Former Pantera frontman Phil reveals his conversation with the hero policeman who ended madman’s killing rampage after four lay dead
Phil Anselmo

Difficult question: Phil Anselmo

Former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo recently revealed he’d spoken to the cop who stopped the shooting rampage which ended Dimebag’s life.

And he said any member of Pantera would have been a target for the ex-Marine who opened fire on Dime and three others at a Damageplan concert in 2004.

Ohio police officer James Niggemeyer shot the madman in the face, killing him instantly and ending the horror.

Dimebag’s brother and bandmate Vinnie Paul, who was also a member of Damageplan after Pantera split, has not spoken to Anselmo since. The tragedy appears to have cemented the distance between them.

The singer wasn’t allowed to attend his former colleague’s funeral – but he’s spoken of the conversation he had later with Niggemeyer.

Anselmo told High Times: “I asked him the hard question. I said, ‘Tell me, did he purposely shoot just Dimebag?’

“And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I kind of choked up. And I thought for sure I knew what was going to come out of his mouth when I said, ‘Why? Why did he shoot Dimebag?’

“He said they went back to his apartment, this murdering motherfucker, and he had notebook after notebook – stacked notebooks – with writing how he was going to kill Pantera for ripping off his songs.

“Kill Pantera. Pantera. Not once did any of it name any of us specifically. If it did it was all four of us, but it was rare.

“And so I said to this cop, ‘So, then, what you mean is, had it been me playing with Superjoint Ritual or Down that night, this motherfucker would have come after me?’

“And he just said, ‘Absolutely.’ As a matter of fact, he was crying and all he could do was nod his head, ‘Yes’.

“And this poor bastard is scarred as well. Very scarred. Not many of us ever blow a fucking person’s head off after a mass murder.”

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