VINNIE PAUL: PHILIP ANSELMO's Willingness To Jam On PANTERA Tunes Made Me Laugh

DAMAGEPLAN drummer Vinnie Paul spoke to Chris Steffen from The Oklahoma Daily on Monday (April 26) about the "Headbanger's Ball Tour", Ozzfest, and Phil Anselmo's apparent change of heart with regards to a possible future collaboration with his ex-PANTERA bandmates. The following are several excerpts from that interview:

The Oklahoma Daily: How did you decide which PANTERA classics to throw into the setlist?

Vinnie Paul: "It wasn't really a choosing process, we were just jamming around one day, and Dime kicked into 'Walk', and it sounded great, better than when we used to do it on the last couple PANTERA tours. It was immediately something that when we first started planning on touring, the PANTERA songs came up and we said to ourselves, 'You know, we want DAMAGEPLAN to be known on its own and stand on its own two feet,' but at the same time, we sold 13 million records with PANTERA, and there's millions of fans out there that want to hear those songs, and the only place they're ever going to hear them again is if we play them live. That's when we decided, 'You know what, out of respect for the fans and how good they've been to us over the years, it's definitely cool to play a couple of PANTERA songs for them, and give them something that they won't ever get again." [Download MP3 containing Vinnie's response here]

The Oklahoma Daily: In a recent interview, Philip Anselmo said that if DAMAGEPLAN and SUPERJOINT RITUAL happened to be in the same city, he'd be willing to come out and do some PANTERA songs with you guys. What are your thoughts on that?

Vinnie Paul: "That's pretty funny. I don't know where it comes from. One day it's 'Fuck them, fuck this, fuck that,' and the next day it's like, 'Oh, I miss PANTERA,' or whatever. I guess it depends on what he's on or where he's at at the time. It made me laugh, that's all." [Download MP3 containing Vinnie's response here]

The Oklahoma Daily: When I spoke with Phil a few months ago, he sounded ill — his voice sounded like it was slowed down on a tape machine.

Vinnie Paul: "That's what he sounds like on a regular basis now, and you know why we can't work together. I did everything I could to rectify our situation, but it didn't happen."

The Oklahoma Daily: I heard mutterings that you guys were potentially going to be on Ozzfest, and it's clear now that that isn't happening — were you guys interested, and how did that all work out?

Vinnie Paul: "We definitely wanted to be a part of Ozzfest. Without getting into the details of it, we were edged out by politics. Obviously, SUPERJOINT ended up on there and it has a lot to do with Sharon Osbourne and Sanctuary Records. Our political end of the deal, we got fucked, basically. I'll just leave it at that. We'd give anything to be a part of it, we’ve got a great relationship with Sharon and Ozzy in particular, they've always been really good to us as PANTERA, and it's just too bad that we weren’t part of it this year — maybe next year." [Download MP3 containing Vinnie's response here]

(Thanks: Chris Steffen / The Oklahoma Daily)