Scott Ian says the sacking of Joey Belladonna in 1992 was a result of the guitarist’s immaturity at the time.
Ian recalls being frustrated with Belladonna’s take on his lyrics on songs written for 1990’s Persistence Of Time and, rather than trying to work it out, he fired the man who is currently back in the band for a third spell.
Ian tells Loudwire: “People always say Persistence Of Time was a dark album. I definitely was a darker person. So much of that goes into why the decision was made that I couldn’t move forward any more with Joey in the band.
“Up until that point I never had a problem with the way Joey was singing the words I was writing. I thought he got it across perfect. But once we got to Persistence, it wasn’t working for me any more.
“I really have to point the finger at myself. Thinking back, I probably should have been more communicative with Joey and spent more time with him. We probably should have been able to move forward. But that’s who I was then and I can’t change that.”
Meanwhile, Anthrax have released a new studio update featuring a track they played live at Knotfest last year.
The thrash icons are in the studio with producer Jay Ruston, working on the follow-up to 2011’s Worship Music. And in the video, which shows the band laying down rhythm guitar parts, a snippet of one as-yet-untitled song can be heard.
Ruston says bassist Frank Bello and lead guitarist Jon Donais have outdone themselves on the track.
He tells Metal Insider: “It’s six or seven minutes long. It’s got this whole incredible middle breakdown bridge in it where Frank has this killer bass line and Jon Donais came in and played this cool melodic solo over the top of it.
“That’s a really exciting tune. It was the song they played about 30 seconds of at Knotfest. When we decided to put something out there, we weren’t that concerned about it because it’s already been heard.”
