John Bush, known for fronting both Armored Saint and a significant era of Anthrax, is preparing to revisit his time with the latter through a set of special performances with his new band, Category 7. In an interview with The Metal Voice, Bush shared details about the upcoming three-show run focused on material from his years with Anthrax, as well as his thoughts on the band’s legacy and the future.
When asked about the motivation behind playing his Anthrax-era songs live again, Bush explained: “Well, I’ve been talking about it for a while and I just don’t want to hear me talking about it anymore really. So, I don’t know if the timing is really right but it was more of like, let’s just do it. Let’s just do this. I’ll start off small and we’ll figure it out.”
He added: “I mean, sometimes the timing isn’t great in life. I’ve been touring for the last couple years. I’m gonna be 62 years old next month. I’m like, when am I doing this when I’m 70? Timing is maybe questionable but like whatever. In December, I’m not doing anything so, I figured let’s do it. So, me and my agent Dan, who’s a good friend of mine as well, we talked about this for a long time. He was the guy who was doing all the groundwork for it and he was like, why don’t we do this in December? You know, we’ll do these three shows. Let’s do it.”
Bush acknowledged that his current band, Category 7, might gain some attention thanks to the connection with his Anthrax history. “There’s a little bit of that and we’re not going to deny it,” he said. “I mean at the same time if I put a band from scratch to do this thing I would think of those guys ‘cause they’re really amazing. They’re great players. They’re super cool guys and are easy to work with and I really believe in their abilities.”
He continued: “So it was kind of like well wait a minute why don’t we do this? We could play Category 7 for like you know 30-40 minutes. It’s going to be a lot of work not only for me but for those guys as well of course and then we could come back out and do these Anthrax songs.”
Bush also expressed interest in bringing on guest musicians for the shows, saying: “I have this idea of maybe having a few people come in as kind of guest stars, if you will, and maybe playing a song or two on these shows. I haven’t really reached out to anybody yet. I mean, the show just kind of went on sale on Friday, so it’s still early on and tickets are doing pretty well so far. I want to make it like a real celebratory thing.”
He emphasized that the shows aren’t meant to compete with his former band. “I don’t want it to be like my version of this band, the alternate to Anthrax or something because that’s not my goal at all. My goal is to make this a fun thing that’s exciting and, like I said, it’s a celebration of those four Anthrax records because I believe those records are really great.”
Reflecting on the work that went into those albums, he said, “Myself and the guys in Anthrax did a lot of investment in time and emotion and recording those records, touring on those records. We put a lot of our heart into it and this is my way of kind of saying, let’s give back a little bit and have some fun with these songs that pretty much haven’t been heard for years.”
He also hinted at plans to dig deeper into the catalog: “I want to do some songs that are not just the obvious ones. I want to do some deeper tracks. So I’m kind of figuring, oh, this song, I forgot about this one. This one’s great. And it was always a fan favorite. Obviously there’s the logical choices, but I think it’d be fun to incorporate some other tunes as well, ones that maybe people never heard live. So, and I’m all ears.”
Bush also addressed a missed opportunity involving a dual-frontman tour with Joey Belladonna. “Well, we were supposed to do it and then for whatever reason I don’t really remember exactly why. I certainly don’t want to get into anything negative. I think there was probably a money issue about what people were making and I guess some dissatisfaction with that and so then it didn’t happen with both singers. It was cool because it was a great idea and I think it would have been really fun for fans.”
He reflected on the period when the compilation Attack of the Killer A’s was released, which included a collaborative track with Belladonna. “When the greatest hits (“Attack of the Killer A’s”) came out it kind of resurrected the band a little bit. The album had this song on it with me and Joey. And I thought it was really cool. It was a cool tune (“Ball of Confusion”). I mean, I’m huge Temptations fan. What we should have done on that song, we should have made a video for that song. We should have done a video with both singers. There was a vibe about it.”
Bush added: “So, we should have made a video and that was a really bad decision that we did not do that because it would have probably been much more popular and just really would have helped out with promotion for this two singer thing. So, that was a mistake.”
He was initially open to the idea of co-fronting the band, but life had other plans. “I was open to it (two singers) and then it didn’t happen and then when we did We’ve Come for You All, the idea came back up about maybe doing the two singer thing again and then that was at the point where I was—I just think life was changing a lot. My daughter was born. I was like, you know what? I think you guys should do the reunion. And so I was like, just do it. I’ll step away, go fulfill that kind of feeling. And I think that was something the band needed to do. So, at that point, I was like, you know, I’m ready to step away.”
Now, with time and perspective, John Bush is revisiting his legacy, not to compete with it, but to celebrate it with fans, and have some fun while doing so.
