I love both hip hop and heavy metal, but as far as I’m concerned they’ve only been successfully brought together once, on the manic Public Enemy/Anthrax collaboration “Bring the Noise.” Of course, as good as the track is, it also means that Anthrax, and its leader Scott Ian, has to shoulder a lot of blame for all the Korns and Limp Bizkits that followed.Ian could have easily spent a generous chunk of his new memoir I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax apologizing for that legacy, but he’s got plenty of other stories to tell. Anthrax is one of the so-called “Big Four” of '80s thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, and the book chronicles the intensity of metal’s commercial explosion in its heyday. That includes plenty of conflicts within the band and in Ian’s personal life, and the book is being touted as a brutally honest confessional along the lines of Andre Agassi’s Open.
Ian recently sat down to talk with St. Pete writer Bob Andelman, who regularly interviews artists and writers for his Mr. Media website. The conversation is a great sneak peek at the book, touching on Ian’s acrimonious split with former Anthrax lead singer Joey Belladonna, and Ian’s arrest in Tampa for breaking into Legends Field (now George M. Steinbrenner field, the Yankees home for spring training). Check out the video below...