Get Ready For This
A fistful of Anthrax never felt so good.
By Erik Fong

What do you do when your two most recent albums are blocked from reaching their full potential due to unfortunate business circumstances, your band name is a threat to national security and the genre that you helped make famous is practically foreign to the new MTV generation? If you're Anthrax, you pick your head up, record another album, get another record deal and take no shit along the way.

As part of the original "Axis of Thrash Metal" with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, Anthrax had the most exciting personality out of the bunch. In the '80s, they toured with Public Enemy, wore Gotcha shorts and backwards hats instead of leather and spikes, and gave Metallica a toaster oven and refrigerator when they were recording their first album in New York. In the '90s, Anthrax was forced "underground" thanks to the gentle, caring and sympathetic industry more commonly known as "the fucking music business" – but not one single ounce of their fall from mainstream was ever attributed to lack of talent. And despite their bad business karma, the Anthrax members have managed to continue their careers in music, because honesty, persistence and the power of a loyal fanbase all outweigh the lying, cheating and backstabbing behind the scenes.

In honor of Anthrax's upcoming album (due May 6 through Sanctuary Records), We've Come For You All, vocalist John Bush (formerly of Armored Saint - and currently one of the best rock singers in the world, dammit) gave us a call from his wife's office in Los Angeles. Among other things, we discussed the new album, wearing shoes in the shower and John's secret love of techno jock rock.

Perfect Pitch Online: How are you feeling?
John Bush: Good. Hungry, but good. We love our record, we put a lot of hard work and energy into making it; we've gone through a couple of grueling years, dealing with a lot of music business bullshit that can weigh down on you like a giant anchor. But right now, everything is shining.

PP: We've Come For You All is already selling well in Europe, which is interesting because the view of metal in Europe is very different than in America. Why is metal is so much bigger overseas than here?
JB: There was a period of time where metal went through a bad phase here in the States, and it never did that over there. Maybe because the big negative association with heavy metal had a lot to do with hair metal – and let's face it, a lot of those groups weren't metal bands anyways, they were pop bands. Not taking anything away from what they did, but bands like Warrant and Cinderella weren't metal, they were more like pop groups, and those bands were never big in Europe anyways. I'm sure they did okay, but never to the point of what bands like Anthrax did. So when it died over here and bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden took over, and everyone was like, "We don't like heavy metal anymore," that was never the case in Europe. I don't think there was ever that backlash, so that's why metal never really went away there.

PP: As for the new album, it definitely seems more riff-oriented than your two previous albums, Stomp 442 and Volume 8. Was that a conscious effort to bring the guitar riffs back to the forefront of the music?
JB: I don't think it was a conscious effort. Maybe Charlie and Scott, who came up with the bulk of the riffs, just felt "riffier" this time. I'd like to think it was a natural progression, because the last couple records – and I tend to agree with what you're saying – were that way.

PP: How long was it before you got used to hearing your own voice on an album?
JB: I've always been okay with my voice on records. I think I still sound like an idiot when I record myself on cassette, but I'm pretty comfortable with myself as a singer. Of course, listening back to old Armored Saint records, I sound a lot different than I do now because my voice was higher and I sang differently, but I dig it. It's not like I'm narcissistically saying, "Hey, I gotta hear myself!" But I'm confident with my abilities as a singer.

PP: Name a CD in your collection that nobody knows you own.
JB: 2 Unlimited. There you go. My wife just helped me out with that one.

PP: Who?
JB: They're a group from Holland, they've done techno jock rock songs. [John then shamelessly breaks into 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready For This."] I hadn't listened to their album in a long time, my wife and I were goofing around and I put it on, and we started dancing. She hurt her knee when she was a gymnast, and actually re-injured her knee dancing to 2 Unlimited. She wasn't into [2 Unlimited], but I'm still into them. And every time I go to Holland I ask, "Hey, how's 2 Unlimited?" People are usually like, "What? You listen to 2 Unlimited?" I'll say yeah and start singing some of their songs. I think that confuses some people.

PP: No shit. So, what's the worst motel in the world?
JB: There are a lot of bad ones. Just recently, I think we did a show outside of Fort Lauderdale; we changed hotels so we could be closer to the venue, and we actually ended up staying at this place that… I don't think anyone took their shoes off to go take a shower because it was that gross. You didn't want to touch anything including the knob on the TV even though the TV was barely working. They didn't want to give us any extra towels. It was bad. The people who ran it were pretty dirty and scummy. But I've stayed at a lot of gross motels over the years.

PP: How often do you splurge for nicer hotel rooms?
JB: Scott and I have done a lot of press tours, and when we do those, usually the record company will put us up at really nice five star hotels. Those are the kinds of places that we wouldn't stay at on our own because we wouldn't want to pay that much money, so sometimes we just get day rooms because we don't want to blow the money on a hotel. But we've stayed at some really nice hotels in Europe.

PP: If you could go back 20 years and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
JB: Probably to save a little more money over the years. I don't think I've saved money in the best of ways, so I could've been a bit more resourceful. I've had awesome experiences and I'd take nothing away from those, but there are ways I've blown money and I could've saved more for the future. Or perhaps to be a little bit more headstrong when dealing with the music business, because it's pretty ruthless and there's a lot of bullshit and a lot of cutthroat people out there. I've always just loved music; the business was something I've always hated dealing with. That's probably why I spend money incorrectly.

PP: How do you spend your downtime?
JB: Living life like the Spaniards, my wife just said. Anthrax just came back from Spain – my wife met me there and we stayed a couple extra days. People in Spain, they just walk and live life, and they don't seem to be caught up in the bullshit and materialistic items surrounding them. They just take it one day at a time, and I'm really inspired by that. It's all about the little things.

Purchase Anthrax's latest album, We've Come For You All, through Amazon.com.