PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS Postpone U.S. Tour

PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, the project led by the former PANTERA and current DOWN/SUPERJOINT frontman, has postponed its previously announced spring U.S. tour with KING PARROT until late summer/early fall.

Says Anselmo: "I've decided to delay the PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS/KING PARROT tour until August-September. As many of you know, I had a second back surgery in late January. I'm having an incredible recovery, but just want to be one thousand percent when I get to jam the new ILLEGALS with all my brothers and sisters. My apologies for jumping the gun extend to the fans, my fellow ILLEGALS, KING PARROT, our crews, and all mechanical parties involved, but we will all see it's the right decision soon. See you cats and chicks in the fall! Much love, as always."

Anselmo said last month that he was "still kind of chilling out" after undergoing back surgery — the latest in a line of corrective procedures designed to helped him deal with the damage to his back, neck, and knees sustained over two decades of touring. "[I have] good days, bad days, which is the way of the beast right this second," he told the WSOU radio station. "But with a little bit of work and effort, I shall rise again." The former PANTERA and current SUPERJOINT frontman went on to say that he is "going stir crazy" after spending a couple of weeks "laying on ice."

A few days prior to the operation, Anselmo told Jack Antonio that he was feeling good about his chances of having a successful procedure, explaining that he knows his surgeon "well enough. He did the big surgery back in 2006, so we have a great relationship," he said. "He seemed to be very cognizant of exactly what I was talking about, very confident. He's a cool cat to put you at ease, man, about what's ahead of you."

Anselmo told Jack Antonio that while all the surgeries have certainly helped, he was never completely cured from the physical damage he had done to his body.

"I think the only pain I have left is this one little nagging thing," he said. "I think once they zap that, shit… I guess I'll be closest to feeling as close to normal for the first time in decades.

"I've talked to everybody close to me and tried to explain to them that I'm gonna have to re-learn how to live life, man, on many, many different levels," he added. "It's interesting. But it's good. I look at it as a positive, because after a decade of the nagging thing, I'd hit a wall, and when I hit a wall, I get pissed off and I tend to hit back, and my way of hitting back is resenting my condition. Therefore I'm doing everything in my power to overcome, and I'm gonna do it, man, again. Watch."

In a 2005 interview with Revolver magazine, Anselmo said that the back problem has plagued him since the late 1990s when the lowest lumbar disc in his back was "ruptured — shattered from being onstage since I was 14 years old, jumping off the stage, off [PANTERA drummer] Vinnie's [Paul Abbott] drum set, going as crazy as possible."

PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS recently released its sophomore album, "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue", via Anselmo's Housecore Records in the U.S. and Season Of Mist in other parts of the world.

Photo by Jody Dorignac