1979: Julio Iglesias, Danny Spitz, Danny Lilker and Billy Milano meet in high-school (Julio have refused to comment what he did in high-school at the age of 36). Julio hands Lilker a letter containing a white powder and thus AnthraX is born.
For a short period in 1981 the band has two singers, Julio and Sammy Davis Jr. However Julio and Sammy don´t get along very well and soon Sammy is fired. "It´s true, we had Sammy in the band for a while, we played weddings and s**t, it was fun but me and Julio wanted to be more serious and play harder music, Sammy was a good friend though and I´d hang with him whenever I was in Queens", Danny Spitz - NME, June 1991 edition
Lead axe-man Danny Spitz.
1982: With the help of Jason Nüstead and producer and sometimes Meatloaf guitarist Paul Crook they start recording the famous "No leather till hamstertime"-demo. Drummer wiz-kid Dave Lombardo is choosen as a session-drummer but after smoking a fat one in his parents garage his mom smacks him up and he´s grounded for two weeks. Iglesias and Spitz seeing how good of a smacker she is immediately gives her the permanent job as their drummer. The band now consists of:
Julio "Diamond" Iglesias - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead guitar.
Dave Lombardos mom - Blastbeats, cowbell and smacking up youngsters.
Session-members:
Jason Nüstead - Bass
Paul Crook - Guitar and coffemaker.
June 9th, 1983 8:00 PM: Johnny Zazoula sees the band performing at CBGBFBEB in front of a wild audience and immediately signs them to his Sanctuary label. What he doesn´t know is that the the atmosphere at the show was heated by a hired Billy Milano standing outside saying that "there is free dope and porkchops for all who gets in".
The band has already financed their first real record "Kill Em All" by selling dope and porkchops so when Zazoula offers them the deal it´s recorded and hits the stores in under 48 hours. The great sales during the following hours gets Anthrax a support slot on the Exodus/Golden Earring/John Denver east-coast tour. Nüstead and Crook are now permanent members and Julio gets a perm.
June 14 - 18th, 1983: Anthrax records the EP "Armed and dangerous" under gun-point from Zazoula while on tour. He later explaned his behavior "those guys where young (except from Iglesias) and naive. They didn´t know s**t about the business and keeping up momentum. My partner Jim Beam helped me a lot to make them see it my way." (see article in NME August 1991-edition).
June 28th, 1983 4:17 AM: Iglesias tells Johnny Zazoula AnthraX wants to get out of the contract and they get into a fight. It all ends in tragic as Jason Nüstead is crushed under the tour-bus. Police breaks up the fight and the bus is sentenced to death for manslaughter, Johnny is sent to a 6 month prison-term where he meets Tripp Eisen (see below). Jason is quickly replaced by Crooks old friend Joey Bellardini and with their new manager/promotor Don King the band is not only able to bury Jason and finish the tour but also does a video for "Howling furies".
The naughty, naughty tourbus.
Late 1984: The band regroups at Julios private studio in Brooklyn and begins the recording of "Among the volume 8 - the noise is white". In the middle of it Dave Lombardos mom remembers she left the owen on in 1983 and leaves the band in a haste. The band sits up all night making calls to drummers like Gene Hoglan, Steven Adler and Charlie Watts but they decide to take on Billy Milano as a drummer. "Nah, it was cool. They needed help and I was able to get away from my trailer" commented Billy Milano in an MTV-interview. The record is released on Don Kings "Mykechewear"-label on November 21th and the single "Safe Home" becomes a big hit and tops the metal-singles chart in the US, Canada and New Jersey for weeks. It´s supported by a video featuring a drunken Ted Logan from The Wyld Stallions standing on a freeway.
Wyld shyt man!
Post DLm-lineup also called "classic line-up":
Julio "Diamond" Iglesias - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead guitar.
Billy Milano - Drum-tendencies, Remington 870.
Joey Bellardini - Bass, headdress.
Paul Crook - Guitar and coffemaker.
The only line-up you need!
