According to Metal Journal, a small mural of iconic MÖTÖRHEAD leader Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister recently appeared on a street in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The identity of the artist is unknown at the moment, but the mural can be found on Iturribide, a well-known street to all the heavy metal fans in Bilbao since some of the most popular heavy metal pubs have been located there since the Eighties.

Lemmy died in December 2015 at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

He had dealt with several health issues over the last few years of his life, including heart trouble, forcing him to cut back on his famous smoking habits.

MOTÖRHEAD had to cancel a number of shows in 2015 because of Lemmy’s poor health, although the band did manage to complete one final European tour a couple of weeks before his death.

In June 2020, it was announced that Lemmy will get the biopic treatment. The upcoming film, “Lemmy”, will be directed by Greg Olliver, who previously helmed the 2010 documentary of the same name, “Lemmy”.

“Lemmy” will follow Kilmister’s life growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, becoming a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and a member of seminal psychedelic rock band HAWKWIND before forming MOTÖRHEAD.

A custom-made urn containing Lemmy’s ashes is on permanent display in a columbarium at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Images courtesy of Pedro Alonso / Metal Journal

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Legendary drummer Carmine Appice (BLUE MURDER, VANILLA FUDGE, KING KOBRA) has once again slammed the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, saying that the name of the institution should be changed to reflect the musicians that have been inducted.

“VANILLA FUDGE should be in,” he told North Coast Music Beat in a new interview (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “I thought it was about inspiration and all that stuff, influences on people. C’mon, THE GO-GO’S went in. Who did they influence? I know them. They’re nice people and everything. But c’mon, man. They should it the Music Hall Of Fame and just have it for… not influence and not what the Hall was originally made for. Like I’m in the Modern Drummer Hall Of Fame. I’m in there because of my influence and what I’ve done for drumming. Long Island has a Music Hall Of Fame; VANILLA FUDGE are in there for the same reason. I’m in the Heavy Metal Hall Of Fame for the influence; I’m not in there for how many records I sold. Back in the day, you’ve got guys like Chuck Berry are in it. He’s in it for the influence…

“Why do they leave out groups like FOREIGNER, groups like VANILLA FUDGE?” he continued. “DEEP PURPLE is in it now. But before DEEP PURPLE, we should have been in there. I mean, c’mon. We influenced so many bands. We created a style of music. We were there when the FM radio station was starting… We started the long song. And we’re still doing it, we’re still alive. And they’ve got people in there that are not alive, which is fine.

“One good thing they did [is] they showed [late VANILLA FUDGE bassist] Tim Bogert’s picture, of the people who died. And I’m happy they did that. But otherwise, change the name. You’re putting rappers in there, you’re putting people that have nothing to do with rock in there. I mean, THE GO-GO’S. How rock is THE GO-GO’S? THE RUNAWAYS are not in it, and they were all female. They were the first female [rock band]. And that’s about influence. It’s stupid.

“People go, ‘Don’t you care that you’re not in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?’ I said, ‘I don’t really care, because it’s getting cheesy now,'” Carmine added. “I know people who are in there, and it didn’t change their career. It did nothing for them other than getting an HBO special. That’s it.”

For the past few years, the Rock Hall has broadened its base to include rap artists such as the late Tupac Shakur and N.W.A. The move has drawn criticism from many fans and fellow musicians who have taken issue with hip-hop acts — and other non-rock artists — being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Carmine’s autobiography, “Stick It!: My Life Of Sex, Drums, And Rock ‘N’ Roll”, was released in May 2016 by Chicago Review Press.

VANILLA FUDGE was one of the first American groups to infuse psychedelia into heavy rock sound to create “psychedelic symphonic rock,” an eclectic genre which would, among its many offshoots, eventually morph into heavy metal.

Although, at first, the band did not record original material, they were best known for their dramatic heavy, slowed-down arrangements of contemporary pop songs which they developed into works of epic proportion.

Originally, VANILLA FUDGE was a blue-eyed soul cover band called THE PIGEONS, formed in New Jersey in 1965 with organist Mark Stein, bassist Tim Bogert, drummer Joey Brennan and guitarist, vocalist and U.S. Navy veteran Vince Martell. They built a following by gigging extensively up and down the East Coast and earned extra money by providing freelance in-concert backing for hit-record girl groups. In early 1966, the group recorded a set of eight demos that were released several years later as “While the World Was Eating Vanilla Fudge”.

