Pantera's Phil Anselmo has issued a video apology. for making a Nazi salute and shouting "white power!" during a performance at Dimebash Festival in Hollywood over the weekend.
The formal apology comes after Anselmo's initial denials that his remark, which along with the salute was caught on camera and posted online, was racist.
The salute happened at Dimebash Festival, an annual celebration held in memory of the late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Anselmo had claimed that the salute was an inside joke that came from drinking too much white wine backstage.
Robb Flynn of Machine Head made a video blasting Anselmo, saying it wasn't the first time he had heard Anselmo use racist language, and noted there is rampant racism in factions of the metal scene. He also doubted the truth of the "white wine" story.
“I was there,” Flynn said in the video. “And I could tell you for a fact that there wasn’t a chardonnay or pinot grigio in sight backstage. In fact, the only thing you were drinking, Phil Anselmo, was Becks German beer. Maybe that’s where the joke came from.”
Flynn credits the fan who posted, saying, “Thankfully, you decided to do the right thing. And you put it up, knowing full well that you were going to get the wrath of the metal community. Only in the metal community is something like this so brushed off.”
