PHILIP ANSELMO's Advice To New Bands: 'Get Out And Gig'

In a brand new interview with The Aquarian Weekly, former PANTERA and current DOWN and SUPERJOINT frontman Philip Anselmo was asked which musicians had an impact on him when he first started playing music professionally. He responded: "I will tell you a true story. On [PANTERA's] very first trek over in Europe, we had to share a bus with a band called ANNIHILATOR. A couple cool dudes in that band. JUDAS PRIEST as individuals; Rob Halford is a great dude, so is Glenn Tipton, and I can go on and on. They are all fantastic dudes. But you really don't see much of them, and at the time, we were still unknown. We were hated in Europe. And I think an extent to that was that we were misunderstood. [The fans] were there to see JUDAS PRIEST and ANNIHILATOR and they hated us. So that was already against us. But their road crew was full of assholes. Their tour manager was a notorious asshole on many levels, throughout his entire career. And that makes a world of a difference when you are on a three-month-long tour. So, that was a horrific experience."

He continued: "Then, out of nowhere, SKID ROW took us out on tour. And they really did not need to bring this heavy metal band out on tour with them. But they had the guts to do so, at our most dangerous time, really. They were really helpful, their road crew was solid, and everyone was super cool. We made it a point right then and there that this would be the model that we want to follow. It was the model that we wanted to re-create for other bands. I will give SKID ROW gigantic props for that, despite us stealing their audience over. [Laughs] Little sideswipe for my brothers because they know I got a sense of humor, baby."

Anselmo also offered the following advice for local acts looking to make music their living: "Get out and gig. That's the only way we are making any scratch anymore. You gotta be ready to go, self-contained, and you gotta be open and honest with each other; despite egos. You gotta be able to communicate. And speaking from a musical standpoint, don't try to be imitators, be innovators. That right there. You can be innovators within a genre, and create a subgenre. And then somebody will put a moniker on that. [Laughs]"