The East Coast, in particular New York and New Jersey, created a sound all its own. Inspired by groups such as THE RASCALS and THE VAGRANTS (fronted by guitarist Leslie West of MOUNTAIN fame), THE PIGEONS reworked many of their own existing arrangements of covers to reflect their unique interpretation of this “East Coast Sound.”

In late 1966, drummer Joey Brennan moved out to the West Coast. THE PIGEONS immediately drafted drummer and vocalist Carmine Appice, a disciple of the renowned Joe Morello (DAVE BRUBECK BAND) and a seasoned veteran of the club scene. In early 1967, THE PIGEONS manager Phil Basile convinced producer George “Shadow” Morton (producer for THE SHANGRI-LAS and Janis Ian), to catch their live act. Impressed by their heavy-rocking, trippy and psychedelic version of THE SUPREMES’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, Morton offered to record the song as a single. This resulted in a deal with the Atlantic subsidiary Atco, which requested a name change. The band settled on VANILLA FUDGE.

VANILLA FUDGE celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017 and is still rocking the world as hard as ever.

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In a brand new interview with Loudwire, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows spoke about the band’s seeming reluctance to return to playing live shows without having a new album and a new stage production to go along with it. “It’s not that we don’t want to [book dates],” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “It’s just that we have to be very careful about getting everything going, building a whole new stage set, hiring everybody, renting buses and then having one person get sick and the tour gets canceled and we get to be on the hook for everything. And it’s not that we don’t wanna do it.

“People compare us to bands that are going and playing clubs,” he continued. “It’s not the same thing. Getting an arena tour going and playing these festivals, it’s just not the same thing. And also we wanna be mentally ready.

“These are all gonna sound like crazy excuses, but these are real. We have a huge stage that we wanna get built. We can’t get people to work. We can’t get the supplies we need to build it, which there’s a supply chain problem as well. Go look at the Long Beach, at the port right now, and these boats are just stuck out there. And so we have all these things going on where we’re not gonna come back on stage and have the stage from ‘The Stage’ record and then just go, ‘Well, same show four years later. Sorry, guys. The record’s not done ’cause we couldn’t finish it.’

“So, I would just say starting in January, we are gonna put our nose to the grind and we are gonna finish this [new AVENGED SEVENFOLD] record,” M. Shadows added. “And then we’re doing a couple of shows in Europe. And then I would love to — and I don’t wanna step on [festival organizer] Danny Wimmer’s toes here — but I would love to start at [the] Aftershock [festival in October 2022] and then book a tour out from there.

“So, we’re gonna be doing stuff. But, yeah, it’s just kind of making sure we’re mentally there and we put our best foot forward when we do come out and make sure that it’s all good.”

Back in February, M. Shadows told the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X that “70 percent” of the follow-up to “The Stage” was “done.” He said: “We’re working on stuff. We have some things we can’t finish right now ’cause of COVID — string players, et cetera. We know Andy [Wallace, AVENGED SEVENFOLD’s longtime mixer] doesn’t wanna travel, or his management doesn’t want him to travel because of COVID. So there’s just a lot of things going on.”

Also in February, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance told Detroit’s WRIF radio station that he and his bandmates have done “lots and lots of writing — at a lot slower pacer than usual” — during the coronavirus pandemic. “Now that we are a little bit older, we move around a little bit slower, but [we’ve done] tons of writing,” he said. “We’ve gone to the studio. It was kind of a weird time to do anything in 2020, but that’s when we felt like it was a good time to go out there and start tracking all the stuff that we had in us.

“But, like I said, we’re doing it at a slow pace, so we’re still in the process of recording,” he explained. “We’re taking it really, really slow, making sure everything is the way we like it. We’re not in a big rush to get anything out, mainly ’cause we wanna get on the road, and we wanna be able to bring it to life. We wanna tour, we wanna travel, we wanna play songs that people wanna hear; we wanna expose them to some new stuff. ‘Cause I just feel like rushing to put something out right now and letting it dissipate because of the void, while people are worried about where their next meal is coming from or the paycheck, the last thing in the world on people’s minds is, ‘AVENGED SEVENFOLD’s gonna put out a new album, and that’s gonna be the saving grace for us all.’ And I feel like we’ll take it slow, let the world get a little bit back to normal, and when people are ready, we’ll know — we have a good sense of that. We’ll slowly finish it up, and then unleash it when the world’s ready.”

