ANTHRAX Guitarist Remembers DIMEBAG, Discusses 'Neon Knights' Cover (Video)

Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas radio station 97.1 The Eagle Rocks recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked for a particular memory that he has of late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, Scott said, "Off the top of my head, I don't ever really have one story prepared about Darell, it's just more of an overall feeling. We were friends from '85 'till '04, so we spent a lot of time together in those 19 years. He was just one of those guys where it was always exciting when we got to spend time with each other, whether we were on tour together or we were playing Dallas and he was coming out to a show or I was going out to a PANTERA show somewhere. I always cherished the time I got to spend with Darrell. It was always fun, you always knew what you were in for. It was always a blast. Still, to this day, I don't know anyone else on this planet that was like him. So I have all my moments — I have 19 years of fond memories of Darrell."

ANTHRAX recently spent time in the studio recording several cover versions of some of their favorite rock classics, to be included with the upcoming re-release of the band's latest album, "Worship Music".

In addition to RUSH and BOSTON covers, ANTHRAX is also recording its versions of AC/DC's "T.N.T.", JOURNEY's "Keep On Runnin'" and BLACK SABBATH's "Neon Knights". The latter song is expected to appear on the upcoming Ronnie James Dio tribute album which is being assembled by the singer's widow and longtime manager Wendy Dio.

"Obviously, there's a ton of [Dio-sung songs] you can pick," Scott said. "But when Wendy Dio asked us to be on the record, it was kind of the first one… I think it was both Charlie [Benante, drums] and I, almost at the same time, [we were like], 'Let's do 'Neon Knights'.' Just like that. We've kind of been jamming on that song forever as it is. It's just one of those ones that we probably would have recorded anyway at some point. So this just gave us the excuse to finally go do it.

"It's kind of crazy. We were in Europe in June playing festivals, and the MACHINE HEAD guys were in the dressing room, or we were on the bus or something, and we put it on, and I think it was Phil Demmel [MACHINE HEAD guitarist], he was like, 'Wow, where's that from? Ronnie sounds amazing!' And we were like, 'That's Joey [Belladonna, ANTHRAX singer].' [laughs]"