The band spends entire 1985 and a good portion of -86 on the road. They tour the world including Moscow and Gayford-upon-Avons "Hamsters of rawk", sharing stage with Metallica, Old Dirty Hasslehof and an up and comming band called Armored Saint with a young singer called Scott Ian.
I know you know this!
Trüe thrash metal is in and the Thrax-records "Persistence of time" (1986) and "S:t Anger" (1987) sells truckloads in the area of Repherbahn alone. The last spawned hits as "Now it´s dark". "Baby, one more time" and the rap-metalish "Blues brothers intro". "That song started as a hootenanny-jokesong, but Danny (Spitz) said he heard its potential and with the help of our producer Mark Dodson we turned it into the bands theme-song it is today" said Iglesias in Kerrang in June 1987. "Little did we know it would start the whole country-metal movement" ads Spitz in the same interview.
Things were however not all "ok" within the bands ranks however. Tensions rose between the left-wing extreme liberal Milano and the pro-Franco Iglesias even though Franco had been dead for over 10 years. There were reports of numerous fist-fights and harsh accusations during the recording of the bands biggest-selling record "Got the time". "Yeah, those were not happy times. I got an ulcer, Julio spent more and more time away from the band and I think Billy knew his days in Anthrax were counted" said Paul Crook.
January 6th 1990: "Got the time" is released and is hailed as the bands finest work by most fans. It´s no longer püre thrash but also contains influenses from country, western, country and western, Pantera and fusion-jazz. Anthrax have now become a householdname and they are hailed as the new "Atari Teenage Riot" and compared to bands like "Mr. Bungle" and "Roots and Haggis". After some suggestions from their management and the PMRC Iglesias drops his nickname "Diamond" for the more suitable "Virgingrinder".
Julios finest hour.
After an all-night on meth after a show in Riverside Julio wrote the lyrics for "El Mano" also called "I´m the man" and after reading the what Spitz claimed "cheesy power metal-lyrics" the other members fired him on the spot. Spitz also gave Milano the boot and Bellardini left shortly after leaving Spitz and Crook stranded in Paris, Texas. (A story they later sold to filmmaker Wim Wenders). Iglesias spent time in various bands, he wrote all the lyrics to Faith No More´s album "Angel Dust" something Billy Gould and Mike Patton denies to this day. Milano went into politics and Bellardini became a certified coo-coo.
Original "Angel Dust" cover.
Julio tried to kickstart his old solo career with a support slot on the "To All the Girls I loved and Headbanged Global Domination Tour of Tonga" but got thrown off after punching out Glenn Danzigs front teeth. Julio talked about the rucus on VH-1s "Where are they now" in 2000: "Glenn was basicly being a punk-bitch, he said some sly s**t about my lyrics for "El Mano" and I had to show him who his daddy is, he shouldn´t say things about other peoples lyrics. F**k... the guy wrote a song called "Mother", Glenn I´ve had your mother and she´s not fine at all."
The following year saw the light of the EP "Countryfied" which contained most of the country-metal leftovers from "Got the time", most notably a team-up with Ice-T and Dolly Parton, "I lost my car on the motherfucking road and I´m crying over you". After that the band was put on hold.
Summer 1995: Tripp Eisen is approached via Johnny Zazoula (who´s now a prison guard) for the job as singer but he declines and wish to move with his husband Bubba to Arkansas. Scott Ian of Armored Saint and M.O.D. fame is recruited as Thrax new singer and drummer Frank Bello and Charlene Benante (the bands second female member) are also added.
"I remember Scott doing a fantastic job back with Armored Saint and I didn´t hesitate for a second". said Spitz in an interview.
The CD "Fistful of metal" is not well recived however and the bands fanbase is dwindling. The band now is:
Scott "Not" Ian - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead Guitars and ambush.
Paul Crook - Guitars, "yes-man" and second in command.
Frank Bello - Drums and Moog-synths.
Charlene Benante - Bass, laundry and child manipulations.
