PEPPER KEENAN Says DOWN Will Play 'Close To Two Hours' On Upcoming Tour

Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of LiveDaily recently conducted an interview with DOWN guitarist Pepper Keenan. A couple of excerpts follow:

On the upcoming tour, which will feature only DOWN, no openers — a rare set-up for a club outing:

"We're probably going to play close to two hours. I like it like that. The fans seem to dig it, too. They seem so ferocious for DOWN stuff, so we might as well just play by ourselves."

On "III: Over the Under" being delayed by Hurricane Katrina:

"Oh, man, it was just kind of an in-the-works thing since before the hurricane. We had been talking about doing something and I guess the urge kept getting stronger and stronger. After the hurricane, we decided to blow off some steam and go to Europe — no strings attached, no record deal. Just go play some shows, have some fun, see what happens. The response was overwhelming, to say the least. The European fans were really adamant about us getting our shit together. They loved the band and they really inspired us to get going. So we started to work on the record as soon as we got back from Europe."

On singer Philip Anselmo undergoing a surgical procedure that left reconstructed bone fragments and a rod in the place of the degenerative discs in his spine:

"So many things are gonna drag you down. You just gotta keep your head up, man, and that kind of seemed to wrap up everything with three simple words. What we were about, what the record was about and trying not to use negativity as a force to write songs.

"Phil's doing core strengthening stuff daily. He's in better shape than he was when he was 25 years old. He's still going. He's still doing it. It's been two-and-a-half, three years, and he's still going. He's in better shape. He's not on pills. No more pain pills. It's a massive relief."