Trivia / Anthrax

• Money, Dear Boy: Rhythm guitarist Scott Ian responded to fan charges that they were "selling out" when they chose John Bush as their new lead singer and with their more mainstream sounding album Sound of White Noise by saying "The bottom line is, everyone in this business is in it to make money. Myself included."
• Distanced from Current Events: It was rumored that they would change their name following the 2001 anthrax attacks, but eventually nothing happened... and they showed up at the anthrax attack benefit concert wearing this.
  • Though it all may have been a joke from the get-go, considering the name they said they would change to ("Basket Full of Puppies")...
• The Pete Best: Anthrax had quite a lot of members who never appeared on a single album.
  • Dan Lilker, to some degree; he did record on Fistful of Metal, but everyone knows him for his work with Nuclear Assault and Brutal Truth.
• Promoted Fanboy: Jon Donais.
• Referenced by...: Larry from Dominick and Eugene wears an Anthrax T-shirt in one scene.
• Throw It In!: "A.I.R." was an absolute last-minute addition to Spreading the Disease, as in, the album was completely done and mixed and ready for release, but Charlie Benante listened to it repeatedly and felt that it was incomplete, managed to get the band to hear him out, and wound up writing that song with them and recording it at the eleventh hour and squeezing it in.
• What Could Have Been: In an interview with Songfacts, drummer Charlie Benante confirmed that the rap metal crossover "I'm the Man" was originally supposed to be a collaboration with the Beastie Boys, but the two groups weren't able to schedule a meeting as the Beasties rose to fame, so Anthrax recorded it by themselves.
  • Scott revealed in his memoir that, if the reunion tour with Danny and Joey hadn't happened, the band most likely would've ended. After being dropped by two labels and releasing three under-performing albums in a row, Anthrax was almost destitute. Scott in particular had to take his hosting gigs on VH1 because he'd also been cleaned out by two divorces, and even had his band credit card disabled for a time because he was so broke he was charging personal expenses to it.
  • After the reunion tour, John Bush came very close to re-joining the band until he saw the touring schedule they intended. John had just become a father and didn't want to be apart from his new family for so long. He requested a third of the intended tour dates, but to no avail.

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