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\n\u201cWe stand by every word in our official statement. Because all we\u2019ve done is make public exactly what Dan told us. He certainly was not fired \u2013 he quit the band, and we accepted his resignation. As for those comments about being fit to go on the road, and that we pulled the tour for other reasons\u2026since Charlie (Benante, drums) join us in 1983, we\u2019ve only ever cancelled one gig. That was in D\u00fcsseldorf in 1987, when Charlie was running a really high fever, and we had to send him to London for treatment. When we didn\u2019t make it onto the plane to go to Sweden recently, to start our European run of dates, it went against every molecule in my body, and the same goes for the rest of the band.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a band, we learnt a long time ago that in these situations, it\u2019s always best to tell the truth, If you lie, then it comes back to bite you in the ass. That\u2019s why we were careful at every step to put things exactly the way Dan had told them to us. Why has he changed his story now? I can only assume it\u2019s to save his own skin, and to avoid being seen as the bad guy. I can\u2019t say that I blame him. But we have absolutely been completely truthful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ed Trunk, the rotund DJ on New Radio station Q104.3 and apparent longtime friend of the band, pointed out two days back that any person who had actually seen Anthrax perform at the Rocklahoma Festival on July 9th couldn\u2019t help but notice there was an uneasiness onstage between the band and Nelson. Ian adds:<\/p>\n
\u201cEd\u2019s been a friend of ours for 25 years; there are few people closer to Anthrax. So when he says he could spot problems\u2026well, I can\u2019t deny it. In fact, things were weird between Dan and us from December. I\u2019d love to say a lot more, and I will as soon as I\u2019m able, but right now, I just cannot go into any further detail.\u201d
\nWith the exception of one show, the band have now pulled all their European commitments, and also the Summer American tour planned with Slipknot and The Black Dahlia Murder. The sole remaining date is at the Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth Park on August 1. For this event, Anthrax will be joined by John Bush, the vocalist who spent 12 years with them from 1992, in what is being billed as a one-off performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hoping to do the Wacken Festival in Germany the previous day as well, but the scheduling didn\u2019t work out. As it is, John\u2019s had to change a lot of things around in his life to get to Sonisphere, and we\u2019re very grateful to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the first guy we called when the whole thing went down with Dan. And all of us are delighted that he can do this gig \u2013 it\u2019ll be great fun. Obviously, our set will be different to the one we\u2019d worked out with Dan. It\u2019ll be more oriented towards the Bush era, although still concentrating on our most popular songs. That\u2019s what a festival crowd expects.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, in the back of his mind, is Ian hoping that this show might lead to something more permanent with Bush?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not in the back of my mind \u2013 it\u2019s right at the front of it. When our reunion tour with Joe Belladonna and Dan Spitz finished in 2007, we (Ian, Benante and bassist Frank Bello) wanted both John and (guitarist) Rob Caggiano to come back. Well, Rob returned but not John. Now, though, we\u2019ve Sonisphere to look forward to with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love working with John, and I know I speak for everyone involved with Anthrax \u2013 the band and the fans \u2013 when I say that the best thing for us would for this to turn into a long-term relationship. But I don\u2019t want to jump the gun. Let\u2019s see how things go at Sonisphere, and take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthrax, of course, have a new album virtually finished and ready to go. Or, at least they did have. Worship Music was due out at the end of October on Nuclear Blast. But now, everything\u2019s back in the melting pot.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil we have a new singer, I can\u2019t tell you what will happen to the record. We\u2019ll probably change a few things on it, including the vocals. However, nothing\u2019s been decided, expect that the release date will go back, possibly to next year. All I can say in conclusion is that it\u2019s been a really interesting time to be in Anthrax!\u201d \u201cWe stand by every word in our official statement. Because all we\u2019ve done is make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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