PHILIP ANSELMO On His Latest Knee Injury: 'My Skeleton Has Betrayed Me More Times Than I Can Count'

Jimmy Cabbs conducted an interview with Philip Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN, SUPERJOINT, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS) before SUPERJOINT's October 31 concert in Los Angeles with DANZIG, VEIL OF MAYA, PRONG and WITCH MOUNTAIN. You can now watch the chat in two parts below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his latest knee injury:

"It's busted, so after this gig, it's a two-day ride home and right back to the MRI tube, but at least it's a familiar place. Almost at home… I could probably order out some food, rest in the tube, listen to DANZIG through the headphones… My skeleton has betrayed me more times than I can count, and I'm not counting right now, so fuck it! The show will go on, just like it has every night."

"It's a fucking bump in the road. Don't even worry about it. If you knew how many times I had my skeleton rearranged with different fucking mechanisms and metals, and this and that, it'd be a whole book in itself. But either way, making music is a privilege, and to still be hungry and to still want… I don't think there's a better feeling in the world."

On how it has been touring with DANZIG:

"It's been a five-week tour, and aside from injuries and shit like that, which… After a while, I get so fucking used to it, it's, like, the second my eyes open in the morning, it's, like, 'Welcome back, pain.' At least I know I'm alive. So, anyway… Other than that, it's been great. The crowds have been great. DANZIG's been great. [And so have] all the other fucking bands."

On the songwriting process for SUPERJOINT's next album:

"We're writing new stuff right now that I think is very fucking true to what SUPERJOINT is, what SUPERJOINT does. And hopefully we'll be done by next year, man… I guess when we first started writing again, everybody kind of had a… You know, with the departure, everybody kind of falls into… Like, Jim [Bower, guitar] listens to a lot of country and western music, I'm like on my third death metal trip. [Guitarist] Kevin [Bond is] more of a rock and roll type dude in taste. I did find that getting back into that pure SUPERJOINT groove was a bit of a challenge, but now, with a lot of practice, with a lot of, 'Let's scrap this. Let's start from fucking A instead of J or U. Let's start this whole thing over again. Let's get a good vibe for it.' And I'm feeling real damn good about it right now. The newer stuff, we've been listening to it every night, and I think it has all that integrity. The cocky lyrics need to come, but I find myself listening and placing. And when I'm placing, I'm thinking 'hooks, hooks, hooks, hooks.' So it is a process — at first very awkward, perhaps — but I do think the integrity is in the music now. I think it sounds, like I say, like the genuine article, which created the SUPERJOINT sound, the feel and the attitude. The attitude more than anything. So I'm believing in it — totally believing in it. And I think anyone that's a SUPERJOINT fan will appreciate the fuck out of it."

On keeping busy with various projects:

"I wake up, and my first emotion, aside from pain, is applying music. And I think this… Beginning of 2015, all I did was write, write, write, write, write, write, write, and wherever that went, it went. Some of it went to a project that I wish I could tell you more about; you'll find out in due time. That's finished, and it's heavy as fuck. I did a lot of acoustic-based stuff, wrote a lot of SUPERJOINT stuff, wrote a lot of ILLEGALS stuff, which is fucking horrible. It's maybe one of the fastest, most miserable things I've ever written. And I know we've got new DOWN to write too, coming up next year. So splitting bands and making sure that each band retains its own quality, sound, and what is very important to me… There are times where it's, like, okay, I can manipulate my voice in any almost any subgenre that I feel like doing these days, but at the end of the day, what's wrong with sounding like me? So, between THE ILLEGALS and SUPERJOINT, if there are similarities, so be it. I'm not gonna sweat it that much. There will be subtle differences, but at the end of the day, the brand is the brand and whatnot. So, as you can see, I've got a lot of irons in the fire. I'm gonna see 'em all fucking through, and then people can pick and choose what they hate, what they love, whatever, and that's the beauty of music. And then I'm gonna move on and keep on doing what I've gotta do, and that's make more music, man, 'cause that's all I know how to do. And that's a… It's a passion. It's a love."