Four decades into their careers, thrash metal band Anthrax still has no intention of turning down the bass.
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Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian confirmed in an interview with SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk" that the group is not pulling the plug on their career.
Anthrax recently released "Cursum Perficio," its first new album in a decade. When asked if the album could be the band's last, Ian threw cold water on the idea.
"Don't you think, if that was the plan, we would play that card, like so many other bands have, and say, 'This is it. Look, the album title says it. Our journey is over, so you better buy this one. You better go buy tickets. We're only gonna tour now and do this for five more years,' and then make an excuse why, 'Well, we said the journey was over, but it was only kind of over. So now we're making another record,'" Ian told Eddie Trunk.
According to Blabbermouth, Ian added that many bands pump fake farewell tours to generate more buzz and money.
"You know the line everybody hears — it gets thrown around all the time. It's one of those ultimate lines you hear all the time. 'You know you're leaving a lot of money on the table.' That's what you hear all the time. I'm not talking about us, because we haven't said we're retiring, but I hear about the other bands that have said they're retiring, and then they come back, and it's always, 'Well, they were leaving a lot of money on the table.' [Laughs]"
Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante reiterated that the band is not retiring and compared their decades-spanning career to owning a store.
"When you get to a certain level, then you have managers, agents who are, like, 'Man, there's still a market for you guys.' And then they talk to one guy and that guy's, like, 'Well, I'm cool if he'll do it.' And then it starts to become, 'Okay, let's do it again.' How do you stop? How many years have we put into this already? 40-something years. So you built the store. Why close it?"
Benante noted that, decades later, the band still gets a rush from touring.
"I truly believe that going out and playing shows keeps us young," Benante told the LA Times earlier this month. "We get in a zone, and the music takes over and the energy going through our bodies is the same as it was when we were 20. Why would we ever want to give that up?"
