Philip Anselmo Discusses Confederate Flag Controversy
Unless you happen to be one of those smart or lucky folks who has nothing to do with Facebook, you've no doubt seen your friends and family throw down over whether or not people should keep displaying the Confederate flag in America.
The controversy erupted when Dylann Roof was arrested for gunning down nine African Americans in a church and photos surfaced of him waving the flag.
That controversy has now hit the music world, with Ted Nugent and conservative rocker Kid Rock teaming up to write a pro-Confederacy song titled "Kiss My Rebel Ass."
It seems even metal isn't immune to the debate, as in an interview with Hard Rock Haven, Philip Anselmo (Down, Superjoint Ritual, Pantera) was asked about the flag appearing on album covers. Excerpts from the chat follow.
HRH: Well I’ve got a question for you that might be an awkward one, but the cover of "Use Once and Destroy" and a lot of Pantera’s merchandise has the Confederate flag on it. What’s your take on all this business…the backlash against the flag?
Philip H. Anselmo: Uh, I think there’s some legitimacy to it man. If it’s something that…you know, I guess…at my age, if there’s a symbol…it’d be like, you know, would we be flying the Nazi flag? I don’t think so because flags are looked at whether it be nationalism or symbols of something, you know? Truthfully you know it’s like…I wish fucking everyone would get along. I wish that more than anything, but we all know as logical human beings that that’s pretty much impossible. You know, everybody’s got different ideas about stuff.
Uh, and I think really where the use of the rebel flag or Confederate flag with us really came from was from our love of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and what not…shit like that, you know. There was never a time when it was okay to promote hate without a little bit of the tongue-in-cheek, you know. It was never this blatant thing unless I was completely out of my mind, which I was at points in time. I’ll own that for damn sure, but that was a long ass time ago.
I’m coming up on 47 years old…and I think that if it’s upsetting enough to people in general, you know, I guess…this is tough to say without taking any side…like I said, I can see where if people see it as a symbol of hate then…these days, I wouldn’t want anything to fucking do with it because truthfully…I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t want much to fucking do with it at all and personally you know I would never…the way I feel and the group of people I’ve had to work with my whole life, you know…you see a Confederate flag out there that says “Heritage, not hate.” I’m not so sure I’m buying into that, you know?
But I can look at any…people can point out flaws in any social group, any ethnic group, any ideology and anything like that and that’s once again because everybody has different ideas about things and at this point in time I just wish everybody would chill the fuck out man and realize, you know, maybe a good dose of love, for lack of a better word, would do us all friggin’ a lot better instead of pulling sides, taking sides. You know everybody wants to have a firm stance on things, but maybe sometimes we should sit back and listen for a change. You know?
HRH: I think that’s solid advice. I was just curious. Preparing for this interview I was listening to the Superjoint records and there it was (the cover) sitting in front of me and I thought, “I wonder what he thinks about that” so…
Philip H. Anselmo: Yeah, well, in hindsight you know what I would have not used it. And the second record, honestly I don’t think I would have even put it out. Truthfully. That’s how I feel right now. Either that or I would have called it something completely different. It’s uh…regrettable, these days.
HRH: Yeah, that’s a good point. I didn’t really consider that…yeah, the title (A Lethal Dose of American Hatred).
Philip H. Anselmo: It’s fucking regrettable, yeah. It’s probably my least favorite of any album I’ve ever done as far as lyrical content, just the idea behind the whole thing because I’ve got a crazy sense of humor and I do do a lot of tongue-in-cheek shit man, but when something reads in black and white, people most of the time are going to read it in black and white. They’re going to take it at face value and I’ll say, that particular record is…it’s a tough one for me to stand behind, that’s all I’ll say, you know? And with that in the same token, that’s probably why the majority of the stuff that we’ll be playing is probably off the first record…not the second one.
Read the full article at Hard Rock Haven.
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6 Comments on "Philip Anselmo Discusses Confederate Flag"
Former Contributor
3. writes:
This is an interesting conundrum sort of unique to the metal community. We'll have album covers of people being torn apart or demonic entities slaughtering worlds without batting an eye, but then issues like this come up where we have to ask ourselves if maybe real-world racism and violence shouldn't be characterized on album covers. Wouldn't the most "metal" thing to do be to say "f*** you" and do what you want, or should we take into consideration that a real person actually murdered nine other human beings specifically because of his racial biases exemplified by this particular flag and decide it's a bridge too far?
4. writes:
#3: indeed it is interesting, and while I'm not doing much of anything else, I'm going to offer my meaningless opinion because that's what I do.
The "demonic entities slaughtering worlds" is escapism, plain and simple. Metal is escapism. We play it to get away from real-world BS, and when that real-world BS seeps back in, it breaks suspension of disbelief. People look up to "elder statesmen" (whatever the f*** that's supposed to mean) like Anselmo and Blythe because they're experts at reconciling the two worlds, something the rest of us don't always have a ton of experience with.
So the "metal thing to do" is ignore the "metal thing to do", pretend we're not metalheads, and deal with these issues on their own terms, regardless of what side we end up taking. But that's just my rambling, half-formed opinion (no sarcasm).
5. writes:
The irony in all this I suppose, is the bloody origins of black metal which suspended the disbelieif of disbelief.
Varg is still a perfect example. I don't think anyone with any intellctual honesty to argue the he's coming from a stance of something like "aesthetic nihilism" or "aesthetic fascism".
One of the funniest moments of metal I ever saw, was on the old MTV show "Superrock". Jackie Farry was interviewing Slayer in a diner in New Jersey. She asked Tom about all the devil imagery and "Satanic" stuff. The first words out of his mouth when she held the mic up to his face were, "Well, I'm Catholic so..."
Americans seem to have a disastrously difficult time separating art from life. Perhaps all those budget cuts to art and music departments weren't such a great idea after all.
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1. Plankton Detonator writes:
Anybody with some old issue of Pit magazine might have the one where Phil talks about his own struggles with racism. In the interview he talks about driving a hearse, and that somehow (because of a sticker on the hearse or something) an old black woman takes him to task about adding more love to the world instead of more hate. He describes this as a turning point in his thinking. I wish I still had my Pit collection, I'd find it. It was a great interview.