JOEY BELLADONNA Didn't Understand Why His Voice Wasn't Right For ANTHRAX During JOHN BUSH Era

"Somewhat Legendary" recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX singer Joey Belladonna. You can now listen to the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether there was ever any competition between ANTHRAX and the other "Big Four" bands (METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH):

"Speaking for myself, I don't try to compete with anybody. 'Cause I've come to the conclusion… You do your thing, be good at what you do, and let that be the way it is. That's the cool thing about being in different bands. Everybody's go their own styles and tastes and approaches the songs and sound and all that kind of stuff. So you just kind of follow that. I'm sure bands have their ways of being competitive, and trying to be competitive, but I don't think it was anything that we would really focus on so much."

On his unique singing style:

"I think there's certain people… They have a knack for a style… That's the hard thing — trying to find your own originality, and I think I have that. I just kind of roll with it that way. It's hard to describe, really. I don't know what it is with vocals. I think it's a feel… You've gotta have a good feel about it, and then approach it with the best intentions. I like to be clear [in my vocal delivery], obviously, at least for me. Sometimes maybe I was a little too clean for everybody. I mean, look at the times where ANTHRAX didn't feel I was right for their band, which was shocking to me, 'cause I thought we had a cool thing. Obviously, you can see we're carrying on now, and [it's] like nothing… So you get confused — what I used to do and how it wasn't right, at one time, for [the other guys in ANTHRAX]… It goes with, 'What the hell?' I just think we had a cool style together. I mean, there was something that was very natural about it. It kind of flows with the system. You can't really write it that way. Unfortunately, it sucks that we had to spend 13 years without ever even having a chance to really take that on. It was a long time [for me to be out of the band]…"

On ANTHRAX's decision to fire him in 1992 and replace him with ARMORED SAINT singer John Bush:

"I'm gonna go… I don't care what anybody says, what they think, and what their story was, and not to go into it, but I don't think that they… They wanted something different. They wanted something with a little bit more of a growl, a grunt, or whatever you may wanna call it — the '90s thing — and they just pushed aside whatever clean and tenor [vocal style] I had; it just didn't fit. Which, to me… Whatever… What are you gonna do?"

On when he first joined ANTHRAX:

"Every band has to have some connection and some differentials to flow with the style, and that's kind of what we had. And right off the bat, I wasn't even sure, when I did hear them for the first time, where I'd fit in. And I started hearing the songs come across, and [I thought], 'This works. It's a cool thing.' Plus it was something new for me, 'cause I'd never really been super original at that point yet. I finally got to hear myself be someone that I could be."

ANTHRAX is currently working on the follow-up to 2011's "Worship Music" album with producer Jay Ruston (STEEL PANTHER, STONE SOUR) for an early 2016 release.