Last December, M. Shadows told Kerrang! magazine about the musical direction of the new AVENGED material: “The [new] record sounds nothing like ‘The Stage’ — it’s a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done. That’s all I’ll say about it: it’s over the top, and it’s very eclectic and wild.”

AVENGED SEVENFOLD kept a low profile during 2019. A blood blister on M. Shadows’s vocal cords forced the band to cancel a summer 2018 tour with PROPHETS OF RAGE and THREE DAYS GRACE.

“The Stage” was surprise-released in October 2016. The release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in 11 years. It sold 76 thousand copies in its first week, 73 thousand of which were physical.

“The Stage”, AVENGED’s debut for Capitol, sold less than half as many copies in its first week as the group’s two previous efforts, 2010’s “Nightmare” and 2013’s “Hail To The King”.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD recently announced the Deathbats Club, a new level of connecting with fans based around non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — digital assets (free tickets for life, free meet-amd-greets for life, airdrops over the course of each year, drum lessons, guitar lessons, golf lessons, giveaways, skip the lines at shows, poker nights, movie nights, etc.) that can’t be replicated. After an initial drop of 101 free NFTs to whet fans’ appetites, they released 10,000 at the end of November via avengedsevenfold.io, with everyone who buys one becoming part of the community.

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HELMET frontman Page Hamilton has confirmed to the “Thunder Underground” podcast that he is working on material for the band’s first album in more than five years. “I have some scraps. That’s about all,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “I’m writing a piece for this high school in Memphis called the Christian Brothers. It’s their 150th anniversary. It’s the oldest high school orchestra in the country. So I have to finish that. I have some time — [I have to complete it] by 2023; I have a year.

“I’ve kind of started to organize my shit,” he continued. “I’m doing a session next week for an Austrian series, this TV series. It’s like an HBO kind of thing — this six-part thing. And that’s not writing — that’s just [me being] a hired gun. But they’re writing the music around my guitar. And none of it sounds like guitar. [Laughs] He texted me today. He’s, like, ‘This sounds like church bells. I never knew you were religious.’

“But, yeah, the HELMET stuff, I think realistically, once I get back from New Year’s Eve, from [being] in New York, I’m gonna sit down and buckle down,” Page added. “So I’ll do my days where I try to divide it into the orchestral writing thing, this Christian Brothers piece, which is mostly brass and woodwinds and percussion, and then the HELMET stuff. ‘Cause if you’re just beating the pavement on one thing all day every day, I think it can get stale — for me anyway. First thing I do every day is play jazz guitar. So that keeps me excited and happy.

“When I produce bands, I have a whole routine. I have coffee in my hotel room and I play jazz for an hour, an hour and a half. Then I can go and listen to a rock band for 12 hours. If I didn’t do that, I might hang myself.”

HELMET’s first official live album, “Live And Rare”, was released on November 26 via earMUSIC. It was made available on heavyweight black vinyl as well as a CD digipak edition and digital.

Although HELMET disbanded in 1997, Hamilton revived the band in 2004, and the group has continued to tour and record.

HELMET’s latest album, “Dead To The World”, was released in October 2016 via earMUSIC. The effort was produced by Hamilton and mixed by Jay Baumgardner.

Earlier this year, HELMET released a cover of GANG OF FOUR’s 1981 song “Into The Ditch”. The track was recorded for a tribute album to GANG OF FOUR’s guitarist Andy Gill, “The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four”.

Having cut his teeth playing with avant-garde guitar icon Glenn Branca and indie stalwarts BAND OF SUSANS, Hamilton launched HELMET in 1989, and the band released its debut album, “Strap It On”, on the independent Amphetamine Reptile label the following year. HELMET soon became the subject of an unprecedented major-label bidding war, ultimately signing with Interscope and releasing “Meantime” in June 1992.

