BILLY MILANO INTERVIEWS DAN LILKER
I have edited this interview to mainly focus on the whole Anthrax/S.O.D. situation. The more people who read the truth the better. To see the entire interview go to www.billymilano.com
I am sitting here with one of the most genuine persons I have ever met in the music industry. I respect his opinion immensely. He is a great credit to the Heavy Metal community. He is a legend respected and recognized by his peers. He is one of the original founders of Anthrax and of the legendary SOD (Stormtroopers of Death). He is my friend, Ladies and gentleman Mr. Danny Lilker.
BM: Danny, You probably have done more bands then anyone in the history of music.
Just if you could remember a dozen or so mention them please.
DL: I was talked into joining a band by Scott Ian, which I later named Anthrax.
BM: Which he later denied you were in and even more fucked up denied the fact that you came up with the name and then asked you to leave.
DL: Well, Yes.
BM: We’ll get into later. What are the bands?
DL: Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, SOD, Brutal Truth, Exit 13, (Malformed Earthborn? Don’t quote me.) Extra Hot Sauce which was me on drums in a hardcore band. Exit 13 was a band I produced and later jammed with as a filler. Our shows were a drunken massacre. Hemlock, a black metal band I played with for 5 years. The Ravenous and a new black metal band called Overlord Exterminator, which we are still putting together
BM: So right now you have been doing the Nuclear Assault thing, what’s up? Did you record yet?
DL: We are going to be recording in a couple of months. John Connelly and I have written solid tunes and it’s all about getting together for rehearsal. Glenn lives in Florida, Me and Eric the new guitarist live in Rochester. So we are a geographically challenged band. Anthony has prior commitments and he couldn’t commit to Nuclear Assault.
BM: Well that’s cool. So where have you toured? What’s the website?
DL: www.nuclearassualt.us Recently we did the no mercy tour in Europe with, listen to this. Testament, Death Angel, Marduk, Pro Pain, Malevolent Creation, Darkane.
BM: What were those shows like?
DL: People were excited to see Nuclear Assault back again. Lots of old school.
Also there were a lot of people who never got top see us or only now are old enough to go to a show who were really happy to see us. They came up to me and said, “ we thought we’d never get to see you. Thanks so much for coming to play”. It was awesome.
BM: So Danny. Everyone wants to know what really happened with SOD. They have heard me complain about Scott and Charlie for over a year on the net. Why don’t you tell everyone that reads this what really happened? OK?
DL: Sure
BM: I will start by setting up a few events and you can comment as you desire.
DL: Sure.
BM: Danny It’s fair to say that Scott told you the same thing he told me. You and I had the understanding that were going to tour all the territories of the world, which is why I closed my business down, Correct?
DL: Yep! That’s what I was going on. We were back full fledged. We were going to play everywhere we never played, we did play a bunch of places we didn’t play but it was not as complete as I thought. I would agree with that.
BM: And , I mean you’re a pretty mellow guy Dan, you really are. You’re one of the nicer people I’ve met in music I have to say.
DL; Well I appreciate that thank you.
BM: And I think I’ve only seen you get mad 2 times in my life.
I saw you get mad at the first SOD show, at Dynamo. You were called to my hotel room at 1am. We just played a stellar show. Charlie Benante told us that night that he quit, after one show. Do you remember what your comment was?
DL: No, but remind me.
BM: I’m going to remind you. Because I hate that motherfucker. Your comment was,” Well once again SOD’s fans get fucked.
DL; Well I was accurate.
BM: But you were pretty pissed. For the record it is true he quit after one show?
DL; Yes, and was forced to reconsider.
BM: Well, he was going to get his ass kicked though.
DL: Right, well that’s being forced.
BM: How much of the SOD shit did you write? Speak English or Die was a pretty popular record.
DL: When I got called into SOD Scott (jewcifer) had a bunch of that shit written already
I came up and wrote the rest of it with him except the 2 songs you wrote. Musically I helped write, Milano Mosh, Speak English or Die, Milk, Pre-menstrual princess blues,
Pussy whipped, Douche crew.
BM: So you basically wrote the best shit on the record. I know something you didn’t get credit for (besides naming Anthrax). You came up with the blast beat. I remember you sitting down with Charlie benante and showing what to play in milk and he thought it was stupid. I remember Danny Lilker coming up with the blast beat. Not Charlie benante.
