JOHN BUSH Has Some 'Newer Ideas' About How He Can Celebrate His Era Of ANTHRAX On Tour

In a brand new interview with Eonmusic, former ANTHRAX and current ARMORED SAINT frontman John Bush was once again asked whether he is still open to the idea of embarking on a special tour — either with the current ANTHRAX band or with a specially chosen set of musician friends — during which he would perform material from his time as the singer of ANTHRAX. He responded: "I have some ideas about it, some more recent ideas about it, and in conjunction with, for players, we could even maybe do something in conjunction with [my new project] CATEGORY 7, although I don't know about that yet, which means we could play some of these songs, but then we could also play some of the songs from everybody's other projects, right? I don't know yet. Now I have this other thing with CATEGORY 7 and SAINT and like, how do I make it work? I do want to do that one day, I really do. I certainly believe that from '[Sound Of] White Noise', 'Stomp [442]', 'Volume 8', 'We've Come For You All', there's great songs that certainly could do a really cool support slot or even a headlining show. I don't necessarily want to go out and do sixty dates, quite honestly, but I do want to go out and play maybe some specific shows, maybe some festivals. I have some ideas, newer ideas in conjunction with it. It's just about making it work."

He continued: "Time is not on my side with a lot of things. I'm 60 years old, but I'm still doing pretty good — I did Pilates yesterday and held my own. I still try to be physically active, and I feel great, the voice is good, as long as I stay healthy. I want to make this work. I don't know; next thing I know, it's going to Blabbermouth tomorrow, because they're gonna be, like, 'He said that before, but he hasn't done it, so, like, shut up already!' So I want to. I just don't know when."

This past March, Bush told Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone that he would "love" to perform material from his time as the singer of ANTHRAX. "It wouldn't be some long tour; it would probably be like a handful of shows of doing my era in ANTHRAX," he explained. "'Cause they don't play too many of the songs — they play 'Only', and they just don't play too many. And I get it, because there's a large catalog that ANTHRAX has, not only from the beginning, but now they've made — they're about ready to make their third record, I believe, after that. So, I understand. I really do. I totally get it. But there are some songs that would be fun to hear, I think, for fans and for myself. It just has to kind of work with time, really; that's the key component. But it would be fun, for sure. I just don't know at this point when that would happen. And I don't know — they've kind of got their own thing going on, too. They're busy, they're making a new record. One day maybe something. Maybe it'll be me with various musicians doing it. Probably not with the band, actually. Or if they ever wanted to say, 'Hey, you wanna come out and sing a couple songs?' Yeah, I'd be into that. But I always say it's something that [current ANTHRAX singer] Joey Belladonna should be wanting to do. If this is something that he's not into and he's uncomfortable, then it shouldn't be done, because there's no point. But who knows? '

After Blakk suggested the possibility of ARMORED SAINT opening for ANTHRAX and Bush jumping up on stage and doing a couple of songs with the headliners, John said: "I would love ARMORED SAINT to go out and play some shows or do a tour with ANTHRAX. I think that would be killer. I've said it. It'd be really fun…

"Who knows?" he continued. "Like I said, I have other things that I'm thinking about, and ARMORED SAINT is, too. I'm just saying I would be open to doing something really fun and cool and not some long, extended thing, but it has to jell for everybody, including the SAINT guys. It has to be something that everybody wants to do and feels comfortable doing, and then if it does, then great. If it doesn't, maybe — I don't know — then it just doesn't. And then people will be, 'Damn, that never happened.'"

ANTHRAX has had a number of vocalists — including Bush, Belladonna, Neil Turbin and Dan Nelson — over the last 42 years, with guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante remaining the sole bandmembers who have appeared on every one of the group's studio albums.

Turbin sang on ANTHRAX's debut LP, 1984's "Fistful Of Metal", before getting booted and being replaced by Belladonna. Belladonna performed on four ANTHRAX albums, including the fan favorite "Among The Living" (1987) before he himself was fired over creative and stylistic differences. Bush fronted ANTHRAX between 1992 and 2005 but was sidelined when the band reunited with Belladonna for a 20th-anniversary tour. When that collapsed, and relationships disintegrated with next frontman Nelson, Bush returned for a time before Belladonna took the job back in 2010.

Bush previously talked about a hypothetical tour during which he would perform ANTHRAX material in a June 2023 interview with Rock On The Rise Radio. At the time, he said: "It's something I've talked about for a long time. I haven't really put it into motion. I've talked to my booking agent about it. He kind of comes in and out of being behind it with me. Because he goes, 'Okay, let's do it.' And I'm, like, 'Ehhh.' And then I'll come to him and go, 'Well, what do you think? Do you think there'll be interest?' And he's, like, 'You wanna do it now?' And I'm, like, 'Well, I don't know.' And he's, like, 'Get outta here.'

