A quick note from 38,000 feet…..Iron Maiden, Anthrax album and more!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - Scott Ian

Hello my friends how the hell are ya?

We’ve been burning the midnight black tooth grinding away at the new Anthrax record. I’m on my way home from NYC where we just spent a week working on vocals. I’m home in LA for the weekend and then I go right back to NYC on Tuesday for more recording. We’re getting close to finishing and it’s sounding great. There is so much energy in the tracks it’s like a physical, tangible thing. We start mixing on May 6 and we should be giving birth to a really heavy baby by June 1!

A couple of weekend’s ago we took a break from recording to fly down to Bogota Columbia to play a show with Iron Maiden. When Maiden invites you to a party, you show up. Especially in Bogota. It was a long trip there from LA but when we got in Friday night the hotel bar was still open and we dove into the local brew called Club Columbia. It was good.

Saturday was show day and we got to the venue in Simon Bolivar park (it’s like their Hyde Park or Central Park) at about 3PM. Our dressing room was a huge tent fully catered and boozed out with white jacketed waiters. Strange but nice. Everything was 5 star. I guess I didn’t expect the white glove treatment in Bogota. Everyone treated us great and we really felt the vibe of how stoked people were that we were there. You could feel it in the air. Thousands of people were on line for a week waiting to get a good spot up front. Seriously dedicated these Columbians.

Our show was amazing. 45,000 strong, the Bogota metalheads went fuckin’ nuts. They sang every word. It was our first time there and it won’t be our last. I haven’t felt that kind of energy from a crowd in a while. It really felt like the whole thing could at any second just completely dissolve into chaos. And that’s a good thing.

Iron Maiden and their crew treated us as usual, fabulously. We have been playing shows together since 1988 and they have always been by far the best band we’ve ever played with. Their attitude has always been about giving the kids the best show they’ve ever seen and that includes letting the support bands shine. They’ve never had that attitude where they would sandbag an opening act to make themselves look better. Maiden and their organization, from their manager Rod Smallwood to Squid the monitor tech are all consummate professionals and it’s a fucking honor and a privilege to share a stage with them.

When Maiden hit the stage the roar from the crowd sounded like what a tsunami must sound like. It was a deafening monstrous roar that never stopped. I was in actual tears of joy watching Maiden rip into Wrathchild. I headbanged the rest of the night away. Maiden are the Kings.

We got to hang late into the night with Steve, Bruce, Nicko and Rod. I can’t wait to do it again.

Oh, and Dave Murray plays poker!!

See you at the tables.

Cheers,

Scott

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Tags: Anthrax, Dave Murray, Iron Maiden