In a recent chat with Nikki Blakk of San Mateo’s 107.7 The Bone, Kerry King said he didn’t hire Phil Anselmo because his singing wasn’t good enough.
“There’s too much fast stuff going on. He’s gotten slower over the years,” the guitarist said of Anselmo. “All the Down stuff, super slow. He’s been in 1000 other bands too. But, you know, business-wise, all the suits wanted it to happen.”
He then explained, “My manager, my record company, my booking agent, everyone, because, immediately, you’re doing arenas. And at the end of the day, the Pantera thing came up, and I just said, ‘Well, whatever. Go do that.’”
King also talked about hiring Anselmo in a February interview with Rolling Stone, saying, “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil. Phil’s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.”
The musician added, “I had to do due diligence because, at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play Pantera, we could play Slayer, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the Pantera thing came up.”
“But talking to [Phil] about it, I know this is too thrashy a project for him,” King revealed in another conversation with Eddie Trunk in May. “I’m not saying he can’t do it; I’m saying I don’t think he wanted to do it. But we did a little bit of legwork on it, and especially once [the] Pantera [reunion] came up, that just blew it out of the water.”
King’s next show with his solo band is on November 6 in Ciudad de México, Mexico. After playing one more gig in Mexico, they will perform three concerts in Australia in December.