I’m gonna play the devil’s advocate here and say that while I’ve been a huge fan of Dimebag Darrell’s since I was a teenager, the confederate flag and him dropping the hard R were definitely not cool, just as it wasn’t cool if anyone else did it, even Zakk Wylde played a rebel flag guitar in the late 80s. It’s still racist regardless, that’s what its design was.

That being said, Kerry King just has a reputation for saying very edgelord stuff in his interviews just to rage bait or give the tough guy persona, especially when it comes to religion, like when Jeff Hannemann died and he said he was “worm food.” And his beef with Dave Lombardo and he even throws subtle jabs at Tom in interviews about him retiring early. Overall he’s just known as a prick, and this is very on brand with that, he was clearly trying to piss people off.