Scott Ian Thinks Touring Won’t Come Back ‘Til 2022
Man, remember twenty years ago, when scary assholes were sending people anthrax (the disease) in the mail, and so Anthrax (the band) had to do this?
And now here we are, and there are people calling their band COVID-19. Which I guess is considered less offensive because no one is actively giving their perceived enemies the disease? Although a substantial number of Republican leaders may as well be actively giving people the disease. Come to think of it, I’m surprised Trump’s re-election committee hasn’t been mailing the coronavirus to people. It would probably help aid their war against the USPS.
ANYWAY, speaking of Anthrax and COVID-19, Scott Ian doesn’t think shows are coming back next year. Said the guitarist during a recent interview with Hardcore Humanism with Dr. Mike:
“In my mind, I’m not going back to work, probably, till, I’m thinking, ’22. Realistically, that’s when things will maybe start to get somewhere back to normal, for my world, as a touring musician. So now it’s become a case of, how do I keep things running for the next two years — with the luxury of being home. Because if it was up to me, I’d just hang around and jam with my son all day long. But now I have to be able to have the balance of I get to just be home and I get to go to the beach and hang out. And it becomes very easy to do nothing. And when I say nothing, I don’t mean nothing in a lazy way. I mean, not have anything to do with my band and literally be on vacation from my work. So it’s almost like a retraining. Even doing interviews, I kind of, at one point, said, ‘I’m not doing anything.’ You know what? I have a chance now to literally take a break. And I did. We kind of did. And then we started doing these ‘Instajam’ collaboration things online and whatnot and slowly but surely getting our feet back in the game, and I’m sure that’ll pick up over the months.
“But I’ll tell you what: I love being home. I love not traveling. I love not getting on a plane. I was looking at our schedule, ’cause it was all on my calendar. I was supposed to be in Europe for the last two weeks playing festivals. I was, like, ‘Oh my God. I am so glad I am not in the Ukraine right now.’ Imagine there was no pandemic. I’m literally, like, I’m home right now, and I’m sitting in my living room hanging out. Just the idea of that, it’s never happened. We’ve never canceled shows. It was out my hands. And it was nice to have no power. For kind of the first time, it’s all out of my hands. It’s, like, ‘Hey, there’s nothing I can do. [I’m] just gonna hang out here with my family. You tell me when it’s okay to come back to work.’”
“I am so glad I am not in the Ukraine right now” is a common thought amongst us Chosen People, so we definitely feel Scott there.
We’re sad to say that we also feel Scott re: no touring until 2022 Health experts have warned that fall 2021 is the earliest concerts might return. That assumes that there’s a safe, working vaccine readily available by then, and that people aren’t too scared and/or too broke to pack themselves back into venues by then. 2022 is probably much more realistic. Those who try to jump the gun are only prolonging a return to normalcy.
(And it’s worth noting that Ian is at least the second prominent metal musician to say as much, after Machine Head’s Robb Flynn. These guys make their living on the road; it’s in their best interest to get back out there ASAP. In other words, they’re not saying this stuff because of political bias or whatever.)
Meanwhile, Anthrax, like many of their peers (Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Rammstein, Devin Townsend, Revocation, Abigail Williams, maybe Tool, etc.) , have been working on new material remotely via Zoom. If they can’t tour for over another year, that gives them plenty of time to write a killer album. So there is a silver lining to all this shit news.
[via Metal Injection]
