INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT IAN OF ANTHRAX

There isn't much introduction needed with the next interview. Chances are, if you're surfing this website, you've heard about ANTHRAX, and even if you don't know him by name, you have seen SCOTT IAN on television or in a video at some point. He's on VH1 every other week on some list show, so at the very least you've seen him there. Recently, Scott and bandmate Charlie Benante decided to reunite with their bandmates from the 'Among the Living' era of Anthrax for a world tour, and this is when we caught up with him...

Paragon Rob: I’m going to have to be guilty of asking you something you’re probably tired of answering by now, but what was the inspiration behind this whole reunion thing?

Scott Ian: Gene Simmons, I’m just kidding! ::laughs::: Yeah, any reunion tour, 10% has to go to KISS because they were the first to ever do it. No, I like to kid them. There were actually a number of things. In January 2004, it was the 20th anniversary of the release of Fistful of Metal, our first album, so leading up to that, from about two years before that, sometime in 2002 even, we started trying to think of ways to commemorate that anniversary and we started thinking about doing a box set, and all kinds of ideas were getting kicked around, and we really liked the box set, once we started putting that together and all the ideas from that took about 5 years to make that happen, so we put that one off for the 25th anniversary. But last summer, just when we were still thinking about this stuff and thinking of ideas, Charlie said to me, “What do you think about trying to do a reunion of the Among the Living lineup and take it out on tour?” And we started talking about it, and pretty much the conclusion was, hey, why not? Why not go have fun. If everybody’s into doing it, and everyone wants to go out and have some fun and do this, then why not? And if we’re ever gonna do it, now’s the time, because if we don’t do it now, and we decide to wait or whatever, who knows, maybe we can’t do it in 5 years because we won’t still all be here, or for whatever reason. What if physically we can’t do this anymore in 5 years or 10 years or whatever. So here’s our window. We’ve come for you all touring and it’s gonna end in February of 2005, and here’s our window, we’ll have a break and let’s see if we can get the guys back together and do this. It was really easy to put together once we made the calls, everyone was into it, there was no arm-twisting, everyone wanted to it. And that’s really the only way it could’ve happened, because if we had to convince people, if there was crap that had to be settled or resolved from the past, or any of that bullshit, there would be no reason to do this, because we didn’t’ need to do a reunion tour, it was a case of let’s go have some fun and that’s how it worked out.

Paragon Rob: I don’t know if it’s a touchy subject or not, but I’ve heard, and I don’t know if it’s a fact or not, that John Bush was asked to participate in the reunion but declined…

Scott Ian: Yeah, that’s not a touchy subject. The first call we made, Charlie and I, was to John, the first person we spoke to, because, look, John’s the singer of Anthrax, and here’s what we’re planning on doing and our plan was to have John and Joey come out and do it and have both singers kind of split that up, and then probably do some stuff together as well at the end. So that was the initial idea. That was the plan we had in our heads. It was John who decided to step out of it and say, basically, “You guys need to go do this. It’s something that I don’t want to be a part of. I wasn’t there in the 80’s.” And really what would be the point of him being in something he didn’t feel he wanted to do. And you have to be honest about these things, that’s the bottom line. If any of us didn’t want to do it, this wouldn’t happen. It just couldn’t. Like if I felt weird about being in this reunion or anything, I wouldn’t do it. Simple as that. I totally respect John for his decision, although I wish he was out there with us because I do miss the guy.

Paragon Lisa: What are the main differences you notice when working with John Bush and working with Joey Belladonna?

Scott Ian: Well, they’re completely different singers, as far as the style and tonality of their voices. They’re just different. They’re different singers, they’re different people, they’re both great guys, they’re both fun to hang out with. I would say the biggest difference is, obviously, they sound different as singers, they’re two different voices. When we replaced Joey, we weren’t looking to just replace a voice and clone him and have the same thing. Obviously, we went in a different direction with John, so that’s obviously the main difference. But they’re both amazing Metal singers, and they both work within the context of Anthrax very well.

