ANTHRAX Guitarist SCOTT IAN: 'We're All Individuals, And We All Have Opinions'

Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: You've been outspoken about John Bush being your preferred [ANTHRAX] vocalist over Joey [Belladonna]. Were there any mences to fend when Joey returned to the fold?

Ian: No, you know what?! We're all grown men. We're all individuals, and we all have opinions. We made a decision when we were asked to do the "Big Four" thing, and we asked Joey to do it, and we felt he was the right guy for the gig. That was the band; it was from that era. We didn't have to go to therapy or have a big session of "You said this" or "I'm sorry for that." We just got together in New York and were like, "What do you think? We'd like you to be part of this." If anything, all of that crap came out during the reunion tour, and that's why we weren't able to move forward. This time around, we had the 18 months of the reunion, and this time, it was just a matter of being a band again.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: [Former singer] Dan Nelson's time with ANTHRAX was mostly during the recording process, which is when bands are out of the public eye for the most part. So what really happened with him?

Ian: He made a record with us and then decided he didn't want to be in the band anymore. All I know is he made a decision not to be a part of it and called us the morning we were flying to Sweden — he actually e-mailed our manager — to do Sonisphere shows in 2009. And he said he was too sick to get on the plane. I've been doing this for about 30 years, and it's definitely one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Now that the "Big Four" is in the books, how would you describe it?

Ian: Amazing. Probably the best shows I've ever played. It was just the most fun, to get to be a part of it. The four bands together for the first time; not even the fact we were playing together, but physically hanging out. The night before the tour, we had a dinner that METALLICA put together. Even that was just the first time the 17 guys were together. Even if you broke it down from the guys who were there in 1983, we all had never been in a room together. Separately. It was just an amazing moment. It was like, "Holy shit, can you believe we get to do this? People care so much after all these years." It's a really gratifying and humbling moment: "Wow, we're going to walk on stage in front of 100,000 people in Poland."

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: How about plans for the next album with Joey?

Ian: Yeah, we're going to be actively working with it on this tour. We'll get things musically arranged. I wrote all the lyrics to that record ("Worship Music"). We have six songs that we are extremely happy with that don't need changing other than Joey singing on them. The goal is to have the record out next year. Whether it's summer or fall, we don't want to rush anything.

Read the entire interview from San Antonio Metal Music Examiner.