Scott "Not" Ian
Spring 1996: Charlene is fired after a fight over a Twinky and ex-Living Color roadie John W Bush becomes the fourth bass-player in Anthrax. This signals the bands move away from country-metal and into a more mainstream grind-fusion boyband. In December the same year the reborn Thraxs "Bud E Love Bomb" is released (the last one on Don Kings label) and their nü stüle gets them new media attention and a hit single with "This is not an exit". The last track on the record, "Pre-menstrual princess blues" becomes controversial after Ian reveals that he based the lyrics on Benantes behavour. Charlene declines to make any comments.
The "Bud E" line-up:
Scott "Not" Ian - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead Guitars and ambush.
Paul Crook - Guitars, "yes-man" and second in command.
Frank Bello - Drums and Ulrich-trashcans.
John W Bush - Bass.
The following years were spent touring with Judas Priest, Judas Diamond and Judas Maiden. The next studio album would not come out until 1998 and was called "The world needs a Hefner" and was in the same vein as "Bud E". The track "Poison my eyes" caught the attention of über-director James Cameron and was used in the movie "Titanic". A video for it in which the members all dressed in computer-edited Leonardo DiCaprio-masks danced around on a cow sinking in the cold sea won an award at the Cannes filmfestival for "most arty-farty music-video".
Old-skool Titanic.
The members had grown up and had other interests than spending a time together. John W Bush moved to Florida where he ran for governor but was defeated by the Green Partys Yucca-palm. Scott Ian moved to L.A. and started hanging with Brian Posehn. Paul Crook started a pizza-franchise in Chicago just because he could. These stories were combined by the members in the script for the biographical movie "Escape from New York" directed by John Carpenter. The band of course wrote the entire music-score themselves. "It´s such an honour working with Carpenter, he has all these ideas and we tell him to shut the f**k up and do what we pay him for" told Paul Crook Guitar World in 2000.
March 2nd, 2001: Tripps and Bubbas daughter Tawny is born (noone can understand how that happened) and on the same day Anthrax "Brave new seventh son of a seventh son" is released. More touring occurs.
April 1st, 2006: The world is shocked when it´s revealed that the mighty Anthrax is back with a new label, new pentagram, new tour and most important of all: REUNITED WITH Julio, Billy Milano and Joey. All trüe fans rejoice. "We wanted to do this for all the fans who didn´t stick with us after Julio left and he and Joey thought it would be fun too! And as a special treat to our New York fans we dug up Sammys body and put on some make up so he could join us when we play "N.F.L.", it´s gonna be a blast from the past!" says Danny Spitz.
From the first reuinion gig in Buffalo, notice Sammys corpse "givin´ the horns".
And what do the fans think of this?
"Just f**king incredible! I can´t wait to hear "I lost my car on the motherf**king road and I´m crying over you" sung by the REAL singer!" says self-proclaimed "number one fan" aliasp.
"Thumbs up, the show was incredible. I had an erection the whole time! The band needs Julio." said Anthrax-fan Arg Hamster after the first reunion show.
The reunion went well and many people had the chance to bitch on Blabbermouth. However after a financial dispute Julio was out on his ass again (something about Photoshop-costs to get him to look young enough for 12-year old Disturbed-fans to buy the CD). Scott Ian was approached again but declined "I´d rather eat burgers and play with toy cars than all that drama all over again."
After months of rumours that the band was calling it a day they returned with not one but two new front-men.
"It´s a madhouse!"
Nelson have joined the band to spread the word of trüe metal (and quite a lot of female thighs).
The Nelson era didn't last more than a few minutes though the demos for what the band called "Our trüest record yet" are easily found on Üoutube. After winning back Julio in a game of celebrity poker against Barney the Dinosaur and the creepy dog from Fraggle Rock the band was once again trüe and ready to take on the world (with the exception of Madrid - fuck Madrid). In a shocking move they decided to all switch roles in the band or as Paul Crook explained it "This is how I always imagined the band should sound".
AnthraX 2010 is:
Julio "Virgingrinder" Iglesias - Trying to play guitar
Danny Spitz - Sounding like a melody.
Billy Milano - Bass! How low can you go?
Joey Bellardini - That is a fretboard alright!
Paul Crook - Confused over drums. Must call Ulrich.
"Who you gonna call?"
For a short period in 1981 the band has two singers, Julio and Sammy Davis Jr. However Julio and Sammy don´t get along very well and soon Sammy is fired. "It´s true, we had Sammy in the band for a while, we played weddings and s**t, it was fun but me and Julio wanted to be more serious and play harder music, Sammy was a good friend though and I´d hang with him whenever I was in Queens", Danny Spitz - NME, June 1991 edition
Lead axe-man Danny Spitz.
1982: With the help of Jason Nüstead and producer and sometimes Meatloaf guitarist Paul Crook they start recording the famous "No leather till hamstertime"-demo. Drummer wiz-kid Dave Lombardo is choosen as a session-drummer but after smoking a fat one in his parents garage his mom smacks him up and he´s grounded for two weeks. Iglesias and Spitz seeing how good of a smacker she is immediately gives her the permanent job as their drummer. The band now consists of:
Julio "Diamond" Iglesias - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead guitar.
Dave Lombardos mom - Blastbeats, cowbell and smacking up youngsters.
Session-members:
Jason Nüstead - Bass
Paul Crook - Guitar and coffemaker.
June 9th, 1983 8:00 PM: Johnny Zazoula sees the band performing at CBGBFBEB in front of a wild audience and immediately signs them to his Sanctuary label. What he doesn´t know is that the the atmosphere at the show was heated by a hired Billy Milano standing outside saying that "there is free dope and porkchops for all who gets in".
The band has already financed their first real record "Kill Em All" by selling dope and porkchops so when Zazoula offers them the deal it´s recorded and hits the stores in under 48 hours. The great sales during the following hours gets Anthrax a support slot on the Exodus/Golden Earring/John Denver east-coast tour. Nüstead and Crook are now permanent members and Julio gets a perm.
June 14 - 18th, 1983: Anthrax records the EP "Armed and dangerous" under gun-point from Zazoula while on tour. He later explaned his behavior "those guys where young (except from Iglesias) and naive. They didn´t know s**t about the business and keeping up momentum. My partner Jim Beam helped me a lot to make them see it my way." (see article in NME August 1991-edition).
June 28th, 1983 4:17 AM: Iglesias tells Johnny Zazoula AnthraX wants to get out of the contract and they get into a fight. It all ends in tragic as Jason Nüstead is crushed under the tour-bus. Police breaks up the fight and the bus is sentenced to death for manslaughter, Johnny is sent to a 6 month prison-term where he meets Tripp Eisen (see below). Jason is quickly replaced by Crooks old friend Joey Bellardini and with their new manager/promotor Don King the band is not only able to bury Jason and finish the tour but also does a video for "Howling furies".
The naughty, naughty tourbus.
Late 1984: The band regroups at Julios private studio in Brooklyn and begins the recording of "Among the volume 8 - the noise is white". In the middle of it Dave Lombardos mom remembers she left the owen on in 1983 and leaves the band in a haste. The band sits up all night making calls to drummers like Gene Hoglan, Steven Adler and Charlie Watts but they decide to take on Billy Milano as a drummer. "Nah, it was cool. They needed help and I was able to get away from my trailer" commented Billy Milano in an MTV-interview. The record is released on Don Kings "Mykechewear"-label on November 21th and the single "Safe Home" becomes a big hit and tops the metal-singles chart in the US, Canada and New Jersey for weeks. It´s supported by a video featuring a drunken Ted Logan from The Wyld Stallions standing on a freeway.
Wyld shyt man!
Post DLm-lineup also called "classic line-up":
Julio "Diamond" Iglesias - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead guitar.
Billy Milano - Drum-tendencies, Remington 870.
Joey Bellardini - Bass, headdress.
Paul Crook - Guitar and coffemaker.
The only line-up you need!
The band spends entire 1985 and a good portion of -86 on the road. They tour the world including Moscow and Gayford-upon-Avons "Hamsters of rawk", sharing stage with Metallica, Old Dirty Hasslehof and an up and comming band called Armored Saint with a young singer called Scott Ian.
