ANTHRAX Drummer On BELLADONNA's Return: We Will 'Do Everything In Our Power To Make This Work'

By Ryan Ogle

Soon after rumors began swirling around the Internet, ANTHRAX made the official announcement that it was rejoining forces with Joey Belladonna, the lead singer that fronted the group from 1984 to 1992, and was considered part of the band's classic lineup (alongside guitarists Dan Spitz and Scott Ian, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante),which reunited and toured during 2005 and 2006.

Last week, BLABBERMOUTH.NET spoke with drummer Charlie Benante about Belladonna's return; ANTHRAX's upcoming "Big Four" European dates with METALLICA, MEGADETH and SLAYER; and the future of the band. The question-and-answer session follows below.

Q: It looks like the singer situation is resolved.

Charlie Benante: Yeah, I'm kind of relieved by it all. It's been on my back for awhile. I can breathe a little easier now.

Q: At one point did Joey's name come up?

Charlie Benante: Well, I talked to Joey here and there, know what I mean?! Basically, some of us in the band, myself included, feel like we've been on this emotional rollercoaster for about two years now; just kind of in limbo. People say, "How come this can't work out? How come that can't work out?" Believe me, I can't begin to tell you how much time and effort I put into making everything work out. Sometimes you can bring a horse to water, but you just can't make it drink. That's the truth of this. People have their own ways of summarizing this whole thing and putting a negative spin on it, but it's really not a negative spin on the band's part. The situation is just the way it is. It's unfortunate that something we were working on just didn't work out. That just sort of blew up in our faces, like "What the fuck is this?" John [Bush, former vocalist] was gracious enough to step in and do a few shows with us, but John didn't want to continue with this lifestyle or making music. We wanted either John or Joey to step up and do this with us. Joey stepped up is what it all comes down to. My whole thing behind this is, I don't want something for the short term, I want something for the long term. I want to ride this out. Whoever is going to be singing needs to be doing this until we say that we're done. New music, for me, is the most important part about this. That is our number one priority because we haven't had a record out in years. Believe me; we've got a fucking shitload of material that needs to be out there. I hope this is the first step in getting there.

Q: So this is it then? Not a temporary thing like the reunion tour?

Charlie Benante: I really have to clarify all of this reunion stuff that happened because a lot of people either forgot or didn't read the other part of it. I want to take you back to the idea of this whole reunion tour. That was supposed to be a special tour that we were going to do that would feature both vocalists. It was because we were having an anniversary. It was my bright idea because I thought it would be a great gift for the fans to come out and see the two eras of ANTHRAX. That was the initial idea and I thought it would be fucking awesome. If VAN HALEN were to do that, I'd be like, "Fuck, that's a great idea." Then the truth started to hit and this guy didn't want to do this and that guy wouldn't do that. All of a sudden in turned into John didn't want to do it and we were just going to do a reunion tour. Actually, this didn't really sit too well in my mind, but I was going with it. I knew in the back of my mind that one day we would go in and make another record with John, but shit didn't work out that way and that's the truth. For me, the reunion tour was this: Here are these five guys that worked together until nineteen-ninety-whatever. Let's throw them in a room together, let them bond and now they're on tour. We had to repair certain relationships out on the road, which wasn't really fair for any of us. We were playing good shows, but offstage it was hard to communicate with each other. We rode it out as long as we could until certain personalities decided they didn't want to do it anymore. That was it. It was finished. Scott [Ian, guitarist], myself and Frankie [Bello, bassist] were left not doing anything. So we took some time and I had a bunch of material. Scott and Frankie came out and we just started writing music like we would during the "Spreading The Disease" era. It was just the three of us, no singer, writing songs. That was it.

Q: Has everyone moved past the conflicts that were going on during the reunion? What's the overall chemistry between everyone now?

Charlie Benante: The bottom line is Joey Belladonna has a good heart. The guy is just a nice guy and we want to make this work. We're going to do everything in our power to make this work and I think it will work. I sent Joey some new tunes and some lyrics and just three days ago he played me something over the phone of him singing on the new song and I got goosebumps. It was fucking killer. Some of it reminded me of the "Spreading The Disease" album. It's a great start to something that could just be fucking killer. We just want to go over and play these shows and just be a band again and be fucking killer.

Q: How much of what was going to be "Worship Music" [the unreleased ANTHRAX album featuring Dan Nelson on vocals] will make it to the album you plan on doing with Joey?

Charlie Benante: Five songs from those sessions are probably going to be saved and the rest will probably be scrapped. We love those five songs and don't want to do anything to them. The other songs I want to re-edit and re-write a bit here and there. I would like for us to write some newer tunes because I feel like after we come back from Europe, everyone is going to have this energy and that should go to making music.

Q: With Joey having such a distinctly different voice that anyone you've written with in years, what effect do you see him having on the new material?

Charlie Benante: That's just it, man. I'm already so stoked on how it sounds. Like I said, it takes me back to the "Spreading The Disease" days.

Q: You mentioned that ANTHRAX has been an emotional rollercoaster for the last couple of years. Was the future of the band ever in question?

Charlie Benante: Yes, it definitely was. There have been a few instances where I felt like the floor just dropped out from us. I couldn't believe the bullshit I was hearing. I just couldn't believe it, man. One aspect of it is that if someone gives you something great you should appreciate it, go with it and don't fuck it up, but some people just gotta fuck it up.

Q: So you've pulled through all that?

Charlie Benante: You know what?! Everything happens for a reason. I was discussing this with someone a few days ago. You know how things just work out in their own way? It's like "Lord Of The Rings", where they have to go through all that bullshit just to get to that end. It's true and it's been emotionally draining on a lot of us. That could be the reason why some people in the band have decided to go onto other ventures; maybe to get away from it all. I don't know. Maybe that's why they're doing other things. I've been working with this band here in Chicago called HEAVY THE FALL, who rule. I play drums on the record and I'm also producing. Maybe I needed to do this because I needed to get away from all the ANTHRAX crap for awhile too. Let's face it; at the end of the day, for me, it's all about the music. That's what I need in my life and it has to be positive.

Q: And you saw a point where ANTHRAX was no longer about the music.

Charlie Benante: It just got kind of ugly and I needed to get away from it. For me, being the member of the band who can't really get away from it because he's doing it day by day, it was stressing me out completely. I'm not going to lie to you.

Q: Now, at the very least, you have this "Big Four" tour to look forward to.

Charlie Benante: That's the thing that's been on my mind throughout this whole thing. We had to get this together. I just think that it would only be right that Joey Belladonna do these shows because he was a part of the "Big Four." I think he deserves that. I think we all deserve it. I think it's going to be a real special moment for all of us when we get up there and it all works. It's like that show we did last year when John came out and joined us onstage for that one show. I could have cared less that there were thousands of people out there. I was just enjoying being there as just us and up there and playing. Sometimes you forget that and it's always nice to come back and realize what you have and actually enjoy it. Instead of just going out there and saying, "Okay, here's my 45 minutes. We're done," you need to appreciate those 45 minutes.

Q: What are your overall thoughts on this tour?

Charlie Benante: Man, I don't want to say anything bad about American audiences, but the European audiences, I know they're going to fucking flip. It's going to be crazy over there. This needs to happen in America too. All four of us are American bands and I really hope we can do this over here because I don't think the American audiences will ever get anything like this. They're just fed up with the bullshit they've had to deal with. I really hope it comes here. That would be great.

Q: Are you planning on sticking strictly to Belladonna-era material?

Charlie Benante: We're going to do that and we'll mix up with some other stuff too. We're going to try to do some John-era material ["Only" and "What Doesn't Die"] and we plan on bringing out some new songs as well.

Q: Is there any chance of seeing Danny [Spitz, former guitarist] get involved in any way?

Charlie Benante: We haven't talked about that. Danny has been a little sick lately so he needs to get his health in order. Rob [Caggiano, guitarist] is with us and we're continuing with Rob.

Q: I know the plan is to do the tour then come home and finish the album, but can you speculate how things are going to go from there?

Charlie Benante: Well, how can you jump into the future like that? I know we're going to go do the Sonisphere tour and then we're going to continue working on this record. We hope to have this record out early next year. That's the goal. Let's face it; this record is going to under the microscope more than anything we've ever done. We have to do everything in our power to make sure it's nothing but fucking killer.

Q: As a band, ANTHRAX is getting close to the 30-year mark. When you stepped in, did you ever imagine all of this?

Charlie Benante: Never thought about it.

Q: Do you think about it now?

Charlie Benante: [laughs] Yeah. I think it hit me a year ago when we went to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame to see METALLICA get inducted. I was sitting there and just thought, "Wow, it's been this long." Things just seemed to fly by. This tour that we're getting ready to do, I really hope it happens elsewhere. It needs to happen elsewhere because this is huge for metal. I've talked to people that are flying in from all over the world to see this first show in Poland. Enjoy it.

Q: If you had one thing to say to those reading this, what would it be?

Charlie Benante: Be nice to us.