John Bush Thinks a Tour Showcasing His Time with Anthrax is “Something I Would Like To Do Before I Die”
Anthrax may be running with Joey Belladonna behind the mic these days, but for a lot of fans their love of the ‘Thrax started in the John Bush era. With absolute bangers like Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442, Volume 8: The Threat is Real, and We’ve Come For You All, that particular time in Anthrax’s history is more modern groove metal and badassery than their old school thrash roots and it fucking rules.
John Bush himself seems to recognize the fan interest in a Bush-Thrax tour, as he and former Anthrax guitarist Paul Crook have both said they’d love to get something like that off the ground. In our own experience, you guys have commented saying how much you loved the Bush era of Anthrax. It’s for that exact reason that the Armored Saint frontman discussed the topic when it was brought up during a recent interview with Rock On The Rise Radio (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
And while he’s unsure what the general interest would be in such a tour, Bush admits he’s floated the idea with his agent, but money always became an issue.
“It’s something I’ve talked about for a long time. I haven’t really put it into motion. I’ve talked to my booking agent about it. He kind of comes in and out of being behind it with me. Because he goes, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ And I’m, like, ‘Ehhh.’ And then I’ll come to him and go, ‘Well, what do you think? Do you think there’ll be interest?’ And he’s, like, ‘You wanna do it now?’ And I’m, like, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ And he’s, like, ‘Get outta here.’
“I like the idea of doing it. I don’t know if I’m ready to tackle going out for three to four weeks and doing a run because I just don’t know, quite honestly, what the interest would be. So I was kind of trying to do a handful of shows, maybe, in some different territories. But, unfortunately, when you do things like that, you sometimes can’t make money. Not that I need to make a lot of money, but you certainly don’t wanna lose money. So that was one of my ideas and that was where one of the conflicts came, and so we stopped talking about it again.”
This year in particular is incredibly important to John Bush and his time with Anthrax, as it marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Sound of White Noise. It’s a monumental record and for many metalheads that maybe didn’t follow Armored Saint, it was their first introduction to John Bush as a vocalist.
The passage of time certainly isn’t lost on Bush these days, who says he might need to do the Anthrax shows sooner rather than later as he approaches his 60s.
“Again, right now it’s on the backburner. But it’s something I would like to do before I die. And I’m not getting any younger, ’cause we know that [Anthrax’s first album with Bush] Sound Of White Noise is 30 years [old in 2023], so everybody can do the math. The bottom line is I’m turning 60 this year, which is insane; I can’t even believe it. But still I feel like I’m still singing better than ever. But at the end of the day, tackling ‘Room For One More’, ‘What Doesn’t Die’ and ‘Reign Of Fire’ when you’re 70, that sounds pretty daunting; I’m not gonna lie. They’re demanding. It’s like you are a hockey player. It’s a real physical thing, and I think most metal singers can attest to that and relate. You’ve gotta take care of yourself and you’ve gotta be in shape, in vocal shape, and rest and all that crap.
“It might be one of those things where all of a sudden where it’s, like, ‘Oh, he’s doing that.’ Not to give people false hope, but maybe that would be the case. And it’s also about timing, really.”
As a huge fan of the Bush era of Anthrax, I seriously hope he gets this together. I would love to rock out to “Inside Out,” “Hy Pro Glo,” and “Catharsis,” just to name a few.