DL: That was 1985 I was listening to bands like, the notorious NYC mayhem.
BM; Well, was blast beat stuff like that played back then?
DL: Not like it is now.
BM: Well for the sake of perspective. I never saw anyone do anything like that.
But then again I never saw anyone ever play in tune. (HAHA)
DL: Well technically he wasn’t doing a real blast beat because his feet weren’t going full
speed.
BM: OH, I see. So he cheated.
DL; (SMILES)
BM: I guess Charlie does cheat.
DL; (Still Smiling)
BM: I think I’ve said all I wanted to say.
Unless there is anything you wanted to add other than the fact that the fans got robbed again because Charlie’s a cunt. I’m glad though that you remember the fact that he quit after one show. Cause he absolutely denies it to this day. Do you also remember when we played Chicago, I was getting ready to announce the ballad of Walter Payton and someone yelled the ballad of Anthrax (I will have a MPEG of this soon!) Remember that? Charlie ran off his drum set, he ran away and I had to chase him to back stage and yell at him to get out and finish the set. But hey, whatever.
DL: Italians are dramatic!
BM: ha-ha. Not me. Hahaha. So Danny, Scott did VH1 behind the music for ANTHRAX.
A lot of people have stated that the reason I was pissed off was because I wasn’t involved and he didn’t mention how SOD built his whole career. The reality is Scott has no honor or integrity. He never honors his friends. I was more pissed that Scott came to me as a friend for help to do SOD and when we broke up he never even called me to have a cup of coffee when he came to town. I was very upset over the fact that you never were even mentioned and in fact were intentionally omitted from the history of Anthrax. I find that insulting. I know you’re not the type of guy to say anything but as your friend I had to.
DL: Actually I did say something. I sent them one of the nastiest e-mails I ever sent anybody.
BM: Really?
DL: Yeah, They kind of came back with the same old fuckin party line, well we (ANTHRAX) told them we wanted to have you interviewed. But, I saw that as a basic structural flaw or window dressing. A lot of people who came to their (ANTHRAX) defense like their Webmaster said, “ It’s out of their control. VH1 decides who’s in and whose out” My problem with the whole thing was, the basic flaw somebody has to tell VH1 the history of the band. This is much deeper than, “ we’re gonna ask and your gonna comment on this”.
BM: Well didn’t they have like twiggy from Marilyn Manson on it or something?
DL: They had a bunch of people on it
BM; Certainly you had relevance to the people that were on it.
DL: My whole thing was not that I wasn’t asked to make comments on it.
My problem was much more basic was that, When they (ANTHRAX) told them the story line they made it seem like I wasn’t involved in the writing and recording of “FISTFUL of METAL” and that.
BM: Well were you? How much were you?
DL: Shit man, I wrote 75% of that record.
BM: Really? fl- Said with disgust!
DL: Well that’s the thing. When you saw the show, If you didn’t know any better you would have thought I was the guy who was in the band for 5 minutes and that as soon as they got Charlie 2 seconds later they got Frank. That’s how I remember seeing the show and going, what the fuck? The whole reality check thing is, if I was just a primadonna or a baby and out for attention and you know just ego inflation then people would tell me. But people were coming up confused going, “ How come I didn’t see you on behind the music didn’t you write most of the first record?” I would just have to shrug at them.
When they say” VH1 decides whose on it or not” I say no that’s not it more like you told them, you kinda re-wrote history to make it seem like I played a much smaller roll. The reason for that unfortunately follows a pattern. Bro, I’m gonna say these things, bout Scott it follows a pattern in history of after I was thrown out even though I thought up the name (ANTHRAX) He (Scott jewcifer dimebag Ian) told people he thought up the name.
BM; He really said that?
DL: He told people in interviews a million times he basically USURPED my real story.
Which was, that I was in hygiene class in high school, we were talking about diseases
And the teacher drew ANTHRAX on the board. I said, “ That word has a certain stigma to it, it sounds like it would be a good name for a heavy metal band”. You know because it’s a disease, It’s something bad.
BM: Right.
