ANTHRAX's FRANK BELLO Recalls Being Infected With Parasites After Eating Undercooked Meat In Mexico

During a recent appearance on "The Jasta Show", the video podcast hosted by HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta, ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello recalled a time when he got sick from eating meat that was not properly cooked while on tour with PANTERA nearly 25 years ago.

"I had to give up coffee," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I had to — because of my gut. And this happened way back when. Years ago, we were on tour with PANTERA. We went out and we got loaded one night in Mexico City. On the streets of Mexico City, PANTERA and ANTRAX, just loaded off our asses… You know those street carts you're not supposed to eat the fucking food out of? Sausage… Who knows? It was fucking red. I shouldn't have eaten it. I was starving. I wanted to soak up the juice that was in me, the booze… So this red sausage went into my body. And I was fine for that moment. But then the next day, I started, and it was non-stop — dude, I couldn't hold anything. For that whole year, every specialist in New York — every specialist — I went to the city and I [tried to figure out] with everybody, 'What the hell is wrong with me?' This one doctor, this one specialist, a renowned dude, finds that I have two — not one — two parasites underneath my liver that were just destroying everything for a year. So this really heavy strong medicine, antibiotic, blah blah blah, got rid of it, but the after-effect of all that good stuff, it really made me not drink coffee — stuff that I love. So I've gotta be really careful with my diet.

"My wife's a vegan now — my wife's a full-on vegan," he continued. "And she's a great cook, and she cooks me whatever I want, which is awesome. But I kind of follow her path now. That's what I'm doing, because I kind of see what's going on. And look, I'll eat but I'll be really careful about what I'm putting in. The sugar stuff is out of my… I'm out of sugar, man. I'm done with sugar."

Bello went on to say that it took a while for the doctors to make the correct diagnosis and catch the disease in time for treatment.

"I went to the most renowned people," he said. "And I was spending thousands [of dollars] on doctors — thousands — going everywhere in the city. 'Cause I live in Westchester [county in New York]; there's not a lot of people up here that you can go to. So I went to [New York City]. And they kept [telling me], 'You have to go to see this guy. You have to go see this girl.' It was all like that. And finally I found the right one. And it was not fun, man. That stuff, when you're searching… I lost all this weight. People were [wondering] am I dying. What's going on? And they finally found these two parasites. And it just screwed me up. Now I have to be careful on this specific diet. I can eat but I have to be really careful. Like, sugar is completely out for me, man. Which is probably good for my life anyway. I miss it — I miss a good pastry and stuff like that — but I watch other… I live through other people now."

Frank's memoir, "Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax", was released on November 2 via Rare Bird. The foreword was written by KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons.

ANTHRAX is working on material for the follow-up to 2016's "For All Kings" album, tentatively due in 2022.