Even while the band was absent from the spotlight, HELMET continued to exercise considerable influence on multiple generations of bands. Their songs have been covered by the likes of CHEVELLE, DEFTONES, FAITH NO MORE, PIG DESTROYER and SOULFLY, and the band inspired a 2016 HELMET tribute album titled “Meantime Redux”. HELMET has also been cited as a key influence on such bands as GODSMACK, KORN, MARILYN MANSON, MASTODON, PANTERA, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, SEPULTURA, SLIPKNOT, STAIND, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and TOOL.

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DISTURBED frontman David Draiman says that he has lost thousands of social media followers since publicizing his trip to Israel last month.

On November 30, Draiman lit a candle at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel at the Old City site of the terror attack that killed South African immigrant Eli Kay.

At the time, Draiman, who is Jewish, took to his Instagram to share a few photos of his appearance, and included the following message: “A truly wonderful experience. Thanks so much to everyone who came out!”

Earlier today (Friday, December 24), Draiman returned to Instagram to lament the fact that thousands of his fans had apparently taken offense to his decision to share pro-Israel content on his page and had unfollowed him on the platform.

He wrote: “Here’s food for thought.

“Before my recent trip to Israel, I hadn’t used my Instagram account since the DEVICE experiment. It was at 87k followers. I used it again specifically to make my trip and demonstration at the western wall public.

“Since the pictures of my trip and the demonstration were posted, I’m now down 4K followers.

“AND I’D DO IT AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT.

“Very telling isn’t it? #AmYisraelChai”.

A week prior to his visit to Jerusalem, Draiman told The Jerusalem Post that he wanted to make a statement by coming to Israel after seeing the coverage of the attack in which a Hamas gunman opened fire on pedestrians in the Old City.

“The coverage was reprehensible in the vast majority of American and European media,” Draiman said. “It’s scandalous how they presented it. Headlines like ‘Palestinian shot dead.’ Well, why was the Palestinian shot dead? Because he was perpetrating a terrorist attack. I love how the context is always flipped around.”

Although David — who has some 200 relatives living in Israel — had visited the country many times before, DISTURBED’s July 2019 show in Tel Aviv was the band’s first performance in the Jewish state. Draiman addressed the crowd in Hebrew at many points during the show at Live Park Rishon LeZion and sang the Israeli national anthem “Hatikvah”.

Draiman wore an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) T-shirt during the concert and at one point declared: “This is for all the IDF soldiers.”

DISTURBED’s song “Never Again”, from 2010’s “Asylum” album, was written about the Holocaust and calls out people who deny it.

The Tel Aviv show marked the first time DISTURBED performed “Never Again” since 2011.

Both of Draiman’s maternal grandparents were survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while many others on his mother’s side were wiped out by the Nazis.

The United States Holocaust Museum has featured Draiman in its “Voices On Anti-Semitism” podcasts.

In recent years, Draiman spoke out against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Arab citizens equal rights and recognize the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

Nearly two and a half years ago, Draiman spoke to KAN radio, where he called BDS advocates “idiots” and “Nazis in suits.”

Draiman has in the past battled with Twitter trolls who have harassed him about his sometimes-controversial views regarding Israel and its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Draiman has had frequent heated exchanges with followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians.

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A post shared by David Draiman (@davidmdraiman)

David Draiman at the site where Eliyahu Kay was murdered, may he rest in peace!

Posted by David Rich on Tuesday, November 30, 2021

עם ישראל חי
David Draiman

Posted by Alon Levin on Tuesday, November 30, 2021

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A post shared by David Draiman (@davidmdraiman)

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Get a load of this sweet artwork, dedicated to Metallica’s Ride the Lightening, created to support children’s hospital in need.
The post Third World Posse Deals Out Fascinating Metallica-Inspired Artwork appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson joined RAVEN on stage on November 4 at The 44 Sports Grill & Nightlife in Glendale, Arizona to perform a cover of the JUDAS PRIEST classic “Hell Bent For Leather” and the RAVEN original “Seek And Destroy”. Video footage and photos of his appearance can be found below.

RAVEN drummer Mike Heller is Ellefson’s bandmate in THE LUCID, which released its self-titled debut album in October via SpoilerHead Records.

“The Lucid” was produced by Heller and mixed/mastered by Lasse Lammert.

RAVEN’s latest album, “Metal City”, was released in September 2020 via SPV/Steamhammer.