"I like the idea of doing it," he continued. "I don't know if I'm ready to tackle going out for three to four weeks and doing a run because I just don't know, quite honestly, what the interest would be. So I was kind of trying to do a handful of shows, maybe, in some different territories. But, unfortunately, when you do things like that, you sometimes can't make money. Not that I need to make a lot of money, but you certainly don't wanna lose money. So that was one of my ideas and that was where one of the conflicts came, and so we stopped talking about it again.

"Again, right now it's on the backburner," Bush added. "But it's something I would like to do before I die. And I'm not getting any younger, 'cause we know that [ANTHRAX's first album with Bush] 'Sound Of White Noise' is 30 years [old in 2023], so everybody can do the math. The bottom line is I'm turning 60 this year, which is insane; I can't even believe it. But still I feel like I'm still singing better than ever. But at the end of the day, tackling 'Room For One More', 'What Doesn't Die' and 'Reign Of Fire' when you're 70, that sounds pretty daunting; I'm not gonna lie. They're demanding. It's like you are a hockey player. It's a real physical thing, and I think most metal singers can attest to that and relate. You've gotta take care of yourself and you've gotta be in shape, in vocal shape, and rest and all that crap.

"It might be one of those things where all of a sudden where it's, like, 'Oh, he's doing that.' Not to give people false hope, but maybe that would be the case. And it's also about timing, really."

In October 2022, John told The Metal Voice that a special tour during which he would perform material from his time as the singer of ANTHRAX "would be great. I don't really wanna go out and do like a 30-date tour with it, but it would be cool to do a handful of shows in some key markets," he said. "We can certainly play those songs for a support slot or even a headlining slot, let's face it. I think there's enough songs of the four records [I recorded with ANTHRAX] that would make for a great show. Who [would be] in the band, I'm not exactly sure. I talked to [former ANTHRAX guitarist] Paul Crook about it, 'cause I love Paul; he's a great guy. He was actually there when I made a couple of those records, as far as engineered and played guitar on it. And I have done some stuff with the METAL ALLEGIANCE guys; we've done 'Only' and 'Room For One More' at various shows. Rock In Rio would be one, [which] we just played… I'm open to it. It's just a matter of… the timing, I think. Really, that's what it comes down to."

Regarding the fact that ANTHRAX played "Only" live on its recent U.S. tour, with Joey Belladonna on vocals, Bush said: "I always support Joey singing those songs. I wish they would do more, to be honest… I have no qualms with that. I support that. And Joey, we're not the best of friends, because we just aren't. It's funny, 'cause my wife and his wife have become pretty good text friends, so they're closer than him and I. But I always endorse it and tell him he did a great job and support whatever he does. He has his own backlog of stuff, and he also has the new songs and the new records that he's done. So I understand, and I'm not offended by it. But if they wanna play some songs from the John Bush-era albums, I'm great with that as well."

In September 2020, Bush told The Metal Voice that he first talked to his booking agent about the ANTHRAX tour idea "several years ago." He said: "We talked about it, and I think he sniffed around for some feelers to see what people would think. And I don't think we got the response that we really wanted to. It wasn't like we were looking for millions of dollars or anything, but we wanted to make it worthwhile to do it, and do the proper shows. It's not like something I wanna go out and do six months of touring with. It'd be fun to do some sporadic shows. I'd have to put a band together to do it. I'm probably a little lazy about that, quite honestly. But that's what would be involved in doing it. And I don't think we were pleased enough with the response that we tried to push it ahead and make it happen."

Bush went on to say that he was "caught by surprise" by ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian's comment that was not opposed to taking part in a special concert featuring most of the singers that have fronted the band over the course of its nearly four-decade existence. "I was, like, 'Wow. Okay.' And I thought that's a great idea. That would be really cool," Bush said. "I think that would be an amazing thing for the fanbase. But what I keep saying is that Joey Belladonna is the singer of ANTHRAX, and Joey should be the singer of ANTHRAX, as far as I'm concerned. And if this happens, it needs to have his approval, really, quite honestly. Because I wouldn't want him to feel like, 'Well, this is not my idea, and I don't wanna do this,' because he is the singer who'd be sharing the stage [with the rest of us], quite honestly. So I think it would be something that Joey would have to give endorsement to, for that to happen, if that's an idea. And again, I think it would be a fun thing to do a couple of handful of shows, sporadic stuff."

Bush is joined in CATEGORY 7 by former MACHINE HEAD and current KERRY KING guitarist Phil Demmel, ex-ADRENALINE MOB guitarist Mike Orlando, OVERKILL/SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner and EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson.