PHILIP ANSELMO’s SCOUR Bandmate DEREK ENGEMANN Defends Singer Over 2016 ‘Dimebash’ Incident: ‘I Know He Feels Terrible About It’

Philip Anselmo’s SCOUR and PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS bandmate Derek Engemann has defended the singer over the controversy surrounding his actions at a California concert more than nine years ago.Anselmo performed the PANTERA classic “Walk” at the January 2016 “Dimebash” event at the Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood in honor of late PANTERA guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. As he left the stage, he made a Nazi-style salute. He appeared to say “white power” as he made the gesture, but later claimed he was joking about drinking white wine backstage and was reacting to the audience members up front who he says were taunting him.In a new interview with the John The Ninja podcast, Engemann addressed the incident, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  ”Yeah, that was an unfortunate event, to say the least. [SCOUR’s] John Jarvis and I were actually there at the ‘Dimebash’ that night. We were backstage hanging out and drinking. There was a lot of drinking involved. It is what it was back then. But a lot of people don’t really realize what happened.”So, they jammed all night for Dime, bringing out supergroups of [different] people. Rex [Brown, PANTERA bassist] was there; all kinds of people were there. And Phil came out at the end for three songs. I think they did [a cover of a] MOTÖRHEAD [song], they did [PANTERA’s] ‘A New Level’, I think, and something else. The second [Phil] came out on stage, there was a group of these three guys that were just — they were just heckling him from the second he walked out on stage, like, You racist. You fucking racist,’ blah, blah, blah. And everyone’s, like, ‘Yo, shut the fuck up. We’re trying to enjoy PANTERA. This is for Dime. This isn’t about your bullshit.’ And they just kept on heckling him the entire time he was out. And at the end, he just lost it. And he was a little drunk and he did the most offensive thing he could to those people. And they were there with their camera. It wasn’t like he had pure hate in his heart, and he’s, like, ‘This is what I’m gonna say tonight. I’m gonna make a statement.’ It was, like, these motherfuckers were heckling him all night long, and he just threw gas on the fire. And it was super unfortunate. I know he feels terrible about it. [It was] probably a little embarrassing, I’m sure.”Engemann went on to say that the negative publicity surrounding Anselmo’s actions nearly derailed SCOUR’s launch. “We weren’t sure if SCOUR was gonna happen, ’cause we had the stuff ready to go, and we had every record label wanting to put it out at that time,” he explained. “We almost had our pick. And then that happened, and we didn’t have our pick anymore. So the album got delayed by, like, six, eight months. And then I wanna say it was the first thing that was released by Phil after that incident. So it was kind of, like, ‘How much slack are we gonna be taking for this?’ ‘Cause black metal has a history of some not nice people involved, and it was kind of a toss-up. But we were, like, ‘You know what? The music’s good. We’re just gonna go with it.’ We put it out.”Circling back to Anselmo’s controversial gesture, Derek added: “It’s not the best part of history, but Phil’s owned it. He’s apologized. That’s not who he is. I’ve toured with him around the world with THE ILLEGALS, SCOUR shows, PANTERA stuff. It’s just not who is. Even our most recent videos were shot by Malcolm Pugh, who’s half black. That’s my dawg. We go back 20 years too. We used to live together and whatnot. But he said people kept asking him, like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you’re working with [Phil] after that.’ And he’s like, man, ‘Phil’s been nothing but gracious to me, backstage, at his home.’ He’s, like, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about.'”So, I don’t know. I don’t know how else to say it, but it’s, like, that’s not who [Phil] is,” Engemann concluded. “It was a bad moment.”Back in May 2019, Anselmo was asked by U.K.’s Kerrang! magazine if he felt the “Dimebash” debate was something he had moved past. Anselmo responded: “I feel like it’s ridiculous. I made an off-color joke and ‘Boom!’ — it’s like I’m literally Hitler! I’m not. I take each individual one at a time, in the way that any logical individual will. I have love in my heart. Over the years, I’ve learned to take the first step with love and to put good faith first. I get along with everybody. If there’s any doubt about my political leanings, people should get it out of their heads. I was raised amongst a dazzling [cast of characters] from the theater, from the mental hospital, from all walks of life — all colors, creeds and kinds. It’s absurd to me that anyone in this day and age would judge anyone by the color of their skin, their heritage or their religion. I’m a harmless guy. I’m a reactionary, not a troublemaker.”In the days following the “Dimebash” incident, MACHINE HEAD’s Robb Flynn — who played PANTERA songs with Anselmo at the event — released an eleven-minute response video in which he denounced Anselmo as a “big bully” and a racist. He concluded by saying that he would never play another PANTERA song again. ANTHRAX’s Scott Ian, who is Jewish, released a statement on his official web site saying, “Philip’s actions were vile” and invited Anselmo to make a donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.Former PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who hadn’t spoken to Anselmo since the band’s split in 2003, was dismissive when asked for a comment on the singer’s white-power salute. “I can’t speak for him,” Vinnie said in a 2016 interview. “He’s done a lot of things that tarnish the image of what PANTERA was back then and what it stood for and what it was all about. And it’s sad.”In 2017, Anselmo blasted “false journalism in the metal community” for suggesting he was racist because of his actions at “Dimebash”.In a November 2016 interview with Clrvynt, Anselmo denied being racist and explained that his actions at Dimebash were him “being crude and lewd and showing an extension of a joke from backstage.””First and foremost, I’ll take that one. I’ll own it,” he said. “I did something extremely stupid that I know was absolutely stupid. If anyone in this world believes that I go through life judging anyone — no matter what color, size, shape, sexual preference — they are sadly, sadly mistaken. I might have gone and been successful in my life at what I do, but I still to this day don’t think that I could walk five minutes in someone else’s shoes. Just like I don’t think they could deal with the pressure I have on me as the person that I am and all the crap I deal with every day, so it goes both ways, man. I am no rustic fool, despite what I might get sometimes get into on a stage. That part of my personality is like pro wrestling or something. It’s part of me — I don’t know where that came from. But ‘racist’ is a very strong word. Truth be told, I have more love in me for everybody than I do [loathing]. If you don’t [believe me], look at my track record and you’ll see a lot of love there, I do believe. If you see the loathe part — well, maybe that’s my expression as an angry vocalist. Still, that doesn’t equate to someone that hates someone else for their fucking skin color. That is absurd.”I was raised in the French Quarter,” he continued. “My earliest memories are of living in the French Quarter, raised by women, with theater folk in and out of the house. If you’ve never been to the French Quarter, you would have to know that it is one of the most diverse, character-driven, all-walks-of-life type of place. If I really and truly upset people that I work with, or that really took offense to what I did that particular night, that hurts my heart. I wish everybody nothing but everything they could ever possibly dream of to come true in their damn lives.”I want people to understand that I have nothing but love in my heart,” Anselmo added. “The whole Dimebash thing was me being crude and lewd and showing an extension of a joke from backstage. I made myself out to be the ugly face of it all. I did that. I accomplished it, and now I’m, like, ‘Fuck, why?’ Really, I should have just walked away from the situation. It is what it is, but hopefully the truth comes out in the wash, and I love everybody. I do. The sad truth of it all [is] I love everybody, almost to a fault.”[embedded content][embedded content]