Philip Anselmo says that DOWN has a future despite the the fact that the band was forced to cancel a number of shows earlier in the year after he was filmed giving a Nazi salute and shouting "white power" at a California concert. During a question-and-answer session on June 26 at the Diamond Pub Concert Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, Anselmo said about DOWN's current status: "I think between myself, [bassist] Patrick Bruders and one James Bower [drums] from EYEHATEGOD… We haven't seen much of Pepper [Keenan, DOWN guitarist], because he's obviously been busy with C.O.C. That's the freedom that rock and roll brings. So, yeah, we're all kind of doing our own things, but we always come back together because BLACK SABBATH, TROUBLE and SAINT VITUS bring us back together, and that's where we started from, you know what I'm saying?" You can check out an audio recording of some of the Anselmo question-and-answer session in Louisville by listening to the "Talk Toomey" podcast at this location. 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." The singer apologized for the incident and wrote an open letter to the organizer of the French festival Hellfest in which he said it was not the right time for DOWN to tour. He also revealed that he was suffering from a recurring knee injury and needed rehabilitation. Besides Hellfest, DOWN was scheduled to play at the Download festival in the U.K. The band was dropped from the bill by Dutch festival FortaRock in February. Keenan offered his take on what transpired, telling Metal Wani DOWN was "far from done" after the controversial incident. "You know, DOWN didn't do anything wrong," he said. "I mean, we were just guilty by association on that one. That was Phil's mistake. I've spoken to Phil and told him to get his shit together, and he is. He knows he made a mistake and was being stupid." He continued: "I've known the guy [most of my life]. He's not what that whole thing framed him to be at all. But, yeah, there's definitely a future for DOWN. I wouldn't throw all the shit we've done, beautiful music we've done on one stupid moment that was caught on camera, and he apologized for. [So we are] far from done." DOWN currently has just one live date on its schedule: August 26 at the Psycho Las Vegas festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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