Vocalist PHIL ANSELMO (DOWN, ex-PANTERA) is featured in a new interview with Keith Spera at The Times-Picayune. An excerpt is available below:

Spera: You’ve got a book deal to write your autobiography in collaboration with true crime author Corey Mitchell.

Anselmo: "It’s a book about my life. It’s not just strictly a Pantera book, although Pantera was obviously a giant part of my life. It took a whole lot in the New Orleans area and throughout Louisiana, gigging and gigging … a whole lot happened, and had to happen, before I was even able to be in the same room with the great musicians that were in Pantera.

Obviously, after the break-up of the band and the death of Dimebag (Darrell Abbott, the former Pantera guitarist who was shot to death in December 2004), a whole lot has happened. There’s a tremendous story to tell there. I’m going to try to pick out the most humorous things, and the most crushing things. Touch on all of them."

Spera: So you’ll talk about all your back problems and …

Anselmo: "Absolutely. And drugs, and everything. Hopefully it’s educational for people that are going through the same thing. I’m also going to discuss how doctors are only doing half their jobs these days. They don’t explain to the patient the repercussions of certain medicines that they dole out so portentously. I’m going to slam some doctors, but I’m going to be brutally honest about myself.

There’s an upside to everything. It’s 2013. I’m 10 years clean from anything that resembles hard drugs. I haven’t even tasted a sip of whiskey since 2001. Things change in a life. So there’s plenty to tell."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

PHIL ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS released the new album, Walk Through Exits Only, on July 16th via Anselmo's Housecore Records (MRI/Megaforce). Walk Through Exits Only is available digitally, on CD and on vinyl.

Produced by Philip Anselmo and Michael Thompson, and recorded over the past couple of years at his New Orleans studio, Nodferatu's Lair, with his band The Illegals - Marzi Montazeri/guitar, and drummer Jose Manuel "Blue" Gonzales, Walk Through Exits Only is abrasive, aggressive, anthemic and 100% Anselmo. The album's eight songs are as unstrained as it gets, from 'Battalion Of Zero' to 'Usurper's Bastard Rant', to the album's title track that goes against the grain and right through the exits. Brash, brutal guitars cut through punishing percussion as Anselmo screams with uncompromising ferocity and uncontainable fire.

Tracklisting:

'Music Media Is My Whore'

'Battalion Of Zero'

'Betrayed'

'Usurper Bastard's Rant'

'Walk Through Exits Only'

'Bedroom Destroyer'

'Bedridden'

'Irrelevant Walls And Computer Screens'

BraveWords' review of Walk Through Exits Only can be found here.