With the PANTERA reunion/tribute concerts kicking off, a lot of what happened negatively in the past between the band’s vocalist Philip H. Anselmo and the two deceased brothers who founded the band together in Arlington, Texas, Vinnie Paul Abbott and Dimebag Darrell Abbott, has now come back to the forefront, igniting a lot of hatred between the lingering PANTERA fanbase which is now divided and at each other’s throats, nearly two decades since Dime’s on-stage murder while performing with he and Vinnie’s new band project titled DAMAGEPLAN. You are either against Phil Anselmo or you are with him. The latter is a much smaller group than the one that is against Anselmo, at least within the state of Texas.

It’s widely known that Vinnie Paul went to his grave hating Phil Anselmo’s guts. He blamed Anselmo for indirectly setting off the madman who went on the shooting spree that killed his brother Darrell on the evening of December 8, 2004.

Vinnie adamantly did not want to ever reunite with Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown, and certainly was not looking to make money off his dead brother’s tragedy, which is what Anselmo and Brown are going to do now anyway, and this is where things get a little more complicated.

There was a notorious magazine interview that is said to have been the moment that potentially set off the gunman, a former United States Marine back in December of 2004, and the article was posted online on the very first day of the month, only one week away from when the tragedy happened. Anselmo spoke out against the Abbott brothers and how they were more to blame for the ugly 2003 breakup of PANTERA than he was, believe it or not.

This is the same man who, during the same exact interview, brings up the idea of violence being used against Darrell.

Now he and Rex “The Full Meal Deal” Brown stand to earn a lot of money with a PANTERA reunion, yet there has not been one mention of any of this money being donated to a charitable cause that was close to Dimebag’s heart.

What can fans expect? More acts of disrespect? Well, you don’t have to look too far back to the 2016 Dimebash event where Anselmo flashed a Hitler worshiping hand gesture and yelled “White Power” to the horrified crowd who was there to celebrate the memory of the slain Dimebag Darrell.

***UPDATED 9/19/2023: Pantera’s tribute lineup has been accused of using backing tracks, including for main instrumentation (including guitar, drums and vocals.)

Estaria o guitarrista Zakk Wylde usando faixas pré-gravadas em show do tributo ao Pantera? https://t.co/zHn7kuKCIW https://t.co/CijcXm5Uru pic.twitter.com/vl2TWCgBYk
— Whiplash.Net (@Whiplash_Net) May 8, 2023

Here are some excerpts from the 2004 Metal Hammer interview:

ANSELMO: “When you see a group of guys that are not hungry any more… Honestly, between me and the world now, in my heart of hearts I believe it hurt them more not to receive the money that they were going to get — that we were all going to get — for putting out that record, than me leaving the band. They always feared me. They always were different than me. They always had their circle of friends and I had my circle of friends. Their jealousy level was incredible! Y’know, anyone that was close to me outside the band would be treated like fucking serfs or servants by the Abbott brothers. And y’know, that never… that never… never worked very well for me.”

Is Anselmo talking about the group of skinheads that would show up to late 80s PANTERA gigs and in the parking lots before and after the concerts would beat up anyone who looked differently? This is eyewitness testimony given to me by a fan who attended these early PANTERA shows at small venues in Fort Worth like Joe’s Garage.

The Kid shows his true allegiance, and it’s not a Hallmark movie moment!

“Skinheads would show up and kick the shit out of random concert goers, mostly targeting the friends of the Abbott’s, confessed the source. “The skinheads were there because of Anselmo.”

Anselmo’s vicious rant toward the Abbott brothers continues:

ANSELMO: “Everything has its turn, and when it was SUPERJOINT RITUAL‘s turn, I felt at the time that PANTERA had done its greatest tour we’d ever done, which was with SLAYER and MORBID ANGEL in the United States. We were in Ireland when the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place in New York. We were stuck there for seven or eight days and the tour was called off because of the turbulence. After that it seemed there was a great… distancing. I think, more or less, it lies between Dimebag and I. There was never a point when he could not get drunk. Which was pretty much every day. And now I’m hearing it’s worse than ever. He would attack me, vocally. And just knowing that he was so much smaller than me I could kill him like a fuckin’ piece of vapor, you know, he would turn into vapor — his chin would, at least, if I fuckin’ smacked it. And he knows that. The world should know that. So physically, of course, he deserves to be beaten severely.”

In a shocking 2016 interview Anselmo did with me at my site TheMetalDen.com, it was clear that Anselmo had intentions all along to orchestrate a ‘cash grab’ with a future PANTERA reunion event, when I spoke to him about the idea of doing such a thing, he responded by saying: “It would be good money!”

https://www.facebook.com/philipanselmo

Read Rocket’s acclaimed #TruthForDimebag report:

DIMEBAG DARRELL – MK Ultra Hitz: Part 1

Did Phil Anselmo’s threats toward Dimebag influence the gunman who went on the shooting spree that night at the Alrosa Villa club?

Or was Anselmo actually in on the U.S. government sanctioned celebrity assassination that intended to eliminate both Abbott brothers at the same time?

World famous rock journalist and renowned true crime investigator Randy “Rocket” Cody dives deeper into the occult connections that will shock fans to the core. Read “Dimebag Darrell MK Ultra Hitz”!!!