PHILIP ANSELMO On Hypothetical PANTERA 'Reunion' Concert: 'It Would Be A Great Idea If Everyone Else Felt It Was A Great Idea'

Former PANTERA and current DOWN and SUPERJOINT frontman Philip Anselmo was recently interviewed by Metal Wani's Jake Patton. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On a hypothetical PANTERA reunion concert featuring all surviving members of the band paying tribute to late guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott:

Anselmo: "I think it would be a great idea if everyone else felt it was a great idea. And I would just say that if everybody came calling, then count me in for sure. But if everybody's not on board, then it's not legit. So, yeah, man, it's really where I sit right now."

On Dimebag's longtime girlfriend Rita Haneyoffering support to Anselmo in recent interviews after the incident nearly two years ago when Philip gave the right-arm salute and yelled a white-supremacist slogan at a California concert:

Anselmo: "Her and I… What people fail to see is I've known Rita since 1987, so we have history, we have friendship, we have growing up together, young people together. We're friends. And we had a very unique spot in Dimebag's life, and a very unique perspective.

"I don't think that there's one fan of any band, because going back to just being a regular music fan first and foremost, I hate it when I read about dischord between any of my favorite bands or trouble in their camps or somebody quitting the band or somebody leaving the band or, by God, something more tragic than that, it's always a bummer to hear even if you're not a fan of the music. It's, like, fuck, you hear something about a fellow musician, of course it hits home. It's, like, 'Goddamn!' It makes you feel, one way or another. There's empathy to be had. With that being said, going back to the fact that people on the outside looking in, there might be some people that thrive and love the drama of a good in-fight or something like that, but I think the vast number of people that are true fans really dislike any fucking drama at all in any camp that they're supporting. So big thumbs up to her for an interview that I have not seen. Big love to her, and yeah, man, onward, forward and upward."

On the current status of DOWN:

Anselmo: "Well, it's not really about me — it's about everybody. First and foremost, DOWN is comprised of dudes from different bands, and that's one thing that we knew upfront since 1992. So right now I think [CORROSION OF CONFORMITY] just put out a new record and it's doing very well, so big props to Pepper [Keenan, C.O.C. frontman and DOWN guitarist]. And I know Jimmy [Bower, DOWN drummer] is gonna be busy with EYEHATEGOD. Big props to them, big props to [EYEHATEGOD frontman] Mike Williams for fighting back. Look, here's the story with DOWN: everything's cool, everybody's doing their thing. We will get back together and we will make an EP. When? I don't know yet. And I'll let you know when the time is right and when I know myself, goddamnit!"

Anselmo's solo project PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS will release its sophomore album, "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue", on January 26, 2018 via Anselmo's Housecore Records in the U.S. and Season Of Mist in other parts of the world. The disc is the follow-up to PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS' debut, "Walk Through Exits Only", which came out in 2013 to mostly positive reviews.