Superjoint Ritual – Interview

one on one with phil anselmo!

In all my years as a journalist, there was one interview that had always eluded me, and forever stayed on the top of my list. Philip Anselmo, lead singer of Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, and a few other projects has been at the center of my musical universe. I was supposed to be talking with him about his most recent musical endeavor, Superjoint Ritual, a punk-metal massacre that includes Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod and Down fame and Hank Williams III among others. I had three days to prepare questions that wouldn’t make me sound like a blathering fan, which I had been for over ten years now. Whether it was during my high school daze of recklessness or through the daze of college and beyond, Phil’s voice has always seemed to connect where so many others hadn’t. Sometimes it was for the sheer brutality of his delivery and other times his lyrics dug deep into places that I thought I only felt. No matter what, his lifestyle, his image, and everything he has stood for in the metal community has made him one of the more important figures in my years becoming a man.

The date of this interview just happened to be 4/20, which I had planned on bringing up in the conversation until about five minutes before it actually happened. It was at that moment that I had discovered that Alice in Chains frontman, and another personal hero, Layne Staley had been found dead in his apartment of an apparent heroin overdose. I knew Phil was a friend of his, and for those unaware, Phil himself overdosed in 1996 and was dead for five minutes before paramedics arrived and brought him back to our world. My entire thought process was thrown upsidedown, as my approach to the biggest interview of my life was completely fried. I didn’t want to be the bearer of such depressing news, nor did I want to ignore the topic, so my anxiety levels went through the roof in the coming minutes. Here is how it all unfolded through my jitters and sadness, quite possibly one of the most emotional days in my lifetime of being a fan of music and all that it entrenches.

Rick: So what’s up man? How is life treatin’ ya in the big easy?

Phil: I’m kinda tripping out on my main man, Layne Staley. That’s some seriously fucked up shit.

Rick: I know, I just heard about five minutes ago.

Phil: Same here bro, the guy before you just came out and told me and I’ve been just fucking thinking ever since. I’ve known the man since 1990.

Rick: I’m sorry to hear about it man. Had you spoken to him recently?

Phil: Not really, but fuck man, in this community, you stay brothers forever man. That’s some hard shit to take. You’d think that after all that he’d been through he’d have found the magic of methadone. It saved my fucking life man; I just wished it could’ve saved his.

Rick: I agree. It’s another blow to our community.

Phil: It fucking blows period man.

Rick: Well if you’re not really down with this interview right now, we can reschedule.

Phil: No man, no it’s cool bro. I’m just a little out of it now.

Rick: That’s cool man, I won’t dig in. So are you stoked about the Superjoint Ritual album finally coming out?

Phil: Hell yeah man. It’s been sitting there a while.

Rick: Why did you decide to release it on Sanctuary Records as opposed to your own label?

Phil: They gave us the best deal by far. I was going to put it out on Housecore, but I have to deal with several other guys in the band, so majority rules.

Rick: I’ve had the Superjoint demo for about five years now. Some of those tracks are on this album. How much of it is old, and when did you record it?

Phil: We did it about two years ago.

Rick: How important is it for you to be able to still do this kind of thing without it bogging down the rest of your musical projects?

Phil: It’s fucking real important man. Superjoint has been around since 1993, and the mere fact that we have the opportunity to release something is just fucking cool. We waited this long, we know people want to hear it, and we just want to be able to say we put something out. So there isn’t this fucking little buzz all the time about this unknown shit that we never did, but it’s out there somewhere. Now people can say they went and bought the fucker and it was worth the fucking wait.

Rick: Are you planning a tour with Superjoint Ritual?

Phil: Actually, we’re planning on touring in June, after the Down club tour, and before Ozzfest starts.

Rick: Lyrically, how is Superjoint different from Pantera and Down?

Phil: It’s definitely more depraved, more abstract, more depression.

Rick: Is there an intensity performing with SJR that you don’t get anywhere else?

Phil: Oh yeah, it’s all about the guys that you have onstage with you. But it’s kind of hard to take the Phil Anselmo out of the Phil Anselmo, so you get what you get. It all comes from the inside; it just looks a little different coming out sometimes.

Rick: How did you hook up with Hank (Williams) III?

Phil: I’ve known Hank since he was just a little boy. He was doing this Helmet sounding band back then and Joe from SJR started playing with him. Joe knew Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and they somehow crossed paths. They started jamming and Joe commented to me and said why doesn’t Hank play bass and I said ‘Can he play?’ and sure enough man, the boy fit right in with us.

Rick: Right on. Now Kevin Bond is playing your guitar parts when you’re on tour. Did you actually record them, and did you sing and play at the same time?

Phil: All those parts are mine, but I could never do them both in a live setting. The material is way too violent to just stand in one place and try to do it all.

Rick: You might hurt yourself.

Phil: And we all know that can’t happen.

Rick: Right. So the new Down album has been out a month now and has had quite an impact on the whole music scene. Were you expecting this much out of it?

Phil: I don’t ever set any expectations. I just let shit happen. I’m just pretty pleased.

Rick: Was the Ozzfest thing something you had wanted to happen before the whole Rage Against the Machine blunder?

Phil: Not really, I think Ozzfest was counting on them, and when it fell apart they just came knocking.

Rick: Would you have rather had a slot on main stage, or is the second stage somewhere you’d like to try out?

Phil: I don’t care either way, but I’ve never done the small stage there, so that’ll be new.

Rick: It’ll be fun. Is there anyone opening for Down on the upcoming tour?

Phil: Nope, just you guys and us, and a little video beforehand to keep you all occupied while we’re partying. We edited together some sick ass footage from us recording mixed in with about 30 minutes of classic shit that I’m sure all of you will love. We had fun doing this shit, so we want everyone to have a good fucking time while they’re waiting for us to take the stage.

Rick: All right, we’ll looking forward to seeing it all. Anything you want to add or say to your fans?

Phil: Hail Satan!

Rick: Hell yeah. Well thanks for your time, I hope everything goes well with the Layne situation, and good luck with everything.

Phil: I appreciate it big brother, keep it real man.

+ rick hinkson