ANTHRAX's JOEY BELLADONNA: 'I Love Classic Rock'

In a new interview with Wacken TV conducted at this weekend's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, ANTHRAX singer Joey Belladonna spoke about his love for classic rock. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "At home, I [sing] constant music like that. I mean, all across the board. It could be CHICAGO, TOTO, STEELY DAN, EAGLES, JOURNEY, and then I can do [Ronnie James] Dio all night and [BLACK] SABBATH… I like covering a lot of stuff. I have my own Joey's Jukebox [show] right now, and over the last couple of years I've put 780 tracks together, and I can do four to six hours, or even more, of just different types of music. I'm telling you, it could go all over the place, where I'll never be in a band to learn all those types of songs. And I mixed and put them all together and I just sing for hours of this stuff and it's a blast. And I get to do great music. I love classic rock. It could even be more of a blues, too — ZZ TOP and THE ALLMAN BROTHERS, or wherever. I can shift from side to side and do all kinds of stuff."

Touching upon the limitations on his singing within ANTHRAX, Joey said: "I don't really have a chance to really dig too deep with ANTHRAX, 'cause our stuff is a little — it's widespread fast and it's hard to sing over some of it to get a melody. So I'm always fighting to get something that would be really sharp and extra, extra good for a song that really is difficult to sing over. 'Cause we have a lot of words to a lot of the stuff."

Asked which classic rock songs are his personal favorites to sing, Joey said: "Anything that has an upper range of where I can take it on fully. That's why that some of the JOURNEY stuff is really… 'cause it's, top-notch tenor type of thing, like KANSAS and YES and FOREIGNER and BAD COMPANY and LED ZEPPELIN and stuff like that. I've always loved singing along to that kind of thing. And anything that really has a lot more depth to it in range. Something that's very low sometimes doesn't give me a chance to take on a nice upper tenor, should I say."

Last month, it was announced that Belladonna had launched a new project called JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK! paying homage to the great bands and their songs from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Joining Joey in his new project is the Dutch classic rock band THE CLARKS, which, for decades, has been known as the most successful rock and roll cover act from The Netherlands, with TV performances and live shows under their belt in all over Europe, USA, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

Belladonna performed by chance with THE CLARKS at the 100th-anniversary event of bus and coach company Royal Jan De Wit on December 8, 2023 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and they had an instant sensation which brought them together in JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK!

JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK! will make its live debut on August 3, 2024 at the world-famous festival Wacken Open Air in Germany. A club tour will take place in December in The Netherlands.

In the past, Belladonna had played drums and sung for a classic-rock covers band called CHIEF BIG WAY. The upstate New York-based group performed versions of songs from JOURNEY, AC/DC, ZZ TOP, BOSTON, CHEAP TRICK, FOREIGNER, PINK FLOYD, VAN HALEN, COLLECTIVE SOUL, THE WHO, THE DOORS, SHINEDOWN and BON JOVI, among others. Belladonna has also played sporadic shows with his JOURNEY tribute band called BEYOND FRONTIERS.