DL: Little do I know 2 years later I see interviews where, “Where did you come up with the name ANTHRAX and Scott basically became me and said “ I was sitting in high school in a hygiene class” and I saw that and said “ Oh my god what’s he doing”.
BM: So he lied?
DL: He did lie
BM: Oh so that’s just it. He flat out lied about the name.
DL; Yeah, He flat out lied about who came up with the name and how.
BM; did you ever take any of those tests for you in hygiene class? And how did you do in class? HAHA- it was a joke.
DL: Right! That whole pattern continued with me. Right after I was thrown out of the band Anthrax that is we were writing material for a second record. Next thing I new I was out but there was a riff I contributed.
BM; Like what?
DL: Um?
BM: What was the second record? Spreading?
DL: Yeah, let’s see. Which one was "Madhouse" on? That one?
BM: Yes!
DL: There are 2 songs on that and 2 songs on "Among the Living". Still 3 years later my riffs were still being used.
BM: What was on "Among the Living"?
DL: "I am the law". "Imitation of Life" I think.
BM: Which was the SOD song they stole
DL: Right! So there you go.
BM; So they basically robbed you?
DL: Ok, you were at the meeting when Johnny Z came up to hear the mixes of Spreading the Disease, we were doing the SOD record in Ithaca. You were there; they were playing john the mixes. All of a sudden I heard a riff I wrote and I said Scott were you gonna give me credit for that? And he looked very uncomfortable and said “ ah yeah Danny wrote a couple of riffs on that he should get credit”.
BM: I don’t remember that but tell you what I don’t remember anything from that session. I do remember you saying at one point that there was music that you wrote on it, that you wrote and that they used.
BM: There was an interview I read where Scott says you and he talk all the time.
DL: That is an absolute load of shit.
BM; So, he lied again.
DL: After behind the music, when he realized that he basically fucked up by glossing over my contributions by re-writing the history of it. All of a sudden after that you see interviews of him praising me. It’s kinda like too little too later.
BM: Anthrax’s lack of genuine identity is circumvented by there ability to take other peoples.
DL; Well, yeah.
BM: Let’s move on
DL: there are 2 types of people in the world. Some people have ethics, some people don’t.
BM: Well Scott definitely has none. But I don’t want to make this a Scott bashing interview. I just wanted to inform the reality of the situation to people because you did get pushed aside.
DL: I just want credit where credit it due.
BM: A lot of people believe you should sue them for defamation of character. I, being one.
DL: Believe me, Metal fans know the real story. The drummer from Immortal came up to me at Wacken festival last year and was disgusted with what happened. He was like fuck those guys. People know what’s going on.
BM: What do you think of the new head bangers ball?
DL; It’s the same shit as last time except they substituted NU metal for glam.
It’s more like UN metal.
BM: That’s funny. Be careful, Anthrax may steal that from you.
DL: Well, let me ask you this. If a German festival called and said to you “ I will give you 50,ooo euro dollars for SOD to play my Festival” what would you do?
BM; I’d say, NO. I will never go on stage with that Jewcifer fuck Scott or Charlene Bitchante ever again.
DL; That’s why you’re you.
BM: Exactly.
DL; you wouldn’t do it for a 12,ooo weekend payday.
BM: NO, I have integrity and when Charlie quit after one show it made me realize that he is the weakest human being I have ever met. I think he is the most self centered, selfish arrogant bastard for doing that. And I should know, I’m and Arrogant bastard. There is no I in we and he quit the first day. That is so typical of a power trip bitch move it makes me sick. The other thing is this. SOD plays a sold out show in Chicago and ANTHRAX pull the ultimate slime bag weakest bitch move in the history metal. SOD has a sold out show and ANTHRAX that night does a midnight in store and announce it at the end of the show. That was PATHETIC. It shows you what kind of people Scott and Charlie are.
And just how desperate ANTHRAX was for attention. It was probably the most despicable thing I have ever seen. SOD got bamboozled again and so did the fans.
DL; Oh, that’s right. I remember that. That was weak. Well I know one thing. I will play metal as long as humanly possible. So, um That’s it.
BM: Thanks for the interview and more importantly congrats on getting married.
DL: Thanks.
BM: Okay. Goodbye. Anthrax sucks! Ha-ha.
