Before playing a raging PANTERA set at this weekend's Graspop Metal Meeting festival in Dessel, Belgium, Philip Anselmo dropped by the Graspop studio to face "The Wheel Of Death" with Goe Vur In Den Otto. Check out the results below. PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS kicked off their European tour at Graspop on Thursday, June 20. The run includes performances at Hellfest in France, Dynamo in the Netherlands, Roskilde in Denmark, as well as club shows in Germany, United Kingdom, Austria and more. PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS — now featuring Anselmo with guitarists Stephen Taylor (SUPERJOINT) and Mike DeLeon (FLESH HORDER, BEING KILLED), drummer José Manuel "Blue" Gonzalez (SUPERJOINT, WARBEAST) and newest recruit Derek Engemann (SCOUR, ex-CATTLE DECAPITATION) — released the critically acclaimed "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" full-length last year via Anselmo's own Housecore Records. The disc was the follow-up to PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS' debut, "Walk Through Exits Only", which came out in 2013 to mostly positive reviews. Speaking about the lyrical themes covered on "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue", Anselmo told Desde El Underground TV: "I take [mental illness] really seriously. I mean, look no further than what happened to my guitar player from PANTERA for me to be very, very concerned with mental illness. So I would say for people to talk to each other, love each other and put love first. And if you put love first, things normally work out. It can't happen every time, but, hey, man… You've gotta stay tight." Anselmo went on to say that he is not immune to the effects of mental illness. "I guess being injured — my entire career being plagued with injuries — it ends up fucking with the brain a little bit," he explained. "And there's so many different levels to it. Sometimes you can just wake up and it's [snaps fingers] like that. Sometimes it'll take a small thing to put you over and you're in a dark place. But, for me, I think, with the band I have, the good guys I have and the love that they show me, back and forth, the friendship that we have, it helps a great deal. Plus writing the music and getting to perform the stuff, it helps a lot with coping, man, and just dealing with stuff." He added: "I always say, as a person, just like everybody else… Human beings are one step away from disaster, no matter what, so it's kind of up to the rest of us to watch each other's backs, help each other up when we're down and just make sure we don't take that one step too far."
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