ANTHRAX Guitarist Retracts 'Inflammatory' JOEY BELLADONNA Comments

October 8, 2007

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian has posted the following message on his MySpace page:

"I wanted to post something here regarding an interview that was recently posted on MTV.com. It was an interview with Jon Wiederhorn about the S.O.D. release 'Rise Of The Infidels' (which I'm actually really digging!!!). After the S.O.D. questions we spoke about ANTHRAX and the situations with Joey Belladonna, John Bush and Corey Taylor.

"I need to clear up my comments regarding Joey. Some of the things I said were of an inflammatory nature and at the time I was not in full possession of the facts. From then til now, all the information has been brought to light and it was unprofessional of me to speak without all the facts and for this I apologize. I know how to admit when I am wrong and I retract what I said about Joey. I consider Joey a friend and I never meant to cause him distress in anyway and I hope we can move forward from this as friends. Cheers, brother."

In the MTV.cominterview, which was posted on the site last Friday (October 5),Ian offered the following explanation for why the classic ANTHRAX lineup (featuring Belladonna) was unable to record a new studio album following the completion of the band's 2005-'06 reunion tour: "We tried. Halfway through the tour, everything had totally gelled, and we started talking about doing a new record. [Guitarist] Danny [Spitz] was gung-ho about it and Joey seemed to be as well. I thought that nothing would have made him happier. But when the tour ended, we started having conversations about making a record and moving forward, and we spent three or four months where we just couldn't get an answer from Joey to the simple question, 'Do you want to make a record, yes or no?' Not that he wouldn't call back, but he wouldn't answer the question. Our question was always answered with a million other questions. For some reason, Joey thought things were weird on the reunion tour financially. He had his own guy look at the books. Everything was good. But after three or four months of asking this guy and feeling like we were starting to become a doormat, we gave him an ultimatum, and we still didn't get an answer. So we concluded we're not making a record. It's impossible because there's no communication."

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