I have edited this interview to mainly focus on the whole Anthrax/S.O.D. situation. The more people who read the truth the better. To see the entire interview go to www.billymilano.com
I am sitting here with one of the most genuine persons I have ever met in the music industry. I respect his opinion immensely. He is a great credit to the Heavy Metal community. He is a legend respected and recognized by his peers. He is one of the original founders of Anthrax and of the legendary SOD (Stormtroopers of Death). He is my friend, Ladies and gentleman Mr. Danny Lilker.
BM: Danny, You probably have done more bands then anyone in the history of music.
Just if you could remember a dozen or so mention them please.
DL: I was talked into joining a band by Scott Ian, which I later named Anthrax.
BM: Which he later denied you were in and even more fucked up denied the fact that you came up with the name and then asked you to leave.
DL: Well, Yes.
BM: We’ll get into later. What are the bands?
DL: Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, SOD, Brutal Truth, Exit 13, (Malformed Earthborn? Don’t quote me.) Extra Hot Sauce which was me on drums in a hardcore band. Exit 13 was a band I produced and later jammed with as a filler. Our shows were a drunken massacre. Hemlock, a black metal band I played with for 5 years. The Ravenous and a new black metal band called Overlord Exterminator, which we are still putting together
BM: So right now you have been doing the Nuclear Assault thing, what’s up? Did you record yet?
DL: We are going to be recording in a couple of months. John Connelly and I have written solid tunes and it’s all about getting together for rehearsal. Glenn lives in Florida, Me and Eric the new guitarist live in Rochester. So we are a geographically challenged band. Anthony has prior commitments and he couldn’t commit to Nuclear Assault.
BM: Well that’s cool. So where have you toured? What’s the website?
DL: www.nuclearassualt.us Recently we did the no mercy tour in Europe with, listen to this. Testament, Death Angel, Marduk, Pro Pain, Malevolent Creation, Darkane.
BM: What were those shows like?
DL: People were excited to see Nuclear Assault back again. Lots of old school.
Also there were a lot of people who never got top see us or only now are old enough to go to a show who were really happy to see us. They came up to me and said, “ we thought we’d never get to see you. Thanks so much for coming to play”. It was awesome.
BM: So Danny. Everyone wants to know what really happened with SOD. They have heard me complain about Scott and Charlie for over a year on the net. Why don’t you tell everyone that reads this what really happened? OK?
DL: Sure
BM: I will start by setting up a few events and you can comment as you desire.
DL: Sure.
BM: Danny It’s fair to say that Scott told you the same thing he told me. You and I had the understanding that were going to tour all the territories of the world, which is why I closed my business down, Correct?
DL: Yep! That’s what I was going on. We were back full fledged. We were going to play everywhere we never played, we did play a bunch of places we didn’t play but it was not as complete as I thought. I would agree with that.
BM: And , I mean you’re a pretty mellow guy Dan, you really are. You’re one of the nicer people I’ve met in music I have to say.
DL; Well I appreciate that thank you.
BM: And I think I’ve only seen you get mad 2 times in my life.
I saw you get mad at the first SOD show, at Dynamo. You were called to my hotel room at 1am. We just played a stellar show. Charlie Benante told us that night that he quit, after one show. Do you remember what your comment was?
DL: No, but remind me.
BM: I’m going to remind you. Because I hate that motherfucker. Your comment was,” Well once again SOD’s fans get fucked.
DL; Well I was accurate.
BM: But you were pretty pissed. For the record it is true he quit after one show?
DL; Yes, and was forced to reconsider.
BM: Well, he was going to get his ass kicked though.
DL: Right, well that’s being forced.
BM: How much of the SOD shit did you write? Speak English or Die was a pretty popular record.
DL: When I got called into SOD Scott (jewcifer) had a bunch of that shit written already
I came up and wrote the rest of it with him except the 2 songs you wrote. Musically I helped write, Milano Mosh, Speak English or Die, Milk, Pre-menstrual princess blues,
Pussy whipped, Douche crew.
BM: So you basically wrote the best shit on the record. I know something you didn’t get credit for (besides naming Anthrax). You came up with the blast beat. I remember you sitting down with Charlie benante and showing what to play in milk and he thought it was stupid. I remember Danny Lilker coming up with the blast beat. Not Charlie benante.
