During an interview at last month's Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, Philip Anselmo reflected on his time with PANTERA , one of the most influential metal bands of the 1990s, which churned out classic albums like "Vulgar Display Of Power" and "Far Beyond Driven" , the latter of which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
"Hey, man. It's a trip," he told Pop Culture Madness (see video below). "I'll be honest with you — never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I would be part of something so big in an underground way. So it feels incredible, man. That's all I can say."
Asked if it's surreal for him to be looked upon as a "legend" by so many people around the world, Anselmo said: "Absolutely. That does feel a little bizarre, I'll be honest with you. 'Cause I'm laid back, man. When I meet people, I assume that their life is just as complicated as mine; they've got their own damn issues, and I can't live in your skin, you can't live in mine. Therefore, mutual respect is all that matters with me. I try to go out of my way to say hello or be nice to anyone anytime I'm out in public. There's too much anger right now in the fucking world."
Drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott and his guitarist brother "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott co-founded PANTERA . When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN . On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.
Up until his June 2018 death, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo .
In a 2013 interview with Vanyaland , Anselmo stated about PANTERA : "The legacy of PANTERA stands pretty firmly on its own. I don't really dwell on the negative things within PANTERA . To me, PANTERA is about a whole lot more than the breakup; when I think of PANTERA I think of really, really awesome times and great, great, great things and fantastic brotherhood and camaraderie. If you take a look around, there are a lot of bands out there that have experienced similar tragedy and breakup and all the things that happen. We are not the first band to have troubles or tragedy."
