Scott Ian has revealed that he once asked Mike Patton to sing with the Anthrax .
In an interview with Mxdown, the guitarist said that he tapped up the Faith No More singer while both bands were playing a festival in Australia before former singer Joey Belladonna returned to the band.
“I had asked him just before Joey came back to Anthrax, I had said, ‘Hey, do you want to sing on the next Anthrax record?’” said Ian. “We were drunk in a bar in Melbourne, Australia on a festival together. He was with Faith No More. He was like, ‘Oh, man. You don’t want me in your band. I’m a pain in the ass.’
“OI was like, ‘No, no, no. I think we could deal with it.’ He goes, “Yeah, but I got 72 projects and I could never commit.’ I’m like, ‘I know, really. I’m asking but I’m not really asking.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll do something together someday.’”
The two men would later team up in the latter’s reactivated side-project Mr Bungle, with Ian playing on 2020’s The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo. The guitarist recalled that Patton referenced their drunken conversation when he asked him to join Mr Bungle.
“So then when he hit me up, he goes, ‘Remember in Melbourne when I said we would work together?’ I’m like, ‘Uh huh.’ He goes, “Guess what?””
In the same interview, Ian admitted that he was unsure he would be able to play The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo’s complex, eight-minute closing track Sudden Death.
"I said, 'Dude I don't know how I'm ever going to remember this?’” said the guitarist. “It's close to eight minutes and like nothing repeats. Maybe when I was in my 20s I could’ve, but like I have a child now. I can’t, it’s hard enough keeping up with him. I said, ‘How am I ever going to remember this live? I can’t have fucking pieces of paper on the ground.’
“He goes, ‘You'll see. There’s a rhyme and a reason to it. And it actually all makes sense as you…’ And he starts talking modes and scales. I said, ‘I don't know what you're talking about.’ He goes, ‘You don't have to. My suggestion is take it a minute and a half at a time.’”
Ian also added that there are plans for future Mr Bungle shows: There are things on the table for the future, shows… We’re not going out for six months. But to pop in and out of places and maybe at least, let people around the planet see it once. Go to Australia and do a show. Go to Europe and play some festivals. One week, two weeks at a time. We’re all too busy to be able to commit to it as a real ongoing thing at this point. But there’s always room to go do one-offs.”
Anthrax begin their UK/European 40th anniversary tour on September 27 in Birmingham, England.
