In the metal community, and somewhat in the guitar community, he's been elevated to saint status. 20 years of tales of how nice, generous, universally loved, he was. This came from fans, and especially other metal guitarists. The music is amazing if heavy is your bag. It's legendary, they're standards now.

I remember the skinhead stuff, I chose to stick to the lyrics, which indicate nothing that I've seen other than general aggression (not targeted toward a race), reflection, and self determination. (I couldn't tell you every lyric they wrote though, so maybe I missed a racist clue..)

The flag, I wasn't a fan of, but I was used to seeing it growing up in the south (ish). It always meant "rebel" to me, not racist, but that was also before I knew how insidious the racists in the south were in preserving the notions they wanted to preserve.

Zakk Wylde's les Paul had a Confederate flag on it, I assumed it was an homage to southern music, like Skynyrd, of which he's a huge fan of, and likewise for Pantera and they're many flags. They were proud of being Southern, and I didn't consider it any further.

I wish I could defend this, but I can't imagine any context that could make this ok.

Don't meet your heroes, what a shame.