Rick DeJesus of Las Vegas-based hard rockers ADELITAS WAY has weighed in on last month's incident when ex-PANTERA singer Philip Anselmo made a "white power" gesture onstage at a concert. Anselmo performed the PANTERA classic "Walk" at the January 22 "Dimebash" event at the Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood, California in honor of his former bandmate, 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 he later claimed he was referring to drinking white wine as part of an "inside joke." Anselmo has since released a video message, saying that he "deserves completely" the "heat" that he has been getting over his actions and claiming to be "a thousand percent apologetic to anyone that took offense to what [he] said." Several notable musicians have come out and criticized Anselmo for his actions, including MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn, who uploaded an eleven-minute video response to the incident in which he called Anselmo a "big bully" and described Philip's behavior as "fucking wrong." Now the ADELITAS WAY frontman has offered his two cents on the topic, telling Sofa King Cool in a new interview (see video below): "My honest opinion is Phil has never been the same after everything PANTERA has endured, and I think he probably battles a lot of demons through that, and I think sometimes he… He tries to… I don't think what he meant was personal. I mean, I think he probably feels that way, really, he probably does feel that way, and he probably tried to get a legion of people that feel that way with him through those words. But we're in a different… I mean, I don't wanna say 'different time'; it's not proper to say it anytime. But you've gotta keep that shit to yourself. If you feel that way, just keep that shit to yourself. That's not an opinion-based thing to say. You know what I mean? I think people are people, and you've gotta treat each person, each interaction, to judge each person. You can't just make a statement like that; it's not true. I get it, though. He probably feels that way."
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