Ken Kelly of The MusicNerd Chronicles recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The MusicNerd Chronicles: When I heard about you taking a spoken-word show on the road, my first thought was "What took so long?" Was this something you had been contemplating for a while? Scott: It was something that I have had in the back of my mind since seeing Henry Rollins do it back in the '90s. I was already a fan of his, having read his books. I was just so impressed with him going on stage and holding the audience's attention for 2.5 hours. The MusicNerd Chronicles: So who or what finally got the ball rolling? Scott: I got a call from an agent in the U.K. asking if I wanted to do a solo show as a part of "Rock Stars Say The Funniest Things". It was a good four to five months before it was happening, so I said "yes" based on the fact I felt as though I had enough time to prepare a professional show. I had all these grand plans that I would write everything out and put on a show for my friends to try everything out. All of those plans disappeared over the course of five months. I was in my hotel room in London the night before the show swearing at myself because I had no idea of what I was going to do. The first five minutes of the show, I was shaking but as soon as I got my first laugh where I expected people to laugh, I calmed down. Two and a half hours later, I was in my dressing room asking how I could do more of those shows. The MusicNerd Chronicles: I am sure there is some material that carries over from night to night but otherwise, I am assuming that you are not delivering the exact same show every night. Scott: I need to keep myself and my brain engaged. If I was saying the same shit in the same order night after night, I would be sick of hearing myself. If I were to stick with the same routine every show, shit would get really boring really quickly. ANTHRAX always felt that way about our set lists too, that if we ever got bored of playing a specific song, we take it out of the set list. I think it would otherwise be obvious to the audience that we aren't into it. We have never just wanted to go through the motions. It is something that we have always remained very aware of. The MusicNerd Chronicles: What kind of stories are you sharing on stage? Scott: A lot of the people that appear in my stories are people that Anthrax fans would be familiar with. I'm not talking shit about people, though. If anything, most of the stories end up with me with shit in my pants. A lot of the show is self-deprecating. For the most part, though, the show consists of stories of being in a band for the past 33 years of my life, the people I've met and the things we have done. Read the entire interview at The MusicNerd Chronicles.
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