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Rock singer Anselmo at Pantera's performance in December: Regrets his behavior "sincerely and deeply"
Photo: IMAGO/Yuri Murakami / IMAGO/Fotoarena
In addition to the Kings of Leon and Tenacious D., the headliners of the »Rock im Park« festival in Nuremberg on Friday, June 2 include the Berlin hip-hop group KIZ, which has often opposed racist and neo-fascist tendencies reported word.
On the other hand, earlier on Friday evening, the metal band Pantera is scheduled to perform at the festival, which is taking place in the dozen pond people's park near the former Nazi party rally grounds.
Their singer Phil Anselmo caused a scandal in 2016 when he showed the Hitler salute on stage at the "Dimebash" festival in honor of the shot Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and called out the slogan "White Power".
A video of the performance made the rounds on YouTube and brought allegations of racism against Anselmo.
He initially defended himself by saying that a lot of white wine was drunk backstage.
But he later apologized.
It hurt him "that people took my behavior at face value," he told Metal Hammer in 2018.
And about »Kerrang« 2019: »I'm a harmless guy.
I'm reactionary, but I don't cause trouble."
Still, the Nazi salute scandal continued to haunt Phil Anselmo.
After the right-wing extremist attack in Christchurch in 2019, two planned concerts of his solo project in the New Zealand metropolis were canceled.
And now the scandal is threatening to overshadow the comeback of the band Pantera, which has been officially dissolved since 2003.
Excuses »playing it down«
Frontman Phil Anselmo "did often and deliberately show Nazi symbols and yelled racist slogans," criticized the Greens faction in the Nuremberg city council in a press release on Monday.
»We consider his later excuses for his behavior to be trivializing and therefore all the more problematic.«
The parliamentary group called on the organizers of "Rock im Park" to "reconsider the invitation to Pantera and to uninvite the metal band." The former Nazi party premises are "deliberately misused for the staging and reproduction of racist and inhuman ideology," explained Réka Lörincz, spokeswoman against racism and right-wing extremism for the City Council Greens.
The organizer of the festival, Argo Konzerte GmbH from Würzburg, has now spoken up via Instagram.
The festival stands "for diversity, tolerance, equality and against any form of discrimination," it said next to a pictogram on which a swastika was thrown in the garbage.
Knowing about the event of 2016, a conversation with Pantera's management was sought early on, credible assurances were given "that Phil Anselmo's behavior in 2016 in no way reflects the views of the band and that he sincerely and deeply regrets his appearance." Phil Anselmo said publicly apologized several times for his behavior and statements.
"We then decided to give the band Pantera a chance," it continues.
They want »to fulfill the dream of countless rock fans, to experience Pantera’s work live once more«.
In addition, the organizers point out that a clause is signed in all contracts, according to which »racism, homophobia and any form of discrimination will not be tolerated in any way at our festivals.«
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