Considered part of the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” movement of the early ’80s, RAVEN is perhaps best remembered for its trailblazing tours in America in the early ’80s that gave groups like METALLICA and ANTHRAX their first taste of the road.

RAVEN’s albums “Rock Until You Drop”, “Wiped Out” and “All For One” virtually invented both the speed metal and power metal genres, with the band consistently pushing the envelope while retaining its unique sound and attack — both in the studio and in their true element: onstage.

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH earlier this year after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. At the time, Ellefson was accused of grooming an underage girl through videos and online messages. David has denied the allegation and has repeatedly said the woman in question had been a willing, consenting adult at the time of their virtual sexual encounter. Ellefson accompanied his denial with an alleged screenshot of a statement from the woman with whom he was supposedly involved at the time. In it, the woman admitted to recording the alleged intimate communications she had with Ellefson and called herself “naïve” for sharing them with a friend without the musician’s permission.

David was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Dave Mustaine, alleging the MEGADETH frontman shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.

David, a Christian who launched the Mega Life Ministries worship group in 2007, studied for a year at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis nearly a decade ago.

Thanks Mike Gaube’s Headbangers capturing some live video of David Ellefson jamming “Hell Bent For Leather” and “Seek and Destroy” with us tonight in Glendale, AZ.

Posted by Raven on Thursday, November 4, 2021

Raven – Hell Bent For Leather w/David Ellefson (ex- Megadeth bassist)
In Phoenix Arizona, a couple weeks ago

Posted by Mark’s Metallic Hell on Thursday, December 9, 2021

A great night seeing one of my favorites Raven. It’s always great to see the Gallagher brothers, Mark and John….

Posted by Jeremy Dumke on Friday, November 5, 2021

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Zakk Wylde says that he had “no problems” with the recent “Dio Returns” tour, which featured a hologram of legendary metal singer Ronnie James Dio performing alongside a living backing group consisting, in large part, of Ronnie’s onetime DIO bandmates.

The Dio hologram was created by a company called Eyellusion and made its debut at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2016 in front of more than 75,000 fans.

The Dio hologram production used audio of Ronnie’s live performances from throughout his career, with the DIO band playing live, consisting of Craig Goldy on guitar, Simon Wright on drums and Scott Warren on keyboards, along with Bjorn Englen on bass. Also appearing with them were ex-JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim “Ripper” Owens and LYNCH MOB frontman Oni Logan.

In an interview with the “TODDCast Podcast”, Wylde stated about “Dio Returns” (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think it’s great. All it’s doing is keeping our favorite artists’ memories alive — whether it’s seeing cover bands or anything like that. And put it this way: if you go and see it and we all have a great time, all you’re doing is celebrating Ronnie’s greateness and how awesome he was. I don’t see any problems with it. It’s entertainment. If you go see it, and if you love Ronnie James Dio, and we all do, you have a great time. It’s no different than when I see any of my friends that play in cover bands. I’ve got my buddies that play in ZOSO and everything like that — they’re an amazing [LED] ZEPPELIN cover band, and every time we go see ’em, we have a great time. It’s just awesome. I think it’s just a celebration of your favorite bands and your favorite artists. So I think it’s awesome. I have no problems with it at all.”

This past September, Ronnie James Dio’s former wife and longtime manager Wendy Dio said that she decided to pull the plug on the hologram of the legendary metal singer because she “wanted to see real Ronnie.” Speaking about how her reaction to the hologram evolved over the years, she said: “When I first saw it, I cried. Then I got used to it because it wasn’t Ronnie. And then we took it out [on tour]. The first [version] was not that good. The second one was a lot better. But I decided that I don’t wanna do it anymore; I decided I want real Ronnie. So we’re working on a stage with the DIO band, which will be going out in March [of 2022]. Instead of having a hologram, it will have film of Ronnie with the live band playing and with special effects and everything else. So that’s what we’re working on. We’re working on it with Paul Dexter [who was Ronnie’s lighting designer and stage designer for years] and a bunch of other people. And also the Eyellusion people, who did do the hologram, are doing a bunch of special effects for us with it.”

