PHILADELPHIA, PA—A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian about his Speaking Words tour, and after the interview, I found myself unbelievably curious about his show. So, I figured I’d give it a chance and see what it was all about, and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at Scott’s storytelling ability. I mean, coming into this, I had no idea what to expect. When I think of Scott Ian, I think metal god from Anthrax!
The atmosphere was intimate with about 50 to 60 people sitting at tables awaiting their hero to arrive on stage. When he finally did, he read an excerpt from a book that sounded like a bout with heroin addiction. Scott stopped reading the excerpt and admitted that the passage was actually from the biography of Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis, and not something from his own journal. He then proceeded to shame the audience for even thinking he was a drug addict. In fact, he says that the story had nothing to do with drugs. It was about Anthony’s ozone therapy to treat his hepatitis C. So, Scott went on to say that we were all wrong on so many levels.
Scott continued to introduce himself to the audience as if he really needed to, but then he let us in on a bit of history that included a story about Joey Belladonna (his singer), Johnny Zazula (his manager), Lemmy (Motörhead), some Jack and Coke and shitting! I’ll leave it at that because you really need to see this show. With over 30 years of touring the world under his belt, you know that he has tons of road stories. Scott had the crowd laughing from the minute he walked onto the stage until the minute he walked off almost two hours later.
For me, the highlight of the evening was the story that he shared about Dimebag Darrell. Hearing stories about Dime is a great celebration of his legacy, and this story was pretty amazing! It included Sebastian Bach and the late Dave Williams from Drowning Pool, and the way Scott tells this story will have you crying with laughter. I will not sit here and write the stories that you should be hearing from Scott’s mouth at his Speaking Words shows. By the way, he does an amazing Gene Simmons imitation!
Scott ends the evening with a question and answer segment with the audience where he will pretty much answer any question that you ask him. Unfortunately, no one asked him the coveted, “Did you bang Kelly Bundy?” question, or the, “How does it feel to be Meatloaf’s son-in-law?” question. He also did a pretty cool meet and greet at the end that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to get. Scott Ian was very appreciative of every fan that came out and gave his Speaking Words show a chance. I will have to admit that I was not sure what to expect, but I walked out of there with a gigantic smile on my face. If you’re a fan of hard rock and heavy metal, you will absolutely love this show. You can also wait for the DVD to be released in April if you don’t believe me. Find out where Scott Ian will be performing next at scott-ian.com.