Paragon Lisa: In your experience, are all singers the same when it comes to attitude? Most singers get a bad rep as being pushy and stubborn, but would you say this is normally the case?

Scott Ian: Everybody knows about LSD, Lead Singers Disease, and we have been lucky enough in this band, between Joey and John, from 1984 all the way through for 21 years, we’ve been lucky enough to work with two guys who really have the least amount of ego of any lead singers I’ve ever met in my life. I mean, yes, LSD, Lead Singers Disease, that cliché, is based in the truth just like all clichés. Most lead singers are arrogant pricks, but you have to be, you really have to be that guy on stage. I’ve actually even said to these guys sometimes, “You need to be more of a dick!” ::laughs::: You know, be more aggressive, be more intense. John and Joey, both, they’re really such amazing dudes, they’re both wonderful individuals. And it’s like, “You need to be more like me or Frankie sometimes and just be more of a prick.” ::laughs::: So we’ve been really lucky in that aspect. We haven’t had that atypical lead singer who has to be the boss and has his way and wants to do everything. We kinda did have that a little bit with Neil Turbin way back in the beginning, but that was in the infancy stages of the band and it didn’t last very long, we put a stop to that immediately. ::laughs:::

Paragon Lisa: When you aren’t working with the band, writing and playing guitar, is there another instrument or another form of music that you listen to? Maybe in your down time when you want to get away from the metal?

Scott Ian: I listen to every kind of music. As far as I’m concerned, I listen to anything and everything. Anything I get turned on to, I still will just be interested in something because I saw artwork or saw a picture of somebody, whatever. I listen to everything. It doesn’t mean I like everything, but I would never close myself off to any type of music, ever. It’s not even a case of, “Do I listen to this when I wanna unwind?” I mean, I can relax listening to SLAYER. It’s relaxing to me because I love it so much and it makes me feel good. So it’s not like I can only relax if I’m listening to mellow music or this or vice versa. All music has to move me, it has to make me feel something, and that inherently relaxes me because it’s an emotional experience when I’m listening to something I really like.

Paragon Lisa: You’ve been on a lot of VH1 shows lately, countdowns and whatnot.

Scott Ian: Yeah, America loves list shows. ::laughs:::

Paragon Lisa: Most people in the metal scene don’t exactly love VH1 though, have you gotten any flack from fans for doing those shows?

Scott Ian: Not at all because I would think that if you’re some dude who doesn’t wanna watch VH1, then you’re not watching it, so I haven’t gotten any flack. The only stuff I get from VH1 is people who know nothing about my band who say, “I know you from somewhere. I saw you on that show talking about the ‘80s or something.” That’s pretty much the extent of what I get from VH1. I’m sure there are Anthrax fans who watch it and see me on there, but I would think that people who are more hard-core and who never ever turn their TV sets to VH1 or MTV or whatever aren’t watching it, so I really don’t think they have anything to say, ::laughs::: because if they had something to say, my comeback would be, “Well then why were you watching it?” Like recently, I became friends with Bo Bice who was on American Idol because we met through a friend of mine who works on that show, who called me up at the beginning of the year and said, “Hey, there’s this Bo Bice guy and he’s a total rocker, he’s a metalhead, he loves your band.” So we ended up meeting and having drinks and just over the last couple months been hanging out pretty regularly, and the guy is the real deal. So my attitude was, “I gotta support this guy, I gotta show some love. Finally there’s a fucken dude, a real Rock dude, on this show. What an amazing power, to be on the biggest TV show in the country, which is based on this Pop crap, you know, crappy Pop music, and here’s a guy who may be able to show people something real from Rock and Heavy Metal.” Even on the show a few weeks ago, in an interview he did, he said he grew up listening to Anthrax and METALLICA. He said Anthrax and Metallica in front of 40 million people watching American Idol. That rules! So I actually went to one of the tapings and you see me on the show and all these people on our message board were writing in, “We saw Scott on American Idol in the audience. What the fuck was he doing there?!” And my response to the whole thing was, “You were watching American Idol if you saw me on it.” ::laughs::: So it’s kinda like, “Hey man, I’m there supporting my bro. What are you doing watching it?”

Paragon Rob: Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the show, I just watch it once in a while, and I was rooting for Bo because it was good to know there was someone on it representing something different.

Scott Ian: Yeah, you have to root for the guy. Come on, he’s the real deal, and I think he’s gonna make a great record.


Hey Gene...like my shirt? Please don't sue.

Paragon Rob: No offense to you or any of those countdown kind of shows, but do you think that maybe MTV and VH1 will someday stop with the list shows and start playing videos again?

Scott Ian: That’ll only ever happen when fire and brimstone rains from the sky. ::laughs::: No, but seriously, that’ll only happen if they see that playing videos is going to bring in advertising dollars. I mean, I always understood it was a business from back in the ‘80s when we were on Headbangers Ball. Even just back then, we always knew this is a business, it’s not personal. They weren’t not playing Metal videos because they had something personal against Metal, it’s just certain types of music allow them to sell advertising for more money. Just like now, it’s all programming, it’s not videos anymore, because programming allows them to sell their advertising time for more money. So if they were able to find out, for some reason, that all of a sudden playing videos was bringing in bigger advertising money, you’d see how fast they’d go back to playing videos. I mean, it’s as simple as that. It’s whatever makes their stock price go up in the morning. That’s what they’re gonna do on that channel. It’s Viacom, it’s like the biggest company in the world. That’s all that matters. They’ll turn it into the 24-hour Chess and Checkers Network if it meant they could sell more advertising. I’m completely serious, that’s all it comes down to.

Steve C: Hypothetical Situation: You have a big tribute to Gene Simmons’ makeup tattooed on your ankle. One day, you get a very polite call from Mr. Simmons requesting that you (and every other fan with a KISS tattoo) respectfully pay him five cents a day for the privilege of displaying his trademarked image on your flesh.

Scott Ian: ::Laughs:: Seriously, I can say that that is one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked! (thank you, thank you, thank you... I'll be here all night, folks... -SC)

Steve C: Do you cough up the minimal amount of cash, or tell him to go kiss off?

Scott Ian: ::Laughs:: Well, first I’d ask him, “What are the penalties for not paying?” Strangely enough that you asked me that question, years ago, when I got the tattoo and I was with Gene (I had known him for a while), and I was like, “Wait ‘til you see my tattoo,” and he’s like, “What,” and I showed him my leg, and he just kinda shakes his head a little bit and goes, “Scott, you’re a very sick man. But take a picture of it because I’ll use it somewhere.” ::laughs::: So I would have to say, I would tell him to go fuck off, but if it meant I could keep my tattoo, then I guess I would cough up the 5 cents a day. Anything for Gene and KISS. ::laughs:::

Paragon Rob: The only East Coast date on your tour is in New Jersey, and you will also be filming the DVD at that show. Of all places you could have played on the East Coast, why Jersey, especially for filming a DVD?

Scott Ian: There were a lot of reasons. One was that we were originally going to film the DVD in Chicago. Like the first weekend that we were doing shows, we played Detroit and two nights at House of Blues in Chicago. So the plan was let’s film for two nights, that’ll also give us the opportunity to have two nights on film in case anything goes wrong, blah blah blah. But then we were like, “Well, you know what? This is like the second and third shows that we’re doing with this reunion lineup, it seems a little risky to do it so early. We should probably wait until we get some shows under our belt just so we’re tighter, and we’re better as band. Give ourselves a chance to gel and get out there and do some shows.” So we went out there, we played Detroit and Chicago, we played a couple shows in Europe, we toured Australia, we did Vegas and L.A., and now we’ve got 13 shows and we’re super-tight. So the plan was, let’s do an East Coast show, because we had done those Midwest dates, we had done those West Coast dates, and since we’re not going to do a full-blown U.S. tour until the Fall, we said, “We gotta do an East Coast date. We gotta at least give them a taste of what’s happening here.” So that’s where the idea came to shoot the DVD on the East Coast, because we have to get that done in time to put it out in the Fall, and so we started thinking about venues in NY, and originally, yeah, we were going to try and play in the City, but really what it came down to is just a lack of the proper venues, and also availabilities. It was already too late to hold a lot of these places and Starland just turned out to be the perfect place at the perfect time. It was available the weekend we needed it, and it’s the perfect size, it’s not too big, it’s not too small, and it’ll look great, and we knew we would do well there, because look, we always do well in that area. Every time we played the Birch Hill we sold out. Even when we play the City, people travel from Jersey, it’s not like everyone just comes from Manhattan. None of our fans actually live in Manhattan, our fans can’t afford to live in Manhattan. ::laughs::: Everyone comes from somewhere else when you play the City, most of which are coming from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and New Jersey.

Paragon Rob: Can we expect any surprises the night of the DVD shoot? Any special guests?

Scott Ian: Special guests, not that I know of. Surprises: we’re playing a lot of songs that people haven’t seen us play since Joey was in the band. There are a lot of songs that we haven’t played since ’86, ’87. If you’re going to do a reunion tour, you gotta pull out some stuff that you haven’t done in a long time, otherwise, what’s the point? Yeah, people are going to see songs that they’ve been asking us to play for 15 years, and now we’re doing it finally.

Paragon Rob: I’ve seen some recent shots of you with a guitar that I’ve wanted for such a long time, the Washburn Dime Southern Cross. Will you be using that one a lot on this tour, in memory of Dime?

Scott Ian: Yeah, I use it every night. I was given that as a gift by one of the big Washburn dealers when we were in Chicago a few weeks ago, and I was just blown away. I couldn’t believe that they gave that to me, and normally with a guitar like that, (that’s the type of guitar that would stay home because I get too worried about guitars on tour either getting stolen or something happening to them, getting smashed up) it’s just such a piece of art and a collector’s item that my initial instinct was, “I’m going to send this one home,” but I looked at it and I played it that night in Chicago that night for an encore and I thought, “This guitar needs to be played, I’m not serving this guitar well at all if it just sits in a case under a bed.” It needs to be played, and I do play it every night.


Scott Ian with one of his signature model Jackson guitars.

Paragon Rob: Aside from the emotional aspect of it all, has Dime’s passing changed anything else for you? Particularly security? Do you eye people up differently?

Scott Ian: No, I can’t say that I do. That was such an anomaly, I mean, it’s just such an insane circumstance and situation, I could never imagine that happening, and it did, so then it makes you think, “Well anything can happen.” And of course, everybody knows that, but at the same time, I don’t think that would ever happen again. I don’t want to believe that it could ever happen again, and I’m not gonna live my life thinking that it is gonna happen again.

Paragon Rob: After everything that happened with Dime, it really brought a lot of people in the metal scene closer together, it really showed a lot of us banding together. But at the same time, the fact that the murder was carried out by a deranged fan made the metal community look bad, and we’ve always looked bad to people outside the loop. Do you think the public got the impression that we are just as violent as they always thought, or that maybe we’re not all so bad since we all kinda banded together?

Scott Ian: I don’t think you could take one maniac’s actions. Look, yeah, of course, Heavy Metal fans, Heavy Metal music, has always been looked down upon by the general public because of the imagery, because of the way people look or dress, the music, the lyrics, the aggressiveness, the attitude. It’s not for everyone’s taste, obviously. It’s not white bread and milk. It’s a lot more aggressive than that, but I don’t think one maniac’s actions are going to cause the general public to judge now and say, “All Heavy Metal is like that, all the fans are like that.” I don’t think you can make that statement. I don’t believe it anyway.

Paragon Rob: I had seen an interview you did years ago for The Sound of White Noise, where you jokingly said that Rap and Metal are to blame for every bad thing since the Holocaust. The problem with the world is that there are in fact some people who agree with that, and those guys aren’t joking. Is it safe to say that the terrorists hate America for our Metal, and that is why we have so many problems with them now?

Scott Ian: ::Laughs:: No, I think, if anything, the terrorists would probably identify with Heavy Metal more so than other types of music, because of the attitude and the aggressiveness. Then again, I don’t know if Muslims would even be allowed to listen to it. ::laughs::: But no, I don’t think the terrorists hate us for our Heavy Metal. I would hope they would hate us for our Celine Dions more so than our Heavy Metal. ::laughs:::

Paragon Rob: Anthrax has been around for 20 years now, most new bands can’t even release 20 songs before their 15 minutes are over. What is the secret to your staying power? Any advice you can give to guys who are starting off who probably have big dreams but unfortunately, little hope?

Scott Ian: I wish there was a secret because then we could write the book and go on Oprah and sell millions of copies. I don’t know, it just keeps going, basically. This is our life, it’s what we do. In a sense, it’s our job, but at the same time, it’s the job that we love. We’ve all been privileged to have been able to do this all these years, and establish a career and fan base, and be able to keep doing it, and be able to keep making records and keep touring and, obviously, we are a great live band, no bones about it, we fucken rule live and we always have, and I think we’ve never repeated ourselves, we’re constantly trying to push ourselves and the envelope creatively, and that’s what keeps you interested too, is that challenge, the challenge of having to make another record, and the idea of, “OK, we just finished a record, and two years from now it’s gonna be time for another one and where is that one gonna go?” So that mystery also, that challenge of creativity, I love that. I love getting to do what I do, every aspect of it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I’m sure there are a thousand other guys in all those other bands out there that all feel the same way. Why one band lasts longer than another, that I really don’t know. I don’t know if people lose their interest, they lose their love, I dunno. Look at a band like The Stones, they don’t need to do it anymore but they still want to. It’s not like they tour because they need the money. They obviously tour because they love being on stage and playing their songs. And why not? I can definitely identify with that.

Paragon Rob: You mentioned selling your book on Oprah, but then you’d have to deal with people saying, “Hey, why were you on Oprah?”

Scott Ian: Yeah, well, because I wanted to sell my book. Simple. ::laughs :

Steve C: You married MEAT LOAF Aday’s lovely daughter?

Scott Ian: No, we’re engaged.

Steve C: Now that you’re going to be family, has Mr. Loaf been able to transcend any priceless music business wisdom to you?

Scott Ian: No. ::laughs:: No, not really. I mean, he’s obviously been doing it longer than I have, but other than just that we’ve both been doing it a long time, and we’ve both been through a lot of the same stuff, we can share stories, and I definitely love hearing his stories, but as far as music business wisdom, I think we both feel the same about the business. You just hope to survive it sometimes. ::laugh::

Steve C: We’d like to ransack your porn collection if you don’t mind. What kind of titles are we going to find?

Scott Ian: ::Laugh:: I don’t have one. Simple. Doesn’t exist. Not at all. For a while, we were getting Playboy here, but that stopped and we don’t even get that anymore.

Paragon Rob: Well, this interview has been awesome, and a real privilege.

Scott Ian: No worries.

Paragon Rob: Any last words or plugs for our readers?

Scott Ian: We’ll see you at the show, and we’ll see you on tour this Fall. Come out and enjoy it, because this might be the only time you ever get to see this, so come out and have fun with us.

Be sure to check out the official ANTHRAX website - Anthrax.com

for upcoming tour dates.

This interview will also appear in the September 2005 issue of Paragon Music Magazine.