PHILIP ANSELMO Says 'The Great Southern Trendkill' Was 'A Bit Of A Dark-Horse Record For PANTERA'

Jack Antonio of the "Do You Know Jack?" radio show recently conducted an interview with Philip Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN, SUPERJOINT). You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Speaking about PANTERA's "The Great Southern Trendkill" album, which was recently reissued for its 20th anniversary, Anselmo said: "Well, it was very interesting times and very trying times as well. On a personal level, I wasn't doing all that well because I was injured, I was making every rookie mistake in the world with pain medication and all that stuff, and I was embarrassed. I didn't wanna see anybody, man; I was in a bad way. However, I was present throughout the entire writing of the songs, musically, because I am the lyricist, so therefore shaping a song and getting it into some semblance of song structure, of course, they needed me there for that. But I did decide to do my vocals on my own at Trent Reznor's studio that he used to have here in New Orleans which was awesome."

He continued: "Aside from all of that, I had a journalist just yesterday say, 'Well, this is kind of a dark-horse record for PANTERA.' And you know what? I could not disagree with the person. And I still say, yeah, it was a bit of a dark-horse record for PANTERA, because heavy metal, at the time, was supposed to be on its way out. Grunge was the number-one-selling genre at the time. Heavy metal was being experimented with by different bands, in different ways, and, really, from the PANTERA perspective, we really, really, really, really wanted to fly the pure PANTERA style of heavy metal as best we could. And we did. And, you know, I'll go a bit further and say that right when we… the day we all arrived to meet up and go on our first tour for 'The Great Southern Trendkill', our road manager approached me and he said, 'Phil, you know, man. Don't expect sold-out shows, man. Heavy metal's on its way out. Kids are listening to different stuff. And it's gonna be rough. Don't expect this. Don't expect that.' And I was, like, 'Great! I appreciate the pep talk.' But the best thing that remedied this bullshit diatribe was that he was dead wrong. That show — that first show — was packed to the gills, sold out, as were most of the other ones. So fucking in your face opinion."

Released on October 21, the two-disc "The Great Southern Trendkill: 20th Anniversary Edition" includes the original album remastered, plus a dozen previously unreleased mixes, instrumentals, and live recordings.

Former PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott recently told "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, that "The Great Southern Trendkill" "was a really crazy record for PANTERA. I mean, it was the most chaotic, most unorganized, most against-the-grain record that we ever made, looking back at it, after being a part of the remastering and everything that was there. That being said, it came out at a time, in 1996, when rap metal was coming in, and I even remember us getting a phone call from the president of our label, saying, 'Hey, you guys need to… Be sure and start rapping on your record, add some rap to it.' And we just kind of laughed and said, 'Okay, we'll get right on that.' And anyways, that record was really designed as just a gigantic bird finger to the music industry at that time, and I think it really accomplished what it was all about."

Late PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's longtime girlfriend Rita Haney in 2011 called on Vinnie Paul and Anselmo to settle their differences in honor of Dimebag, who was shot and killed by a crazed gunman while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at a Columbus, Ohio rock club in December 2004.

Vinnie, who is Dimebag's brother, and Anselmo have not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie indirectly blamed Philip for Dimebag's death, suggesting that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag's killer.