Vocalist Phil Anselmo (DOWN, ex-PANTERA) is featured in a new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. An excerpt is available below.

UG: In bands like ARSON ANTHEM and I believe in CHRIST INVERSION, and maybe some of your other side projects, you were playing guitar and not singing. Do you dig the guitar playing side of things as much as you do being the frontman?

Anselmo: "Well, man, I love playing guitar; I’ve always played guitar. I’ve written Pantera riffs; I write a real good amount of the Down riffs on every record. People would jam with me for years like Jimmy Bower from Down, EYEHATEGOD, CLEARLIGHT and god knows how many other bands he’s in, and he can tell ya that I’ve got my own style and I do. I’ve got my own approach to playing guitar and the other thing is all of my side bands, I can proudly say none of ‘em sound alike. Not a damn one of ‘em sound alike. They all are very unique within themselves and why not? Because music is very vast and I am just an explorer, man. Why imitate something you’ve already done? With that fact known, within all these different styles of music I play, my guitar style stands out, man. You have to listen close to anything I play guitar on."

UG: You said that you write riffs for Down on guitar but do you actually play guitar on record?

Anselmo: "You mentioned 'Pray For The Locust'; I played that, man. That’s me on the record."

UG: You’re playing those acoustic guitars?

Anselmo: "F-ck, yeah."

UG: That’s really some wonderful guitar playing.

Anselmo: "Thank you. Like on 'Jail', I play the mandolin. I love playing guitar and as a matter of fact I’m writing some new stuff right now. Where it’s just me and a drummer and I’m havin’ fun with it, man, and it’s aggressive; it’s extreme and that’s all I can say about it right now because it’s a work in progress. But it’s f-ckin’ deadly."

UG: You never played any guitar in Pantera?

Anselmo: "I didn’t play guitar in Pantera but I’d say, 'Hey, Dime, listen to this. I wrote this.' And I wrote 'Mouth For War'."

UG: So you actually traded riffs and stuff with Dime?

Anselmo: "The thing about Dimebag is he would grab the guitar, I’d show him somethin’ but by the time he grabbed it, he just had this grip on the guitar that was f-ckin’ inhuman. I can’t explain it; just not human. I sounded very mortal. Believe me, the riff [for] the 'Mouth For War' as you know it sounded very, very mortal compared to what it is now. Yeah, man, that’s how that would work."

Click here for the complete in-depth interview.