn – who challenged Anselmo’s claims that it was an “inside joke” which he had with friends backstage prior to the event.
Ian also condemned Anselmo, saying he needed to truly realise the power of his words to be forgiven.
But the Down and Superjoint vocalist has called out the pair’s ‘virtue-signalling’ – and tells them to take a long, hard look at their own lives before judging him.
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He tells Eddie Trunk: “These so-called peers – those are your words – who gave me backlash need to take a good, cold stare in the mirror themselves. And anyone else who throws that word ‘racism’ or ‘racist’ around so freely, they need to understand the implications of said word.
“That’s a heavy-duty implication when you don’t know jack shit about me except for what you’ve seen on what? In live performances, music videos, interviews, whatever. The main culprit wasn’t even privy to the room in the backstage area that I was in.”
Anselmo continues: “This whole I’m-a-racist thing is infuriating, because it’s false – absolutely false. And I’d like to turn around and say, hey, what have you done to better your community, Robert Flynn? If you’re gonna call me out on this supposed heinous act, what have you done? What have you done?
“I know what I’ve done for the inner-city kids in Detroit when the Kronk boxing gym was getting closed down, I forked over thousands of dollars that I most certainly did not have to make sure those kids got fed, clothed and had a place to sleep.”
The vocalist then takes Ian to task for his work on Stormtroopers Of Death’s 1985 debut record titled Speak English Or Die, adding: “If that record would have come out this year, last year, fucking forget it. You think he’d get pounced on? You’re damn right he would, and he knows it.
“He wrote me some email, saying ‘And if you’re really sorry, donate to this Nazi hunter Jewish cause’ or whatever,’ I did it in an hour. Did you ever hear about that story? Of course you didn’t. You know why? It doesn’t make good headlines. I donated that hour, if not that goddamn second.”
Listen to the interview in full below.
It was recently announced that Anselmo will team up with horror actor Bill Moseley on a new EP called Songs Of Darkness And Despair.
