ANTHRAX Guitarist Says He Has Enough Material For A 20-Hour Spoken-Word Show

RoomThirteen.com conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian about his recently completed "Speaking Words" U.K. spoken-word tour. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RoomThirteen.com: With all the amazing experiences you would have had over the years, how did you choose what to talk about?

Scott: I have figured out in the last two weeks that just the show I'm doing very easily reaches three hours, and that is based on four stories and a [question-and-answer session]. I've easily got 20 stories written right now, with the idea that I will put it a book eventually. It just came out of these stories that go beyond the 30-odd years I've been in the band. They are stories I've told with my friends in bars for many, many years and I was able to talk those and entertain people with them. Instead of sitting in a bar with my friends, I'm now standing in a bar with my friends who are also my audience. They're just stories in my mind that are that good; that would entertain people, to the point that I knew that I could stand onstage with a microphone and not feel like an asshole in front of these people that have paid to come and see me. I could do a 20-hour show, physically I couldn't, but I easily have enough material for that.

RoomThirteen.com: What has been your proudest career moment to date and what do you feel you still have left to achieve?

Scott: My proudest career moment is my career, the fact that next month will be 32 years since I co-founded this band. You could maybe count on two or three hands the amount of bands that have been doing this for this long at this level. I just think that is an amazing thing to have accomplished. We are in this and 32 years later and still making records and still touring. That, for me, is definitely my proudest achievement. I think we still have a few good records in us. I think our last album proves that. We still have a lot to say, musically and creatively, and we're all itching to get back into it, which will happen, in the next few months, with a view to have a new record out next year. I'm really looking forward to the next record, because the success of the last record and the run we've been on for the last few years, things are better than ever for us. It makes me really excited to do it all again.

RoomThirteen.com: As well as making music and presenting, you also act, play poker and write comics, how do you manage your time and juggle all those things?

Scott: [laughs] I don't balance it! Shit just comes along and if it is something I really want to do, I just try to make it work. It is not easy, that's for sure; especially the travelling. Writing comics is easy, because I'm home. The travelling stuff is tough. Originally, this tour was happening in a window of time where I had three months off from the band, but then that changed. Just as I booked this tour, ANTHRAX suddenly had a South American tour that butted right up to these dates. So, instead of me just being away for two weeks, I was suddenly going to be away for five weeks, I couldn't cancel or postpone this tour. It made for a lot more travelling than I was expecting. There's an old cliché that they don't pay me to play shows, they pay me to travel because that is the hard part of being in a band. It is hard to schlep around the world and be away from your family; that sucks. I've really enjoyed doing these shows and I think it has opened another door for me, so, as hard as it is to be away from home, I am really glad I came and did it.

Read the entire interview from RoomThirteen.com.

Video below: Scott Ian's spoken-word show in Belfast, Ireland on June 6