ANTHRAX Guitarist Jumps On Stage With IRON MAIDEN

June 10, 2003

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian has posted the following update to the band's official web site, www.anthrax.com:

"I arrived in Budapest completely delirious from three hours sleep in two days and what do I do? I go straight to the IRON MAIDEN show. How could I not? IRON MAIDEN in Budapest. How cool is that? Jet lag can never defeat the power of metal. All the headbanging to 'Number Of The Beast', 'The Trooper', 'Revelations', 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', etc. gave me a second, third and fourth wind. MAIDEN kicked ass. [IRON MAIDEN bassist] Steve Harris is the man. He is made of metal. His heart pumps iron. I got to go out and sing on 'Heaven Can Wait' next to him and it was deja vu all over again. It brought me right back to 1990 when we were opening for them and we'd go out and sing every night. I got to sit in [MAIDEN drummer] Nicko [McBrain]'s enclosed drum riser during the encores and have a conversation with him while he was playing. He's pounding the drums and yelling 'How's [ANTHRAX drummer] Charlie [Benante]?' at the same time. He's a piss. There stage was killer. Huge, with numerous versions of Eddie painted on scrims and backdrops. Bruce was his usual manic self, running all over the place. He sang great. Hit every note. MAIDEN always puts on a killer show. Go see them this summer. You have to. It's the law.

"I got back to my hotel and passed out for ten hours. Wonderful dreams of the zombie-battling variety filled my sleep with joy. I got up and walked the fine city of Budapest all day with [ANTHRAX guitarist] Rob [Caggiano] and [bassist] Frankie [Bello]. Nice town. Left for the gig at 6 PM. When we got there we did an autograph session during the changeover between CHILDREN OF BODOM and NIGHTWISH. We could've signed all night. Nuclear Blast set it up and it was killer. The Hungarian fans were nuts, I had a good feeling about the show.

"I was right.

"We hadn't played in Budapest since 1996 and they definitely missed us. Fucking great from start to finish. Mad Hungarians moshing, singing, chanting, clapping right along with us. I name checked Al Hrabosky but nobody got it. It's amazing that just two weeks ago we were headlining to five hundred people in San Antonio, and now we were headlining to 5,000 people in Budapest. I know I've said it before, but metal rules over here. These next five weeks we are playing on festivals with everyone from MAIDEN to SLAYER to HATEBREED to TWISTED FUCKING SISTER. We've got PRONG as support in Germany. We're doing another UK headline run. Back to the Barrowlands and the Astoria! This stuff just doesn't happen at home and I wish it would. We appreciate it so much. It gives us the ammo to come back and give the business side of things at home a big kick in the ass. You'll see what I mean. We're trying to put together a revolving bill for August/September with different openers, but all full frontal metal. It's gonna be brutal.

"I'm going to see METALLICA tonight. I'll tell ya all about it next time. Up the Irons."

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