ANTHRAX Drummer CHARLIE BENANTE: 'My Heart Is With JOHN BUSH'

ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante recently spoke to Blistering.com about the group's upcoming "reunion" tour, which is scheduled to kick off Friday night (April 29) at Harpo's in Detroit. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

On the fans' confusion over ANTHRAX's decision to reform the band's pre-1993 lineup:

"I can relate to how some would see the situation as confusing. And the thing is, I don't want to confuse anybody with this situation. This is strictly a reunion that we wanted to do at this time, and nothing more. It was originally my idea for the reunion, but I wanted to do something where it was both [John] Bush and [Joey] Belladonna doing a set each. But that just didn't come together. Originally Bush was involved in this reunion too. I want everyone to know that. He decided not to do it, or be a part of it because his wife (Tori) just had a baby (Jezebelle November Silvera Bush was born in late October 2004),and I think he wanted a little time out for that. So in the meantime, we're currently just concentrating on this reunion. I'm sure everybody wants to know what is going to happen here and what's going to happen there, but I don't know what to tell people. We're just taking baby steps at the moment. Our whole summer is booked doing the reunion shows, and that will probably last right through to the end of the year. After that, I don't know what will happen. All I can say is ask me at that point about what's going on! (Laughs)"

On detractors' claim that the group's reasons for reforming are purely for the money, or an attempt to ride the coattails of the current thrash revival:

"I don't read any of that stuff! (Laughs) Let me put it this way, you probably won't see us in Forbes magazine. So that should answer one question. Like I said to you before, Bush was asked if he wanted to do this, but he asked not to be a part of it. In all honesty, my heart is with Bush. He's a big part of this ANTHRAX family. We have never once mentioned anything about Bush being asked to leave. At the time when the whole Belladonna thing went down back in 1992, ANTHRAX was pretty much at a musical impasse. We just didn't know where we wanted to go, and we just felt there was a musical block in-between Belladonna and the rest of the group. You know, sometimes things just happen for a reason. I can't answer why it happened or whether it could have been prevented. Sometimes things in life just have a way of working themselves out. I love Bush. For me, the material we were writing in the '80s fit Belladonna perfectly. The songs we were writing after that fit Bush perfectly. So with that answer, I'm not saying anything bad about either one of those guys! (Laughs) Like I said, Belladonna was perfect for that stuff. Belladonna gave us a totally different sound to all the other bands that we were lumped with at the time. We sounded different, and that was mainly because Belladonna was singing. With Bush, it changed up that sound a little bit more. For the music that we were writing, I couldn't think of a better vocalist at that time. We're just doing a reunion. People can assume all they want, but we're not doing what some think we’re doing."

On the countless comments, speculations and opinions posted on the Internet about the currently reformed ANTHRAX:

"You have to understand that all this misinformation is coming from people who love talking about shit. They have no idea about half of the stuff going on. They enjoy the whole controversial thing. To me, it's like, 'Dude! I don't care!' That's the honest to god truth. I don't care. If every band read everything about them and worried about it, all those bands would have given up years ago. I used to be at a point where I used to have a hundred people telling me how great I was, but there would always be that one person who would tell me how much I sucked, and I would concentrate more on the person who said I sucked. I don't do that any more. I don't care. I'm not trying to be number one. I don't care. I'm just playing music. And if you play music, you can't be wrong because it's music that you are creating and playing. If people want to show up, they show up. If they don't want to show up, they don't show up. I can't control that. Just like I can't control people talking shit about us. I'm past that. It's so over and done. Hell, shit has said about every band. If METALLICA were to gauge their popularity on the people who talked shit, they wouldn't be around today. I mean, come on, so many people hated 'St. Anger', but it was a huge album, and they sold out tours everywhere. People on the Internet find that's all the life they have. They just talk shit, and it doesn't really faze me. I'm just going to keep doing what I do, and that's all I can do. It's like if I came to your place of business and just nitpicked you over stuff, told you how fucked up you were and how I don't like the way you're doing things. You'll eventually get to the point where you think to yourself, 'Enough!' The reunion is going to happen. If you want to be a part of it, great, then come along. If you don't, then stay home. That's all it is. We're just concentrating on this because this is pretty much where we're at right now. After this is done, we'll move onto something else."

Read Charlie Benante's entire interview with Blistering.com at this location.