DL: That was 1985 I was listening to bands like, the notorious NYC mayhem.
BM; Well, was blast beat stuff like that played back then?
DL: Not like it is now.
BM: Well for the sake of perspective. I never saw anyone do anything like that.
But then again I never saw anyone ever play in tune. (HAHA)
DL: Well technically he wasn’t doing a real blast beat because his feet weren’t going full
speed.
BM: OH, I see. So he cheated.
DL; (SMILES)
BM: I guess Charlie does cheat.
DL; (Still Smiling)
BM: I think I’ve said all I wanted to say.
Unless there is anything you wanted to add other than the fact that the fans got robbed again because Charlie’s a cunt. I’m glad though that you remember the fact that he quit after one show. Cause he absolutely denies it to this day. Do you also remember when we played Chicago, I was getting ready to announce the ballad of Walter Payton and someone yelled the ballad of Anthrax (I will have a MPEG of this soon!) Remember that? Charlie ran off his drum set, he ran away and I had to chase him to back stage and yell at him to get out and finish the set. But hey, whatever.
DL: Italians are dramatic!
BM: ha-ha. Not me. Hahaha. So Danny, Scott did VH1 behind the music for ANTHRAX.
A lot of people have stated that the reason I was pissed off was because I wasn’t involved and he didn’t mention how SOD built his whole career. The reality is Scott has no honor or integrity. He never honors his friends. I was more pissed that Scott came to me as a friend for help to do SOD and when we broke up he never even called me to have a cup of coffee when he came to town. I was very upset over the fact that you never were even mentioned and in fact were intentionally omitted from the history of Anthrax. I find that insulting. I know you’re not the type of guy to say anything but as your friend I had to.
DL: Actually I did say something. I sent them one of the nastiest e-mails I ever sent anybody.
BM: Really?
DL: Yeah, They kind of came back with the same old fuckin party line, well we (ANTHRAX) told them we wanted to have you interviewed. But, I saw that as a basic structural flaw or window dressing. A lot of people who came to their (ANTHRAX) defense like their Webmaster said, “ It’s out of their control. VH1 decides who’s in and whose out” My problem with the whole thing was, the basic flaw somebody has to tell VH1 the history of the band. This is much deeper than, “ we’re gonna ask and your gonna comment on this”.
BM: Well didn’t they have like twiggy from Marilyn Manson on it or something?
DL: They had a bunch of people on it
BM; Certainly you had relevance to the people that were on it.
DL: My whole thing was not that I wasn’t asked to make comments on it.
My problem was much more basic was that, When they (ANTHRAX) told them the story line they made it seem like I wasn’t involved in the writing and recording of “FISTFUL of METAL” and that.
BM: Well were you? How much were you?
DL: Shit man, I wrote 75% of that record.
BM: Really? fl- Said with disgust!
DL: Well that’s the thing. When you saw the show, If you didn’t know any better you would have thought I was the guy who was in the band for 5 minutes and that as soon as they got Charlie 2 seconds later they got Frank. That’s how I remember seeing the show and going, what the fuck? The whole reality check thing is, if I was just a primadonna or a baby and out for attention and you know just ego inflation then people would tell me. But people were coming up confused going, “ How come I didn’t see you on behind the music didn’t you write most of the first record?” I would just have to shrug at them.
When they say” VH1 decides whose on it or not” I say no that’s not it more like you told them, you kinda re-wrote history to make it seem like I played a much smaller roll. The reason for that unfortunately follows a pattern. Bro, I’m gonna say these things, bout Scott it follows a pattern in history of after I was thrown out even though I thought up the name (ANTHRAX) He (Scott jewcifer dimebag Ian) told people he thought up the name.
BM; He really said that?
DL: He told people in interviews a million times he basically USURPED my real story.
Which was, that I was in hygiene class in high school, we were talking about diseases
And the teacher drew ANTHRAX on the board. I said, “ That word has a certain stigma to it, it sounds like it would be a good name for a heavy metal band”. You know because it’s a disease, It’s something bad.
BM: Right.
