John Bush Says Scott Ian Wanted In on His Anthrax-Era Gigs As a Third Guitarist
It’s shaping up to be one of the more anticipated concert runs of the year, but John Bush is finally giving his Anthrax years the spotlight they deserve. Earlier this summer, the legendary vocalist announced a December run of shows dedicated entirely to the four albums he fronted during his decade with the band: Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442, Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, and We’ve Come for You All.
Bush won’t be going it alone, either. He’ll be backed by his Category 7 bandmates — Phil Demmel (guitar), Mike Orlando (guitar), and Jason Bittner (drums) — plus longtime Armored Saint brother-in-arms Joey Vera on bass. (Category 7’s usual bassist, Jack Gibson, has a schedule conflict and can’t make the gigs.)
Speaking with Eonmusic, Bush admitted he’s been itching to make this happen for a while:
“Well, you could be a contributing force, for sure. I’ve been talking about it and wanting to do this for a long time. It was just a matter of finding the right time to do it. I love those tunes, I want to play these songs live. I’ve been practicing them, and they sound pretty awesome.”
Naturally, the question came up whether any of his former Anthrax bandmates might make guest appearances. Bush made it clear the door is wide open:
“My opinion is with those guys, it’s their music. It’s their songs; they wrote them. They can do whatever they want. If they want to come out for a song, great. If they don’t want to come out for any, great. You know, it doesn’t matter. If they want to play ten songs, great. The door is open, and they could do whatever they want in conjunction with it, or nothing. As we get closer to the shows, we’ll see where people are at with scheduling.”
As for Scott Ian, Bush says they even joked about him joining in:
“Scott asked about being the third guitar player on one of the shows. He had said, ‘Would you like a third guitar player?’, and I was cracking up, but I don’t know how completely sincere he was about it. I think it was, but he has a conflict with the date in Los Angeles, and that’s where Scott lives. He has a wedding in New York, so I was saying, ‘Well, maybe New York?’, but I don’t know if he’s going to be there that long, so who knows?”
At the end of the day, Bush just wants these shows to feel like a party, not a rivalry:
“I do want it to feel celebratory. I have a few other people in line to come up maybe and do some songs. I just want it to feel kind of like a party, almost, a celebration of those songs and those records. It’s not a competition with Anthrax. I want it to just feel like a fun event to be at.”
So yeah — Bush is finally giving fans the chance to rage through the Sound of White Noise era the way it was meant to be heard: loud, live, and unapologetically celebratory.
