Credit: Jimmy HubbardOn July 18, 1981, 35 years ago today, guitarist Scott Ian co-founded the band Anthrax. In celebration of the band’s milestone, Ian has shared his thoughts on spending 35 years with the band.
“Thirty-five years have passed since that day and my life has changed profoundly,” says Ian in a press statement. “I am a husband, I am a father. I am a long way from the 17-year-old soon-to-be-college dropout who co-founded a heavy metal band. The only thing that hasn’t changed in 35 years, the one constant, is that I am still the rhythm guitar player in Anthrax.”
“It’s what I GET to do,” the guitarist continues. “I GET to play in a band and I never take that for granted.”
Ian is the only Anthrax member to have played in the band for all 35 years. As for his favorite memory in those 35 years, Ian is most proud of when Anthrax played with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth — the “Big Four” of thrash metal — at Yankee Stadium in New York City in 2011.
“For me, that is the pinnacle. My mecca,” Ian says of playing Yankee Stadium. “The most [New York] thing a [New York] band could ever do. I got to play on stage on the field, in the building where so many of my heroes since I was a child played. It was surreal and overwhelming and I was in tears almost the entire first song, I had so much emotion pouring out of me.”
In celebration of their 35th anniversary, Anthrax has shared a fan-made video featuring clips from three decades of the band performing their track “Antisocial.” You can check that out now on YouTube.
This year, Anthrax released their 11th studio album, For All Kings.
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