DL: Little do I know 2 years later I see interviews where, “Where did you come up with the name ANTHRAX and Scott basically became me and said “ I was sitting in high school in a hygiene class” and I saw that and said “ Oh my god what’s he doing”.
BM: So he lied?
DL: He did lie
BM: Oh so that’s just it. He flat out lied about the name.
DL; Yeah, He flat out lied about who came up with the name and how.
BM; did you ever take any of those tests for you in hygiene class? And how did you do in class? HAHA- it was a joke.
DL: Right! That whole pattern continued with me. Right after I was thrown out of the band Anthrax that is we were writing material for a second record. Next thing I new I was out but there was a riff I contributed.
BM; Like what?
DL: Um?
BM: What was the second record? Spreading?
DL: Yeah, let’s see. Which one was "Madhouse" on? That one?
BM: Yes!
DL: There are 2 songs on that and 2 songs on "Among the Living". Still 3 years later my riffs were still being used.
BM: What was on "Among the Living"?
DL: "I am the law". "Imitation of Life" I think.
BM: Which was the SOD song they stole
DL: Right! So there you go.
BM; So they basically robbed you?
DL: Ok, you were at the meeting when Johnny Z came up to hear the mixes of Spreading the Disease, we were doing the SOD record in Ithaca. You were there; they were playing john the mixes. All of a sudden I heard a riff I wrote and I said Scott were you gonna give me credit for that? And he looked very uncomfortable and said “ ah yeah Danny wrote a couple of riffs on that he should get credit”.
BM: I don’t remember that but tell you what I don’t remember anything from that session. I do remember you saying at one point that there was music that you wrote on it, that you wrote and that they used.
BM: There was an interview I read where Scott says you and he talk all the time.
DL: That is an absolute load of shit.
BM; So, he lied again.
DL: After behind the music, when he realized that he basically fucked up by glossing over my contributions by re-writing the history of it. All of a sudden after that you see interviews of him praising me. It’s kinda like too little too later.
BM: Anthrax’s lack of genuine identity is circumvented by there ability to take other peoples.
DL; Well, yeah.
BM: Let’s move on
DL: there are 2 types of people in the world. Some people have ethics, some people don’t.
BM: Well Scott definitely has none. But I don’t want to make this a Scott bashing interview. I just wanted to inform the reality of the situation to people because you did get pushed aside.
DL: I just want credit where credit it due.
BM: A lot of people believe you should sue them for defamation of character. I, being one.
DL: Believe me, Metal fans know the real story. The drummer from Immortal came up to me at Wacken festival last year and was disgusted with what happened. He was like fuck those guys. People know what’s going on.
BM: What do you think of the new head bangers ball?
DL; It’s the same shit as last time except they substituted NU metal for glam.
It’s more like UN metal.
BM: That’s funny. Be careful, Anthrax may steal that from you.
DL: Well, let me ask you this. If a German festival called and said to you “ I will give you 50,ooo euro dollars for SOD to play my Festival” what would you do?
BM; I’d say, NO. I will never go on stage with that Jewcifer fuck Scott or Charlene Bitchante ever again.
DL; That’s why you’re you.
BM: Exactly.
DL; you wouldn’t do it for a 12,ooo weekend payday.
BM: NO, I have integrity and when Charlie quit after one show it made me realize that he is the weakest human being I have ever met. I think he is the most self centered, selfish arrogant bastard for doing that. And I should know, I’m and Arrogant bastard. There is no I in we and he quit the first day. That is so typical of a power trip bitch move it makes me sick. The other thing is this. SOD plays a sold out show in Chicago and ANTHRAX pull the ultimate slime bag weakest bitch move in the history metal. SOD has a sold out show and ANTHRAX that night does a midnight in store and announce it at the end of the show. That was PATHETIC. It shows you what kind of people Scott and Charlie are.
And just how desperate ANTHRAX was for attention. It was probably the most despicable thing I have ever seen. SOD got bamboozled again and so did the fans.
DL; Oh, that’s right. I remember that. That was weak. Well I know one thing. I will play metal as long as humanly possible. So, um That’s it.
BM: Thanks for the interview and more importantly congrats on getting married.
DL: Thanks.
BM: Okay. Goodbye. Anthrax sucks! Ha-ha.
That's a good one Edge 
