JOEY BELLADONNA Says ANTHRAX Reunion Tour Is Not Motivated By Money

Australia's Inside_Out666 recently conducted an in-depth interview with ANTHRAX frontman Joey Belladonna. Several excerpts follow:

Inside_Out666: For all the fans back home that haven't seen the reunion shows yet, what can they expect to see on this tour?

Joey Belladonna: "They will get to see the spark and the vibe that we had in the old days. Tight playing, getting the five of us guys stuck in the mode of what we use to do and it's right there. There will be a lot of great classics too."

Inside_Out666: Now, I spoke with you guys in New York a couple of months back when you announced the reunion tour. At that point no rehearsals had taken place. Can you tell us about those first rehearsals? Did everything fall straight into place or did you have to work out a lot of bugs?

Joey Belladonna: "Yeah, it came right off the bat. The fact is that we went right back to our ways. The second day we didn't do anything, we just went over a few things so we didn’t really rehearse. We were only there for two hours. The third day is when we actually rehearsed again."

Inside_Out666: I want to remind you of a quote you said back in 1987-88 which reads, "Some people do it for the money; we do it because we love doing it." How much of the reunion tour was motivated by money?

Joey Belladonna: "None, really. We love to do it, we make money when we play anyhow, so there’s nothing that's gonna change that. We don't play for free. We're like anybody else and we earn a living playing music. It's not like, 'Since we're back [together] we're gonna charge this and that.' We were very interested in doing this together because nobody had to be pushed into it. No one had to be persuaded. We all wanted to do it, we're all able to do it and we're all real happy to be doing it together again."

Inside_Out666: Now Joey, once the press conference had taken place ANTHRAX fans voiced their opinions on various message boards and it seemed to me that there was a lot of fans that weren't too happy about the reunion taking place. More than likely a lot of the fans who were upset may have been younger fans who didn't really know too much about your time in the band. A few weeks later they were offended again when they read your comments in an interview which was to the effect that you could have done "The Sound of White Noise"!

Joey Belladonna: "I said that?"

Inside_Out666: Yeah, I can't remember who the interview was with but you had mentioned something about being able to do "The Sound of White Noise" album in your sleep or something to that effect?

Joey Belladonna: "I don't remember saying that 'If I was still in the band I could have done most of the records.' I mean, why wouldn't I have been able to do them? I was capable of basically singing on any of them. I really don't remember saying that. I would never go that far or give a conviction that I could do things better. If I was going to say anything I would say, 'If I was still in the band, I think we could have kept going.' I could have done the 'Sound of White Noise'; I could have carried on doing the records. Whether I would have done them like him [John Bush], or he would have done them like me, who knows?! Put it this way — he actually recorded all of the old songs."

Inside_Out666: I’m glad you mentioned that. The last time we spoke you hadn't heard "The Greater of Two Evils". Have you had the chance to listen to it yet and what did you think?

Joey Belladonna: "Yeah, it's alright! I don't hear anything extraordinary like, 'Oh, my god, finally they've done it right. It's amazing. I never thought it would be like this.' Whether he [John Bush] does it in a lower voice or with more growl, I don't really hear anything that's over the top. Someone can do something like that, why not do it? It's really flattering but at the same time I never would say, 'Oh, my god, I could have done it better,' or anything like that. I don't go that far."

Inside_Out666: Now Joey, you're married. How do you juggle family life when you’re on the road so much?

Joey Belladonna: "I don't, I just do it. I go out on the road and she does her thing as I do mine. There's not really much choice. It's a way of life, really. I was doing this before I met her and it would be really hard for me not to do it because she wouldn't want me to. But she really wants me to do it. She knows I love singing and playing, that's why I’m here. I really love being out on the road."