ANTHRAX Guitarist: 'I Don't Think We've Ever Let Anyone Down In The Last 26 Years'

The German edition of Metal Hammer magazine conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian on June 4, 2010 at the Rock Am Ring festival in Nürburgring, Germany. You can now watch the chat at this location.

When asked about the frustration ANTHRAX fans have felt over the numerous singer changes the band has undergone over the course of the last five years, Ian replied, "Truthfully, I don't care.

"I don't think people should worry so much about what's going on in the band.

"I understand being a fan and I understand loving a band and being dedicated to a band, 'cause I'm a huge fan of many bands. But I don't have any control over whether or not FAITH NO MORE's gonna make a new record. I want FAITH NO MORE to make a new record, but I can't control that, [so] I don't worry about it. There's bigger things to worry about in life. So if you're a fan of the band and you like what we do, just have faith that eventually we're gonna make a record and it's gonna be a great record.

"I don't think we've ever let anyone down in the last 26 years of making records and touring. Yes, I understand it's taken us a while to get to a new album, because we've been through some crazy circumstances, but that's just the set of circumstances we're in, and there's no reason for us to rush anything. That would be the biggest mistake, 'cause if we rush something now, then we risk putting something bad, and then the fans would really be upset."

On the topic of the negative comments that have been posted on the Internet regarding ANTHRAX's recent lineup changes, Ian said, "I don't care about the Internet. I don't go on sites where people write...

"I started ANTHRAX in 1981 with [bassist] Danny Lilker. If we were to listen to people from 1981, we never would even have made it to our first album. If we were to listen to people telling us what to do on 'Fistful On Metal', we never would have gotten past that. If we were to listen to people on 'Spreading The Disease'...

"You only have to do what's inside your heart — as a human being, not even as a bandmember or as a musician or anything. You just have to do what you wanna do in life and follow your own path, and if you're focused and you're passionate about what you do, then hopefully you'll have success doing it. With ANTHRAX, lucky enough, we've had that.

"I will never change the way I do things because there's an Internet and people go on there and like to write things — good or bad.

"I don't care about the good stuff or the bad stuff, because it has nothing to do with the decisions we make as a band.

"We never wanted to make any lineup changes. Making a lineup change is the worst thing in the world. It sucks. If you think it sucks as a fan of the band, think about it from the band's point of view some time. It's the worst thing to have to go through — is changing a member in a band. It's fucking horrible; there's nothing good about it. So we've been lucky that we do have these two singers that have, obviously, both had many, many years in this band — long careers with ANTHRAX, made so many great albums — so at least we're lucky enough where we have one of these guys that can come in and sing with us. We'd be really screwed if we had to go find another new guy like we tried before [referring to singer Dan Nelson, who was in the band from 2007 to 2009. — Ed.] and we had to go through that again, because that almost broke up the band. And then we realized we can't break up the band because this guy went crazy.

"Joey's [Belladonna, vocals] back in the band and everyone wants this to succeed — everyone is looking at this with one hundred percent, 'We want this to happen.'"