PHILIP ANSELMO Recalls Early 'Breakthrough Moment' In His Relationship With DIMEBAG

Former PANTERA and current SUPERJOINT and DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo was interviewed on recent episode of the "Talk Toomey" podcast. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Recalling how he first connected with PANTERA back in 1986, Anselmo said: "When I first joined the band, I swear to God, Dimebag [PANTERA guitarist Darrell Abbott]… I mean, we were all awkward and growing up and young and skinny as crap. I was super skinny, man, but Dimebag was so much skinnier than me even, and he was definitely a smaller-framed guy. But my Lord… Rex [Brown, PANTERA bassist] had picked me up from the airport. We pulled up. I had been to a studio one time and it was some dude's house and he had a four-track recorder. [Laughs] So here I am pulling up in front of this freakin' studio, the real deal — it wasn't big; it was a small building, but it was a very efficient and nifty building, man. In hindsight, it was pretty awesome. I looked… I guess the way we pulled in, my side of the window was looking right through the front door of the studio building and that front door was all glass, so you could see straight in. And there was Dimebag sittin' behind the console, and I swear, man, the dude looked like his neck was as long as… his neck looked like it was six inches too long for his body, and his hair was, like… it was, like, one puff, so he looked like an unraveled Q-tip is the way I've always described him — he looked like a freakin' unraveled Q-tip. And his hair wasn't long enough to touch his shoulders, really, so it was kind of like always bouncing all over the joint, man — it had this bounce to it, man. He would crack me up.

"After our first gig that we ever played together in Shreveport, Louisiana… Now, this is, like, the following weekend, I do believe," he continued. "'Cause I tried out on a Monday and then by Thursday in a car driving up to meet them and just bringing a couple of vinyl records I had with me under my arms and a bag with a pair of shorts; that's all I had, man. And it was me moving to Texas. Anyway, after the show, we were in a hotel room and we smoked a little hippie lettuce, and I just… I got the crack-ups, man, to where I could not stop cracking up at Dimebag's lid. I just kept laughing; I couldn't stop. And he was, like, 'What, man?' He would always say, 'What are you casing on?' And I'm, like, 'Dude, I'm casing on… you're on the lid.' And he, actually, of course, had a great sense of humor, so he started cracking up at his own lid. That was pretty good stuff. So that was a good breakthrough moment very early in our relationship, man — just us cracking up stoned. Fun stuff."

PANTERA broke up in 2003 due to an ongoing rift between Anselmo and the rest of the band.

PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, Darrell's brother, has consistently ruled out any sort of reunion or tribute tour in the 13 years since Dimebag died.

Dimebag was shot and killed by a crazed gunman while performing with his and Vinnie's post-PANTERA act DAMAGEPLAN at a Columbus, Ohio rock club in December 2004.

The guitarist was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in May of 2007.