I know you know this!
Trüe thrash metal is in and the Thrax-records "Persistence of time" (1986) and "S:t Anger" (1987) sells truckloads in the area of Repherbahn alone. The last spawned hits as "Now it´s dark". "Baby, one more time" and the rap-metalish "Blues brothers intro". "That song started as a hootenanny-jokesong, but Danny (Spitz) said he heard its potential and with the help of our producer Mark Dodson we turned it into the bands theme-song it is today" said Iglesias in Kerrang in June 1987. "Little did we know it would start the whole country-metal movement" ads Spitz in the same interview.
Things were however not all "ok" within the bands ranks however. Tensions rose between the left-wing extreme liberal Milano and the pro-Franco Iglesias even though Franco had been dead for over 10 years. There were reports of numerous fist-fights and harsh accusations during the recording of the bands biggest-selling record "Got the time". "Yeah, those were not happy times. I got an ulcer, Julio spent more and more time away from the band and I think Billy knew his days in Anthrax were counted" said Paul Crook.
January 6th 1990: "Got the time" is released and is hailed as the bands finest work by most fans. It´s no longer püre thrash but also contains influenses from country, western, country and western, Pantera and fusion-jazz. Anthrax have now become a householdname and they are hailed as the new "Atari Teenage Riot" and compared to bands like "Mr. Bungle" and "Roots and Haggis". After some suggestions from their management and the PMRC Iglesias drops his nickname "Diamond" for the more suitable "Virgingrinder".
Julios finest hour.
After an all-night on meth after a show in Riverside Julio wrote the lyrics for "El Mano" also called "I´m the man" and after reading the what Spitz claimed "cheesy power metal-lyrics" the other members fired him on the spot. Spitz also gave Milano the boot and Bellardini left shortly after leaving Spitz and Crook stranded in Paris, Texas. (A story they later sold to filmmaker Wim Wenders). Iglesias spent time in various bands, he wrote all the lyrics to Faith No More´s album "Angel Dust" something Billy Gould and Mike Patton denies to this day. Milano went into politics and Bellardini became a certified coo-coo.
Original "Angel Dust" cover.
Julio tried to kickstart his old solo career with a support slot on the "To All the Girls I loved and Headbanged Global Domination Tour of Tonga" but got thrown off after punching out Glenn Danzigs front teeth. Julio talked about the rucus on VH-1s "Where are they now" in 2000: "Glenn was basicly being a punk-bitch, he said some sly s**t about my lyrics for "El Mano" and I had to show him who his daddy is, he shouldn´t say things about other peoples lyrics. F**k... the guy wrote a song called "Mother", Glenn I´ve had your mother and she´s not fine at all."
The following year saw the light of the EP "Countryfied" which contained most of the country-metal leftovers from "Got the time", most notably a team-up with Ice-T and Dolly Parton, "I lost my car on the motherfucking road and I´m crying over you". After that the band was put on hold.
Summer 1995: Tripp Eisen is approached via Johnny Zazoula (who´s now a prison guard) for the job as singer but he declines and wish to move with his husband Bubba to Arkansas. Scott Ian of Armored Saint and M.O.D. fame is recruited as Thrax new singer and drummer Frank Bello and Charlene Benante (the bands second female member) are also added.
"I remember Scott doing a fantastic job back with Armored Saint and I didn´t hesitate for a second". said Spitz in an interview.
The CD "Fistful of metal" is not well recived however and the bands fanbase is dwindling. The band now is:
Scott "Not" Ian - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead Guitars and ambush.
Paul Crook - Guitars, "yes-man" and second in command.
Frank Bello - Drums and Moog-synths.
Charlene Benante - Bass, laundry and child manipulations.
Scott "Not" Ian
Spring 1996: Charlene is fired after a fight over a Twinky and ex-Living Color roadie John W Bush becomes the fourth bass-player in Anthrax. This signals the bands move away from country-metal and into a more mainstream grind-fusion boyband. In December the same year the reborn Thraxs "Bud E Love Bomb" is released (the last one on Don Kings label) and their nü stüle gets them new media attention and a hit single with "This is not an exit". The last track on the record, "Pre-menstrual princess blues" becomes controversial after Ian reveals that he based the lyrics on Benantes behavour. Charlene declines to make any comments.
