PHILIP ANSELMO Says He Doesn't Understand Where VINNIE PAUL's Hatred Is Coming From

UK's Metal Hammer magazine recently conducted an interview with DOWN/ex-PANTERA frontman Philip Anselmo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Hammer: It's been a tough time for you lately.

Anselmo: A tough couple of years. Life brings adversity, and with coming through adversity comes wisdom. I've learned that desperately trying to kill yourself one way or another; whether it be drug addiction, alcoholism, any addiction that is threatening to your life, is unnecessary. Listen, we are all going to pass in our due time — why hasten the process? Life is a gift, and each one of us has our own path. The path is impossible to navigate through, because none of us are mind-readers, but if we take steps in life that are righteous only to us in our eyes, then I believe only good will follow and follow you.

Metal Hammer: You've overcome all the addictions?

Anselmo: Absolutely. You're looking at me. I'm smoking a cigarette. I apologize. I'm drinking a Coca-Cola.

Metal Hammer: You're done with drugs and booze?

Anselmo: The last beer I had was… DOWN was waiting at an airport, and we were on tour with BLACK SABBATH. Ronnie James Dio invited me over to the bar, he was sipping on a beer, and I was like, "Well, OK!" So I had a beer with Ronnie James Dio. But, you know? It's like I can have one beer on occasion — one, two beers — and now I can stop. I can cut it off. I'm in full control of every bit of my human condition.

Metal Hammer: Are there any lyrics [on the new DOWN album "Over the Under"] you want to especially mention?

Anselmo: "Three Sins and One Star" is absolutely, positively inspired by the memory of Darrell [late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott]. "The Path" is the path of any individual. If you follow the path, eventually you will get to where you're going in your heart and in your mind. "N.O.D."… It's about struggle and fight and victory, man. "I Scream" is about the division of myself and all the people that I miss in Texas. Honestly, it's about the division of Vinnie Paul [former PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN drummer and Dimebag's brother] and all of us, me especially, and I don't understand where the hatred comes from. Not that kind of hatred. I feel pity for him and I feel compassion for him, but he has to understand that Dimebag was as much my brother and Rex's [Brown, DOWN/ex-PANTERA bassist] brother as well. We sweated it out as well in those damn practice rooms, vans, tiny clubs, man… That's what that song is about. "I Scream" is about the division. "On March the Saints" is a victory song for the survivors of [Hurricane] Katrina and even the ones that were lost.

Metal Hammer: Did you feel misunderstood in the past? At one point you stopped doing interviews.

Anselmo: I feel like if I don't speak directly, if you get friendly with someone that's interviewing you that you don't know, and you make a joke or something, and they put it in print… when it's in black and white, it may not sound like such a joke, and in that way, they twist your words. It's the sensationalism of everything. The sensationalism is in here, in the record, man. Music, man. Who cares whose haircut is the coolest? None of that has ever interested me, man. The world follows the lives of other people when they should really worry about themselves, and that honestly would make for a much, much calmer society in general. I hate to use that word, btu a kinder society. You can put any other motherfucker on the cover. DOWN is still here, man, and there will come a day where communication with media outlets, whatever, you ain't gonna have no say in the matter. People are gonna have their say. We're gonna… You'll have no fuckin' choice but [to] write about DOWN because we will be the biggest topic. I don't give a fuck.

Metal Hammer's entire interview with Philip Anselmo appears in the magazine's February 2008 issue.