Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (51 page)

VINNIE PAUL:
Phil likes to blame the heavy metal media for breaking up Pantera. I’ve never felt betrayed by the media in any interview I’ve done. They’ve printed what I’ve said word for word, verbatim, and I never felt like they were out to get me. He did his interviews, he said what he said, and all they did is write what he said. If he really wants to place any blame, he needs to look in a mirror.

RITA HANEY:
When I saw Phil at the Download [Festival in London years after Dime’s murder], I looked in his eyes and I asked him, “Why?” It was the first and only time that he didn’t make an excuse. He looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t have an excuse. I’m a junkie. I was an idiot.” He didn’t say, “Oh, my back hurts [so I took drugs that made me say stupid shit]” or anything else.

PHIL ANSELMO:
What made me finally quit drugs was a good friend of mine overdosing right in front of my eyes. Right next to me. Time stopped. We were in a speeding truck in the middle of fucking nowhere, heading to nowhere. There was no motherfucking hospital. Just a dude next to me who I’ve known for fifteen years whose heart had stopped. I fucking freaked. I pulled this dude’s beard, slapped his fucking face, grabbed ice from the ice chest and put it down his pants, punched him in the balls. Nothing. I said, “No way! No fucking way!” and I reared back and I punched this motherfucker in the chest as hard as I could and his eyes opened. His pupils were like the actor Marty Feldman’s, completely fish-eyed apart. I punched him again in his chest and his eyes came together and he was back. Shortly after, I met Kate [Richardson], my lady, and that’s another hard one to explain, because the first time I met her I fell in love with her. It fucking got me. The rules were laid. “You want me as a partner, no drugs allowed. I’m not gonna share you with that fucking church of hypodermic.” So I made that choice.

VINNIE PAUL:
My life has been one gigantic comic book, and on the other hand it’s been one gigantic book of laurels and amazing accomplishments, and on the other hand it’s been a book full of horror stories. It’s a big book.

PHOTO SECTION

Ozzy Osbourne performs with Black Sabbath in Detroit, 1972.
Photograph by Robert Matheu.

Iggy Pop on a “Search and Destroy” mission in 1973.
Photograph by Robert Matheu.

Rob Zombie demonstrates his firm grasp on the music of Alice Cooper.
Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

MC5 kicks out the jams.
Photograph by Robert Matheu.

Jimmy Page bowing with the mighty Zeppelin.
Photograph by Robert Matheu.

Alice Cooper makeup: the eyes have it.
Photograph by Kyler Clark.

KISS’s Gene Simmons shows off his licks.
Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

Klassic KISS.
Photograph by Stephanie Cabral.

Judas Priest performs 1980’s British Steel in its entirety on a thirtieth-anniversary reunion tour at Jones Beach, New York.
Photograph by Jon Wiederhorn.

Judas Priest, hell-bent for leather.
Photograph courtesy of Jayne Andrews.

Neither Priest’s then-closeted Rob Halford nor ex-Penthouse Pet Cheryl Rixon was aroused during the taking of this photo.
Photograph by Steve Joester.