Anselmo promises 'upbeat' pantera book

Phil Anselmo has promised fans can expect the book he is working on to be an upbeat portrayal of the Pantera story .

The singer says his work, tentatively titled Mouth For War: Pantera And Beyond, will focus on the many happy memories from the band’s heyday rather than paint a bleak picture similar to former bandmate Rex Brown’s version of events in Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera.

Anselmo – who will reunite with Superjoint Ritual at his Housecore Horror festival this weekend – tells Talking Metal: “I have definitely postponed this book thing for quite a while. And, really, it’s a tough process to do and it really takes a lot of heads-down work to do this, and I’ve been incredibly busy with my first love in my life, which is music.

“I’m not a book writer, I’m a songwriter, I’m a live performer, and that’s what I love and that’s what I’ve been doing. But having said that, I think I’ll eventually get around to doing it and writing it.

“I think my biggest aim is to be more upbeat about things than perhaps Rex’s came across, because there was a lot more good than there was bad, up to a certain point. I’ve said this a million times, but there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Dimebag in one fashion or another, and I don’t think anything gets lower than that.”

Phil also recently discussed how close Kerry King once came to joining the band. The book is expected next year via Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books.