The "Bud E" line-up:
Scott "Not" Ian - Vocals.
Danny Spitz - Lead Guitars and ambush.
Paul Crook - Guitars, "yes-man" and second in command.
Frank Bello - Drums and Ulrich-trashcans.
John W Bush - Bass.
The following years were spent touring with Judas Priest, Judas Diamond and Judas Maiden. The next studio album would not come out until 1998 and was called "The world needs a Hefner" and was in the same vein as "Bud E". The track "Poison my eyes" caught the attention of über-director James Cameron and was used in the movie "Titanic". A video for it in which the members all dressed in computer-edited Leonardo DiCaprio-masks danced around on a cow sinking in the cold sea won an award at the Cannes filmfestival for "most arty-farty music-video".
Old-skool Titanic.
The members had grown up and had other interests than spending a time together. John W Bush moved to Florida where he ran for governor but was defeated by the Green Partys Yucca-palm. Scott Ian moved to L.A. and started hanging with Brian Posehn. Paul Crook started a pizza-franchise in Chicago just because he could. These stories were combined by the members in the script for the biographical movie "Escape from New York" directed by John Carpenter. The band of course wrote the entire music-score themselves. "It´s such an honour working with Carpenter, he has all these ideas and we tell him to shut the f**k up and do what we pay him for" told Paul Crook Guitar World in 2000.
March 2nd, 2001: Tripps and Bubbas daughter Tawny is born (noone can understand how that happened) and on the same day Anthrax "Brave new seventh son of a seventh son" is released. More touring occurs.
April 1st, 2006: The world is shocked when it´s revealed that the mighty Anthrax is back with a new label, new pentagram, new tour and most important of all: REUNITED WITH Julio, Billy Milano and Joey. All trüe fans rejoice. "We wanted to do this for all the fans who didn´t stick with us after Julio left and he and Joey thought it would be fun too! And as a special treat to our New York fans we dug up Sammys body and put on some make up so he could join us when we play "N.F.L.", it´s gonna be a blast from the past!" says Danny Spitz.
From the first reuinion gig in Buffalo, notice Sammys corpse "givin´ the horns".
And what do the fans think of this?
"Just f**king incredible! I can´t wait to hear "I lost my car on the motherf**king road and I´m crying over you" sung by the REAL singer!" says self-proclaimed "number one fan" aliasp.
"Thumbs up, the show was incredible. I had an erection the whole time! The band needs Julio." said Anthrax-fan Arg Hamster after the first reunion show.
The reunion went well and many people had the chance to bitch on Blabbermouth. However after a financial dispute Julio was out on his ass again (something about Photoshop-costs to get him to look young enough for 12-year old Disturbed-fans to buy the CD). Scott Ian was approached again but declined "I´d rather eat burgers and play with toy cars than all that drama all over again."
After months of rumours that the band was calling it a day they returned with not one but two new front-men.
"It´s a madhouse!"
Nelson have joined the band to spread the word of trüe metal (and quite a lot of female thighs).
The Nelson era didn't last more than a few minutes though the demos for what the band called "Our trüest record yet" are easily found on Üoutube. After winning back Julio in a game of celebrity poker against Barney the Dinosaur and the creepy dog from Fraggle Rock the band was once again trüe and ready to take on the world (with the exception of Madrid - fuck Madrid). In a shocking move they decided to all switch roles in the band or as Paul Crook explained it "This is how I always imagined the band should sound".
AnthraX 2010 is:
Julio "Virgingrinder" Iglesias - Trying to play guitar
Danny Spitz - Sounding like a melody.
Billy Milano - Bass! How low can you go?
Joey Bellardini - That is a fretboard alright!
Paul Crook - Confused over drums. Must call Ulrich.
"Who you gonna call?"
:Spin:
