Hey TD. Here is the interview.

augdawg2

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Feb 6, 2002
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I got your back TD! Here is the entire interview.

Cheerz!

AugDawg




I'm not going to give you the history of John Bush because if you're on this web site you shouldn't need one. But if you need the rundown so you don't feel left out of the loop, visit www.ImADumbassMetalPoseur.com. They'll be glad to help you there. They'll also gladly lift your hand up for you so you can smack yourself upside your own head.
When I moved to Los Angeles a few years ago for college, Shockwaves Editor Bob Nalbandian, Tobe Baad and John Bush were the first three guys I met who were worth a shit. Though I haven't talked to John since 1999, I tend to fancy him as a distant, estranged, elusive father who always loved me but never took the time to get to know me because he was ashamed. But I still hope that one day he'll adopt me and we'll start a kickass father-son metal band that will change the world.

In honor of that DVD featuring that band that's coming out on that day through that label, we spoke with the Bush Man about everything from the new Anthrax album to Armored Saint's early years to the sex appeal of the Golden Girls. And if you want Armored Saint to play at your wedding, read very carefully.

Shockwaves: So how are things?
John Bush: Things are pretty good. Just trying to finish this Anthrax record that's taking forever. It's just been a long, drawn out process but we're at the final end of it.

SW: Is there a release date yet?
JB: No, not yet. We're still in a bunch of bullshit with the legal and business dealings that we have, which have been a nightmare. We're close to wrapping it up I hope, but the record itself is done. We just don't know when the release will happen because we don't know exactly what label it's going to be on.

SW: So you're still trying to get out of Beyond?
JB: Yes we are.


SW: Do you have any other possible takers?
JB: Well, there's a couple. We're shopping the album as we speak, but I don't want to say anything yet because I don't want to jinx it. We've had such bad karma over the last couple of years that I'm pretty gun shy when it comes to anything regarding Anthrax.

SW: Let's talk Armored Saint for a minute.
JB: I always love talking about Armored Saint. We did the DVD recordings yesterday for all the additional footage and interviews and it was great. We had a real fun time.

SW: Very cool. You'll have to excuse me, because when Armored Saint first started I was about two years old. So tell me what it was like growing up in the L.A. scene. You started around the same time as bands like Motley Crue and Ratt, right?
JB: A little after Motley Crue, but we played a bunch of shows with Ratt, WASP, Great White, Black and Blue, Steeler...

SW: What was the general camaraderie among the bands like back in the day?
JB: It was pretty good, actually. It was a scene that was exploding, it was a lot of fun to go out to the clubs every weekend, if not every day, because bands were playing and everybody was excited about what was going on. It was just a really fun time. We enjoyed it. We were only 18, 19, 20 years old when it was happening. You can't ask for a much better age when you're discovering rock 'n' roll.

SW: Damn right. Young and stupid.
JB: Exactly. So, the only thing about Armored Saint that was probably a little different was that we never really sounded like an L.A. band. We always modeled our sound after all the European groups that we were inspired by. Bands like Priest, Maiden, UFO, Thin Lizzy and stuff. We loved Aerosmith and Ted Nugent and they were influential to the sound of the band but we were really just pumped up by the sound of the European bands that were happening. We're from L.A. and we're super proud, but the thing is that we never really felt like we sounded like all the bands that were going on. But we still got along great with everybody.

SW: Tell me more about this Armored Saint DVD. When's it coming out?
JB: I'm not sure. It's an old one and we added a bunch of interview footage, it's called A Trip Thru Red Times. The "red" part is in honor of Dave Pritchard, who played guitar with us and passed away of leukemia in 1990. We added about five to seven other videos from various shows including the "Reign of Fire" and "Last Train Home" videos that we made for the Symbol of Salvation record. We did the interview segment yesterday, it was cool. We sent out an e-mail asking people if they wanted to ask us any questions and we tried to incorporate a lot of the questions people sent in. Regardless of what happened with our career - we never quite became this huge band with all the expectations that were upon us, including ourselves, and we never really lived up to them because of the way life goes in the music business and you can never be guaranteed of it - the greatest thing about Armored Saint is, we definitely had a lot of fun times and we continue to.

SW: Good. Well, let's talk about the bad times. What's the worst touring experience you've ever had?
JB: We did a tour after Symbol of Salvation came out in 1991. The whole making of that record - based on the fact that it looked like it was never going to be made because of Dave's death - the fact that we actually made it and the record came out sounding amazing, we were riding a high. And then we went out on the road and we ended up doing this tour that was just terrible. We had a lot of problems with our crew. We were all in a van, we had a tour manager at the time - Dan DeVita, who's gone on to do pretty well for himself - it was his first tour ever. He was pretty green. We had a crew that was trying to create a mutiny and a coup on Dan. It was just a really terrible experience. The shows were doing poorly. We were touring with Wrathchild America, and we had problems with them which have now been rectified. Brad [Divens, bass player/singer] and I are friends and everything is cool. At the time we had ego problems with one another which was ridiculous considering we were playing clubs to very few people. It was just a bad experience all the way around, enough to end the band at that point too.

SW: Do you still have all the old leather and spike outfits that you used to wear back in the day?
JB: I have the white leather jacket that I had added some armor to. It was funny, that was the second leather jacket that I got. My parents got it for me and I ended up cutting the sleeves off and they couldn't understand why. But it's got a lot of mileage, it looks awesome, I put it in a frame and it looks really cool. Yesterday when we did the filming for the DVD, everybody brought a little bit of the stuff they wore. We have it, it's cool, it looks like it should be in a museum.

SW: Do you ever put the old clothes on just for fun?
JB: [laughs] That was one of the questions [on the DVD], do we ever put it on just for a smile. Mine's in a frame so I didn't take it out, but I guess Joey and his wife were "having a little fun" trying it on the night before the interview. [laughs] The whole thing with the armor, the explanation that we give, is that back in the day we were looking for something that would separate us. When we first started, we dressed like just about anybody else with the leather and spandex. We said to ourselves, we got this cool name, why don't we incorporate it into our look? We were totally into Excalibur and Road Warrior at the time, so we did it, albeit something that we can look back on with a laugh and a smile. Sometimes we did feel that after a while it became an albatross because people might have thought that the image was the primary concern of the band and it never was. We just wanted it to embellish us. But as far as we were concerned it was always about the music. After a while we shedded it and said, "Enough of this." We didn't want it to become the thing that people thought about the most. People still do to some degree, but whatever, it's not like we're embarrassed about it. We just had fun with it.

SW: A buddy of mine saw Armored Saint play in San Francisco back in the day, and he said you were wearing a vest with a bunch of huge spikes on it. Someone in the crowd swung at you and hit your vest, and all of the spikes fell off. The whole room was cracking up.
JB: [laughs] That's hilarious. I remember playing in San Francisco, we were pretty popular there. It was the beginning of the scene there where Metallica were the hometown heroes.

SW: Who?
JB: Exactly. We got a review in one magazine, and in retrospect we can laugh about it, but they said we looked like the Planet of the Apes - which is actually a compliment because I love the Planet of the Apes. [laughs] But at the time he was saying it in a negative fashion, so we were like, "f**k that!" The breastplate that I actually wore was from The Beastmaster. Like I said, it was something that at the time we thought was cool. Putting on the old leather armor shit that had never dried from the evening before on the tour, especially in the winter, it was freezing, yet wet - it was gross. Eventually we said we were done with it.

SW: What's in your CD player right now?
JB: I'm into the Queens of the Stone Age. They're awesome. I think they're a great band, they're one of the cooler things going on in rock right now. It's cool because it's heavy but there's a lot of melody and awesome vocals. They're just a good band. The sound is poised for a change and it's happening, but I don't know if bands like the Vines are the answer.

SW: That's the same way I feel. It's going in the right direction, but I don't think that bands like the Hives and the Vines are it.
JB: Those bands seem a little too calculated. The Vines are just not even close to Nirvana, who they're modeled after. The Hives are trying to be the Rolling Stones. It's like, come on man, we've already seen and heard this. I don't know - they're just not the answer.

SW: Hypothetical situation: You've got a room full of Limp Bizkit fans who don't know who Armored Saint is. If you could educate them all by playing one Armored Saint song, which would it be and why?
JB: That's a good question. We'd probably play something like "Can U Deliver," because that's probably the song most associated with Armored Saint. I'm not saying it's the best song that we've ever written, but it is one that still stands the test of time. It's grooving, it has a great riff and a soulful approach to the singing, I think it's something that they probably would be able to identify with.

SW: Are you satisfied with your career?
JB: Well, I'm not satisfied financially with my career, by any means. As far as if I'm okay with the way things have gone in my career even though there's been a lot of frustrating downtimes, I'm okay with that. I'm still making records 20 years after the fact, and I think that says a lot. So, that part I'm really proud of, and I always wanted to be someone who had longevity. For us, when we started we didn't say, "Let's have one big record and fall away." We always wanted to be like the bands we were inspired by bands like The Who and Led Zeppelin, bands that were around for a long time. I wish certain things went differently, maybe a little bigger than they did, maybe some of the business dealings would have allowed us to make more money here and there, but you know, what can you do?

SW: How much would it cost to get Armored Saint to play at my buddy's wedding?
JB:[laughs] Well, I don't know, it depends. A wedding, would we have to play stuff associated with weddings or could it just be a Saint set?

SW: You could play some Saint songs but you'd have to throw in some cover songs. Maybe "Celebrate," or some Cutting Crew or some Boy George. Throw in some Elvis too. The grandmas need to dance, John.
JB: [laughs] I don't know. When we play in Los Angeles, we'll do a show where ticket prices are cheap but we want to get paid well - we usually ask for about $3000-3500. For a wedding, I don't know, maybe we'd do it for less, or maybe we'd do it for more because we'd be embarrassed. I'm not sure man, let me ponder that one. [laughs]

SW: Cool, we'll be in touch. Are you happy with the way Anthrax's Behind the Music special turned out?
JB: Yeah, I think it was pretty cool. Behind the Music specials are funny. They've become really predictable. It's a bit silly sometimes. But I think a band like Anthrax is deserving of a Behind the Music because, again, it's a band that's been around many years, and I think the stories surrounding the band are really interesting. Much more than Jewel. She's made what, three records, and they're doing a Behind the Music special on her? Come on, man, at least be around for 15 years. I was a little disappointed that certain things that I had said didn't come through but it doesn't matter. They did use a lot of things in relation to videos I was in, and live footage. The truth of the matter is that a lot of the Anthrax that people remember is still going to be the Anthrax of the Belladonna years, and that's okay. I'm here, and it's all about where we are right now.

SW: You're ten times better than that guy anyways.
JB: That's up to the individual's interpretation.

SW: No, it's up to me. f**k that guy.
JB: Well, that's fine, you can make that call. But as far as Behind the Music, they usually focus on the history of the band. It was cool, I was happy to be part of it.

SW: Can you remember the first time you ever sang in public?
JB: The first time I sang in public, which is actually quite comical, was at an all-girl Catholic high school.

SW: Nice.
JB: Yeah. So when we played, like 300 girls came. It was during lunch. So that was pretty cool, that was our first show ever, and it was in front of 300 girls in their little Catholic school girl outfits.

SW: Were you nervous?
JB: I'm sure I was.

SW: Did you suck?
JB: The PA blew out halfway through the show I think, and so people couldn't hear me sing. Which was probably good because I probably did suck. [laughs]

SW: Have you ever gotten laid while listening to your own music?
JB: [laughs] You're asking some good questions! You know, I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist. I don't think I ever had to put on my music to get me in the mood for sex. It would probably make me laugh too much, quite honestly. It might have been coincidental, someone might have been listening to it in another room, but I don't think I actually put it on. I don't know if I ever had sex with the armor on either, although that would probably be something that, in my kinky state of mind, would have been more interesting. I remember a scene in Excalibur, there's a part where the guy's f**king this one girl in his armor and I was like, "Yeah, that's rad!" Maybe I missed out on a golden opportunity.

SW: Speaking of "golden," who's your favorite Golden Girl?
JB: The old one, but she's not even really the oldest one. What's her name?

SW: The small one?
JB: Yeah, what's her name? It's not Rue McClanahan, it's not Betty White, it's not Maude, it's...the other one.

SW: I know who you're talking about but I forget her name. I'll look it up. [Editor's note: Estelle Getty.]
JB: Yeah, she's the best, man. She's totally sarcastic, always ball-busting. She rips.

SW: She's not the hottest though.
JB: Oh, well you asked who my favorite was!

SW: Okay, then who's the hottest?
JB: Oh, Rue McClanahan's a little slut. I still like Grandma though cause she's a ball buster. But am I turned on? Probably not.

Erik Fong writes for a Bay Area entertainment magazine called The Wave. And yes, ladies, he's single. E-mail: erik@fongduckdong.com