EVEN MORE ANTHRAX DRAMA
Some of you may already be sick of all this Anthrax nonsense, but I am not. In fact, it is entirely possible that I am enjoying even more than I am enjoying the Fear Factory drama. Probably because I actually care about Anthrax.
So. Reader Aleksander Sobecki sent us a link to this inteview with Scott Ian from Metal Hammer. I’m going to do very little editing to the actual text because it’s all pretty fun to read. I will, however, include my analysis after each chunk of text.
And away we go…
SCOTT IAN ON THE DEPARTURE OF DAN NELSON
“We stand by every word in our official statement. Because all we’ve done is make public exactly what Dan told us. He certainly was not fired – he quit the band, and we accepted his resignation. As for those comments about being fit to go on the road, and that we pulled the tour for other reasons…since Charlie (Benante, drums) join us in 1983, we’ve only ever cancelled one gig. That was in Düsseldorf in 1987, when Charlie was running a really high fever, and we had to send him to London for treatment. When we didn’t make it onto the plane to go to Sweden recently, to start our European run of dates, it went against every molecule in my body, and the same goes for the rest of the band.
“As a band, we learnt a long time ago that in these situations, it’s always best to tell the truth, If you lie, then it comes back to bite you in the ass. That’s why we were careful at every step to put things exactly the way Dan had told them to us. Why has he changed his story now? I can only assume it’s to save his own skin, and to avoid being seen as the bad guy. I can’t say that I blame him. But we have absolutely been completely truthful…
“…things were weird between Dan and us from December. I’d love to say a lot more, and I will as soon as I’m able, but right now, I just cannot go into any further detail.”
ANALYSIS: Well, someone is lying here. They can’t both be telling the truth. And, clearly, neither side is going to admit to being “the bad guy,” as Ian puts it. Not really knowing either party, I don’t feel like I can make a snap judgement. It’s easy to say that Ian is a dick – hell, I said it yesterday – but for all I know, Nelson is at fault. I’ll be curious to see if anyone gets the actual down-low on what happened.
SCOTT IAN ON THE RETURN OF JOHN BUSH
“[John] was the first guy we called when the whole thing went down with Dan. And all of us are delighted that he can do this gig – it’ll be great fun. Obviously, our set will be different to the one we’d worked out with Dan. It’ll be more oriented towards the Bush era, although still concentrating on our most popular songs. That’s what a festival crowd expects.
“[Getting John Bush back in the band full-time is] not in the back of my mind – it’s right at the front of it. When our reunion tour with Joe Belladonna and Dan Spitz finished in 2007, we (Ian, Benante and bassist Frank Bello) wanted both John and (guitarist) Rob Caggiano to come back. Well, Rob returned but not John. Now, though, we’ve Sonisphere to look forward to with him.
“I love working with John, and I know I speak for everyone involved with Anthrax – the band and the fans – when I say that the best thing for us would for this to turn into a long-term relationship. But I don’t want to jump the gun. Let’s see how things go at Sonisphere, and take it from there.”
ANALYSIS: It’s no secret that Anthrax wanted Bush to re-join the fold after the Belladonna/Spitz reunion ended, but no one in their right mind can blame Bush for passing after the way he was treated. That being said, I think I can speak for both Vince and myself when I say I hope enough time has passed that Bush is willing to let bygones be bygones and come back full-time.
Honestly, I’m still not clear why the fuck the reunion even happened. We’ve Come for You All was, from an artistic standpoint at least, one of the best, if not the best, ‘Thrax records of all time. When I saw Bushthrax tour in support of it, the show was sold out. When I saw the Belladonna-reunion ‘Thrax tour a couple of years later, they played a bigger venue, but drew roughly the same sized crowd. Go figure.
SCOTT IAN ON WORSHIP MUSIC
“Until we have a new singer, I can’t tell you what will happen to the record. We’ll probably change a few things on it, including the vocals. However, nothing’s been decided, expect that the release date will go back, possibly to next year.”
ANALYSIS: Honestly, I’m incredibly curious to hear the Nelson (not Nelson) version of this album, and I hope it either gets released in some capacity or leaks or something. If the songs are really that good that all it would take is having Bush or whomever re-record the vocals to have it be an awesome release, then fine… but in my “wishful thinking” world, they’d at least release the Nelson recordings as a bonus disc or something.
-AR
