PHILIP ANSELMO Says His Upcoming Autobiography Won't Be 'Like Your Average Rock Book'

MetalSucks' Axl Rosenberg recently conducted an interview with Philip Anselmo about the DOWN/ex-PANTERA frontman's record label, Housecore Records, ARSON ANTHEM's first full-length release, and his upcoming autobiography, which will be co-authored by MetalSucks' own Corey Mitchell. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

MetalSucks: I know you're going to start working on your autobiography soon with a writer that we work with, Corey Mitchell... I was just wondering if you could tell us anything about that and what you have in store for the book.

Anselmo: Well, as opposed to what most people may figure or think or imagine that I'm going to write about, this is not a book that's in any way, shape or form really like your average rock book. It's not a pissing contest when it comes to the death of my guitar player. [correcting himself] The murder of my guitar player. Honestly, it's coming from my perspective of being a guy that has fought through chronic pain his entire career, and what it's like to be in my situation with all the pitfalls, all the crooked fucking doctors out there, all the things that can go wrong. It's well documented how many things have gone wrong in my career. So, it's kind of my take on that, and a lot of the lessons I've learned from pain - chronic pain itself. You can win or lose, straight-up. Anyone who deals with chronic pain can attest that it fucking creeps into the mind, y'know?

MetalSucks: So do you think that you'll not be concentrating on your music career at all? Is it going to be more about the chronic pain and less about the music?

Anselmo: There is going to be some [discussion of my music]. If I didn't talk about some of the music career, I think it would be a little bit of a fucking gyp for the fans. People want to know certain things. Of course, yeah it's going to be about it, but then again, I've been carrying pain around with me since I was 24. I've been through major back surgery. I've had knee surgery. I broke both my wrists. I've broken my ribs twice. All of my fucking fingers, two of my toes, I've had a hernia. Man, you name it. I'm like a fucking football player. Once again, pain comes with every step of my fucking life - chronic pain. There are ways to fight it, and there are ways to submit to it. I'm going to show both sides of that, and hopefully shed some light on the drug world, the evils of the drug world, the helpful drugs, certain doctors, and hopefully shed some light on how you can cope with chronic pain through a regimen and through will power - unabashed, undivided motherfucking will power. There's a strength there that needs to be untapped. I'm going to give a couple of keys, and it's up to people to find their own locks and unlock that motherfucker.

Read the entire interview at MetalSucks.

Photo below courtesy of Down-Nola.com