Philip Anselmo Bandmate Defends Singer
Philip Anselmo caught quite a bit of backlash in 2016 when he made an offensive gesture during the annual Dimebash -- a tribute to his late bandmate Dimebag Darrell -- in video footage that was widely circulated at the time. But Anselmo's drummer Jose Manuel Gonzalez recently spoke about the incident on Jon's Untitled Podcast.
Anselmo claimed he was joking about drinking white wine backstage and was reacting to the audience members up front who he says were taunting him, and the taunting that was going on is something that Gonzalez backs up in his account.
"For me, man, what made me the maddest out of that whole situation was that everybody that wanted to throw around this nasty word about one of my best friends, not one media outlet decided to look at pictures of him jamming with Superjoint," said Gonzalez, who noted that the band is racially diverse. "We have different backgrounds, and what made me the maddest out of the entire ordeal is not one media outlet or publication decided to call me, decided to call [guitarist] Kevin [Bond], decided to call anybody that actually worked with Philip."
Gonzalez continued, "They fucking all got quotes from all these uppity fucking dickheads that call Philip a friend and they just wanted to fucking make it seem like Philip owed something to the rest of the fucking world. I mean, it was just ridiculous."
The drummer says he was aware that there would probably be backlash after Anselmo's reaction to the audience member, but said he will always have his back. The drummer recounted how Anselmo has given him a job and a career where he can look after his family and has helped him grow as a person.
"If you're saying that he is what he is, there is no way a person that is that evil and thinks like that would ever help somebody from another ethnicity feed their children, feed their child, grow, build a family, have a home — all these amazing things," added Gonzalez. "I became a young man with Philip's guidance. I've traveled the world with him, and you're gonna just base your idea and negate everything this man has done over one stupid incident that happened way too far in the night when people that are professionals absolutely know that no rock star needs a microphone in his hand at 2:30 in the morning at a party. I mean, it's just common sense."
He continued, "The video that was posted that went viral, that's why videos go viral — because they are snippets of the best piece of whatever tragic, traumatic, hilarious event that happened. There was a dude that was on his balls, goading him for a good 15, 20 minutes, because, like I said, it was the end of the night and he was drunk and he was rambling anyways, so there was a dude talking shit all the way up until that, but no one sees that, no one brings that up. That was aimed at nobody but one particular dickhead that was being a dickhead, but nobody cares — nobody cares because he's fucking famous."
Hear more of Jose's chat on Jon's Untitled Podcast below.
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