As we still desperately wait for live music to return, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian reckons he’s out of a job until 2022.
Among the many, many predictions that both musicians and experts have given on when live music will return, guitarist Scott Ian, of heavy metal collective Anthrax, has recently spoken out about how long he thinks touring will remain off the cards.
Speaking on Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike, Ian touched on how Anthrax is handling COVID-19, and what the break in touring means to the band.
“We never would have electively, as a band, said, ‘Let’s take two years off,'” Ian detailed. “It’s not something we would ever have done. Financially, it’s not something we could afford to do even.”
With many bands floating the dreaded word “hiatus,” Ian says “that’s not gonna happen,” as the band has been “forced” into this situation, not electively taken it.
If there’s one positive the Anthrax guitarist takes from the forced hiatus, he says that the silver lining lies in being at home with his family: “That’s awesome,” he exclaims.
Ian realises that touring is “not essential” at this time, and that he understands that, but he does wonder how the band will fare financially when all of this is said and done.
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“How are we gonna make it work with the band so financially we could keep our heads above water as well? Because who knows how long this is gonna be? We’re gonna be the last ones to go back to work. So, figure it out. There’s a part of me now that’s in those same shoes I was in when I was 17 years old, because it’s trying to figure out, how are we going to do this?”
Although this is problematic, Ian is thankful that this year was already planned as a year away from touring to write a new record, but even that has changed, as he states that “the plan was to have it out at the end of this year,” and that now they’re “hoping next summer.”
With all the predictions running wild, Ian notes that it’s still a “crapshoot,” and everyone’s predictions of things happening in 2021 could be far fetched.
“In my mind, I’m not going back to work, probably, till, I’m thinking, ’22,” Ian detailed. “Realistically, that’s when things will maybe start to get somewhere back to normal, for my world, as a touring musician.
“So now it’s become a case of, how do I keep things running for the next two years — with the luxury of being home. Because if it was up to me, I’d just hang around and jam with my son all day long. But now I have to be able to have the balance of I get to just be home and I get to go to the beach and hang out. And it becomes very easy to do nothing.”
As Ian pointed out, interviews are even feeling foreign to him, and that this entire period is almost “retraining”him as a musician. “But I’ll tell you what: I love being home. I love not traveling. I love not getting on a plane. I was looking at our schedule, ’cause it was all on my calendar,” he admits.
“I was supposed to be in Europe for the last two weeks playing festivals. I was, like, ‘Oh my God. I am so glad I am not in the Ukraine right now.’ Imagine there was no pandemic. I’m literally, like, I’m home right now, and I’m sitting in my living room hanging out. Just the idea of that, it’s never happened.
“We’ve never canceled shows. It was out my hands. And it was nice to have no power. For kind of the first time, it’s all out of my hands. It’s, like, ‘Hey, there’s nothing I can do. [I’m] just gonna hang out here with my family. You tell me when it’s okay to come back to work.'”
Check out ‘Got The Time’ by Anthrax:
