ANTHRAX Drummer On Return Of JOEY BELLADONNA: 'We Wanted Stability As A Band'

ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante was interviewed on last night's (Friday, May 14) edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM. The chat is now available for streaming in two parts below. A couple of excerpts follow.

On the return of singer Joey Belladonna to ANTHRAX:

Charlie: "Maybe all things led to this situation, and I'm really happy with it — totally. I've talked to Joey every day so far since we've been back together, and it's going great. And that's the difference between that reunion tour that happened [in 2005-2006]... We never had a chance, all of us, to kind of repair our relationships; it was just kind of, like, 'Boom! You're on the road. Repair your relationships out there.' And it just wasn't right. So this way we just wanted to do it before we went on the road — just get reacquainted with each other again and get back to being friends."

On the decision to part ways with John Bush and get Joey back in ANTHRAX:

Charlie: "Basically, the band — us, ANTHRAX — we wanted stability as a band, and I guess the only solution to having stability is to have someone who wants to be there, and that was Joey — he wants to be here and we want him there. And with this whole 'Big Four' tour [upcoming European dates with METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH], Joey was a part of that whole thing — the 'Big Four' — and Joey deserves to be there. And that's basically the bottom line."

On Scott's statement during a March 2010 episode of VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" that he preferred John Bush over Joey Belladonna as a singer for ANTHRAX:

Charlie: "With ANTHRAX, Scott always gives 110 percent. Maybe Scott wasn't digging [the fact that Joey was back in the band] in the beginning, but Scott is 100 percent behind it right now. He knows how I feel, he knows how Frankie [Bello, bass] feels, and even [how] Rob [Caggiano, guitar]. I think he gets it, you know what I mean?! Yeah, I know he was on ['That Metal Show'] and he said something. But, look, Scott loves the color red and everyone else loves the color white. I mean, Scott loves a certain thing. What can you do? You know what I'm saying?"

On where Charlie stands with respect to which singer — Joey or John — is better suited for ANTHRAX:

Charlie: "John and Joey were such a big part of the whole career of ANTHRAX, and I never chose really one of the other — I love the stuff that we did with John, I love the stuff we did with Joey. So, for me, it's so hard — I could never pick one or the other. I can tell you this much: I sent Joey some new songs. Scott sent him lyrics, and Joey played it for me over the phone of him singing on one of the new songs, and dude, I got goose bumps. It was so weird to me to hear Joey singing over this song, and it sounded like something off 'Spreading The Disease', and I was so happy about it."

Interview Part 1:

Interview Part 2: