Q & A with Scott Ian
From club gigs with Metallica to property destruction with Pantera,
Anthrax's Scott Ian tells Chris Ingham how the moshers from NYC keep on going.
Can you remember the first gig that Anthrax ever played?
"The band officially started in July '81 and the first gig was in a church basement, St. John's Episcopal in Flushing, NY, around September. Our guitarist was called Kenny Kushner and he had an arrangement with the church whereby we had a room but we had to hire the PA, lights and sell all tickets ourselves. About 30 people turned up and we did Maiden, Motörhead and Priest covers. When we opened the show Danny [Lilker] sat at a piano playing the piano prelude to Judas Priest's "Tyrant", the he ran over and picked up his bass for the next bit!"
So when did the 'Thrax first hit the road for a van tour?
"We started gigging properly around the Tri-State area at the start of '83. By then Metallica had "Kill 'Em All" out and that was when the underground was taking off. If you look on the inside sleeve of "Kill 'Em All" you'll see a live shot of Metallica stood behind amps that had Anthrax and Kiss painted on 'em - they we're ours! We used to lend Metallica gear when they came to NYC and they helped us out on the West Coast. "The first proper van tour we did was after "Fistful of Metal" was released in January '84. We supported Raven in the States and Canada - six weeks in one van. Thinking back, the conditions were fuckin' terrible, but we couldn't give a shit. We didn't use motels, we didn't shower, so we stunk real bad!".
Can you remember how it felt to see someone you didn't know wearing
one of your T-shirts for the first time?
"People talk about Spinal Tap - our t-shirt guy came up with fuckin' pink sweatshirts with the Anthrax logo on them!. We were like, 'Are you fucking retarded?!' So when I saw someone wearing one of our shirts I was moved to tears, like 'Dude, don't wear that!'"
When, and where, was the Anthrax's first overseas gig?
"It was in Germany in April 1986. In fact, it was a Metal Hammer tour with Overkill and Agent Steel, and we headlined 15 shows. We were ecstatic doing it. It was rough cos it was three bands on one bus - not a bus with bunks but with seats. The funniest thing about the tour was the Agent Steel singer who was a total freak. This guy, John Sirus, literally believed that he was an alien and he would sign his name 'John Sirus 2011'. I asked him what '2011' was about and he told me that that was gonna be the year 'his race' were coming back to collect him. He used to get into fist fights with his own band and crew 'cos he was such a whacko. It turned out he and one of his crew guys were arrested for kidnapping some dude and torturing him in a hotel room in LA!"
When did the infamous Bermuda shorts first make an onstage appearance?
"The first gig after we fired Neil Turbin [deranged former vocalist who paraded around with a metal glove onstage]. I always wore shorts during the day anyway, but come gig time he would insist we put on these tight leather pants, 'cos that's what heavy metal bands do.' "The first set of shows we did in England we had to do something like 40 photo sessions 'cos Europe was so obsessed with the shorts and the baseball caps, and we couldn't understand it. Why would we? It was just what we wore! It wasn't like i would be wearing Levi's and then change into shorts for a photo..."
The 'Bring The Noise ' tour with Public Enemy must have been an interesting experience for Anthrax...
"It wasn't like a black crowd who came out at all - it was an open minded rock crowd mixed with a few white hip-hop fans. Chuck [D, Public Enemy rapper] told me they knew they had a bigger white audience than black, so they were totally cool about touring with us and Primus. Those shows were colossal for us - we sold out Irvine Meadows in New York with 15,000 people!"
What's the most excesive tour you've ever been part of?
"I've been on tour since the summer of 1984, but the most tour fun took 13 years to happen. It was with Pantera through the winter last year. I drank more in three months than I did in three years. It was totally excessive: the shows, the playing, the fans, the booze, the craziness...every night! We would do 'Dethroned' [Emperor, Celtic Frost] every show and Phil [Anselmo] would sing it with us, Darrel [Pant's guitarist] played half our set with us and i'd play back up with them for half of their's - fuckin' awesome, dude!
I hope to God they want to tour the UK with us sometime soon."
How did you handle the ego wars with Slayer and Megadeth during The Clash Of The Titans US tour?
"The real problems were with keeping Megadeth happy 'cos Dave Mustaine at that time was a total prick. He's cooled out now, but back then...Jesus! Dave point blank refused to go on after Slayer, so we had to rotate the bill. Which basically meant that if closed Megadeth opened and Slayer were in the middle; and if Slayer closed it was Anthrax who opened, and so on. All because of Dave. It was too gay for words. And how could you be so down on your own band like that? "Last time I met Dave has was a completely different person, really nice and attentive. We're up for playing with Megadeth whenever they want now and we've even talked to Slayer about doing another Clash Of The Titans-type of tour, so let's see..."
Out of the hundreds of shows that Anthrax have done, which one is most special to you?
"Donington in 1987 was very special. Metallica were introducing Jason [Newsted] that day so they were up for it, but the bill that year was split between us and Metallica and all these glam bands. It was a real 'us and them' vibe from the crowd. We blew everyone away that day, including Metallica. In fact, there's someone in Metallica who still has a problem to this day about how good a gig we did at Donington. "The Clash Of The Titans" Madison Square Garden gig was special, too, because if I never play another gig in my life I'll know that Anthrax headlined the Garden and I can die happy. That was the night we played 'Bring The Noise' live with Chuck D and Flavor Flav for the first time. I'll put that moment of crowd hysteria up against anything I've ever seen in my life, it was so intense!"
Who's been the most considerate headline band you've supported?
"Iron Maiden, without a doubt. That's were we learned how to treat a support band. Kiss were super cool to us and Ozzy himself was really good, but behind the scenes his people tried to fuck with us constantly. Maiden went out of their way to see that we were fine and they did that because they were secure with who they were."
So who was the worst headline band you ever supported?
"This goes back to one of the really early shows that we did with a band called Exciter and [ex-Mr Big bass man] Billy Sheehan's old band, Talas, who were total assholes. We had to pay their roadies 200 bucks to move their fucking drumkit off the stage. They wouldn't even talk to us or acknowledge our presence backstage. Dickheads. "Metallica fucked with us, too. We went from the Monsters Of Rock shows with Maiden and Kiss to supporting Metallica at the start of the 'Justice...' tour, as a favour to them, and it wasn't good. They had these steps onstage leading up to the drum riser, and they were so big that Charlie's drums were gonna be hanging off the stage if they didn't move them. And you know what? They wouldn't move them a fuckin' inch! Metallica were adamant: 'nothing can be done.' So we didn't play. We didn't need the money and we didn't need the hassle of drums falling offstage."
Have you ever indulged in that timehonoured tradition of hotel trashing?
"Absolutely not. Not ever! OK, so I'm lying. I still break things up when I can. There's something cathartic about property destruction. Even if I wasn't in a band I'd break things. "John Bush ['Thrax vocalist] even impressed Pantera with his antics on tour. We were playing next to this huge convention hall in Albaquerque and the cleaners had piled a huge 30-ft long, 10-ft high mound of rubbish in the middle of the floor waiting for collection. So after the gig Bush hijacked a fork lift and tries to run everyone down, but ends up crashing through this pile of rubbish, blasting it everywhere and crashing into the wall! Darrel was so pissed cos he didn't do it first, but he did tape it, and we'll get it on our next home video!"