Wendy continued: “I never say never [about bringing back the hologram], but technology gets different every day, every day, every day. And I just decided that I wanted to see real Ronnie. … QUEEN does [something similar, using footage of Freddie Mercury]. Ours will be a little bit different to that because we have all these great effects, 3D effects. It’s almost like going into — what’s that ride at Disneyland, when you go through, and it’s like a 3D effect? That’s what we’re working on right now.”

Two former DIO guitarists have publicly expressed their doubts about the Ronnie James Dio hologram. In December 2019, Tracy “G” Grijalva, who played for DIO from 1993 through 1999, said that the hologram “looks creepy” and resembles “a puppet.” Nine months earlier, Doug Aldrich, who was in DIO between 2002 and 2006, told XS Rock that “Ronnie would probably not” like the hologram. “He would probably be, like, ‘This is not what I signed up for.’ A hologram? It’s not really what he would want to be. I’m just guessing, you know, that it’s something that Wendy thought about and she decided that Ronnie would be fine with it. But I knew Ronnie well enough to know that he was very particular and he would prefer for them to let him just die and be in peace.”

After the “Dio Returns” tour’s initial seven-date run was completed in December 2017, Ronnie’s hologram underwent some changes before the launch of the 2019 leg of the trek, which took place in May and June of that year.

The “Dio Returns” 17-song set consisted of seven tunes sung by the Dio hologram — the rest featured Owens and Logan separately or together — and encompassed material from Dio’s lengthy career, including his earlier days in RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH.

A few years ago, Wendy told Patch.com that critics of the Dio hologram were “entitled to their opinion. I just ask that people come and see the show first before criticizing,” she said. “We got a lot of flak in the beginning but I think more and more people are getting used to it. It’s for the fans. It’s for the fans who would love to see Ronnie back up on the stage and the ones that never got a chance to see him. I think Ronnie would approve. If anybody saw the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour in 1986 we tried to make a hologram then. We had Ronnie in a crystal ball hanging from the stage talking through it. Also he was an innovator in music, so why not be an innovator in technology.”

Last year, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick, who toured with Ronnie on two separate occasions a decade and a half apart — in 1992 when Dio fronted BLACK SABBATH and again in 2008 when Ronnie was the singer of SABBATH offshoot band HEAVEN & HELL — offered his opinion on the Dio hologram on Twitter, writing: “I don’t believe in those hologram shows. It would be one thing if the artist was still alive, chose not to tour for whatever reason, gave his or her approval & maybe even had a hand in the process. But Dio had no say.” Skolnick also added a thumbs-down emoji as a way of voicing his disapproval.

DISTURBED frontman David Draiman said in a 2016 interview that he had mixed feelings about concerts featuring the Dio hologram. He said about the prospect of seeing a holographic version of Ronnie: “It makes me sad. I’m always happy to hear any music from anybody that’s left us, that we’ve lost. But I don’t know… The hologram thing, to me, it almost isn’t letting the dead be dead.” He added, “It just seems weird… Is there a difference between a hologram and a guy dressing up like Ronnie James and doing it?”

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In a brand new interview with The Razor’s Edge, former ANTHRAX and current ARMORED SAINT frontman John Bush confirmed that he is “more than ever” open to the idea of embarking on a special tour during which he would perform material from his time as the singer of ANTHRAX.

Bush fronted ANTHRAX between 1992 and 2005 but was sidelined when the group reunited with Joey Belladonna for a 20th-anniversary tour. When that collapsed, and relationships disintegrated with next frontman Dan Nelson, Bush returned for a time before Belladonna took the job back in 2010.

Looking back on his time with ANTHRAX, Bush said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Like any band, there’s gonna be moments where there’s gonna be little tension and trying to find your way. Mostly, in all honesty, and I find it to be with most bands, it’s usually in the writing process; that’s where people really kind of butt heads and maybe don’t always have the same agreement.

“I always say getting on stage, playing a show just after a record is done, man, that’s cake, that’s easy. That’s why nostalgia is big, because if you can just put a setlist together and say, ‘Learn these songs,’ anybody can do it… You might still look at that guy and go, ‘Oh, I kind of hate that guy,’ or, ‘I forgot how much I hate that guy,’ but that wasn’t the case for us.

“I think for my time with ANTHRAX, it was really just trying to focus in on the songs and the albums and trying to get to that point where we all agreed, and sometimes that’s not easy to do,” he continued. “That’s not unusual for any band.

“I always say ANTHRAX, it opened up a whole new world of my personality, of my style, of my confidence, of my voice, of singing, of being a frontman — all of that, it just catapulted me to a whole another level of confidence, and I cherish that. And I love the [ANTHRAX] records we made. I think we made some really cool records. It’ll just never match the ’80s, ’cause the ’80s ANTHRAX was just the beginning, and they were great records and they were able to just ride the wave of what was happening. And then the ’90s changed. I joined and everything was in flux. It’s just the reality of it. To me, it doesn’t take anything away from the quality of those records. I think people just need to kind of give ’em a listen to again. I’m not saying they’re flawless by any means, but I think there are some great tunes throughout — some better than others — but I am real proud of it. And all the time, I was very close to those guys and we had a lot of fun. I did have a friendship with all of them individually, and some of those needed to be repaired or needed time to get back to where they were. And they may never be where they were when I was in the band. But it doesn’t matter. Everything is cool now, and everything feels good.

“I’ve said it hundreds of times: Joey belongs in ANTHRAX,” Bush added. “He is the singer of ANTHRAX. That’s how they should roll it out and ride the wave and be done — with Joey — because it just makes sense. And he’s great. Joey’s a unique singer with a unique voice and such a huge aspect of that band. And it just feels right.

“I think if we can do something here and there… Scott [Ian, ANTHRAX guitarist] threw the idea out of maybe doing a little run where I came in and [former ANTHRAX singer] Neil Turbin. But I always said I would want Joey to feel confident about that. I wouldn’t want him to feel like, ‘I don’t wanna do this but I’m being forced to.’ It should be something, like, ‘Yeah, that would be fun.’ And it would be a one-time thing. I know HELLOWEEN [records and tours with current and returning members all together]. And I marvel at the fact that they have all these guys in this band and have a copacetic environment. Kudos to them for that. It’s incredible. But things like that could be fun. I’m toying with [the idea] of going out and doing a little — I hate using [the word] ‘solo,’ ’cause I never imagined me doing that in my life, and it’s a little daunting, and I’m a little insecure about it, but I’m open to it more than ever now, going out and doing a little run here and there, me singing those songs, because they just don’t play ’em anymore and it would be fun. But the window on that is pretty small because I’m gonna be playing old material.”

ANTHRAX has had a number of vocalists — including Bush, Belladonna, Turbin and Nelson — over the last 39 years, with Ian and drummer Charlie Benante remaining the sole bandmembers who have appeared on every one of the group’s studio albums.

Turbin sang on ANTHRAX’s debut LP, 1984’s “Fistful Of Metal”, before getting booted and being replaced by Belladonna. Belladonna performed on four ANTHRAX albums, including the fan favorite “Among The Living” (1987) before he himself was fired over creative and stylistic differences.

This past July, Bush told Pierre Gutierrez that he wanted former ANTHRAX guitarist Paul Crook to be involved in the hypothetical ANTHRAX tour featuring material from his era of the band. “I love Paul,” he said. “And we have been talking about some things. Once again, it’s just whether or not all the situations kind of merge together and make it work. You’ve gotta kind of deal with all that logistics and stuff.”

John continued: “For me, it would be a little bit [difficult to put together], only because I’m just really lazy. All I wanna do is kind of do the singing, and I don’t wanna do all the nuts-and-bolts things about putting the band together and getting rehearsals and doing some of the business. That’s the daunting part. If I could just go on stage and, like, ‘Okay.’ I have to learn those songs again too, if I do it. But there’s all that stuff that is just a little bit different than just going out and singing. So, we’ll see.”

In September 2020, Bush told Canada’s The Metal Voice that he first talked to his booking agent about the ANTHRAX tour idea “several years ago.” He said: “We talked about it, and I think he sniffed around for some feelers to see what people would think. And I don’t think we got the response that we really wanted to. It wasn’t like we were looking for millions of dollars or anything, but we wanted to make it worthwhile to do it, and do the proper shows. It’s not like something I wanna go out and do six months of touring with. It’d be fun to do some sporadic shows. I’d have to put a band together to do it. I’m probably a little lazy about that, quite honestly. But that’s what would be involved in doing it. And I don’t think we were pleased enough with the response that we tried to push it ahead and make it happen.”

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