This past December, Armored Saint vocalist John Bush went out with his bandmates in Category 7 to play some special shows featuring songs from his time in Anthrax. It was a celebration of the Big 4 band’s “John Bush era”, with tracks from Stomp 442, Sound of White Noise, Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, and We’ve Come For You All once again taking center stage.
During a recent interview with The Metal Voice (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Bush reflected on those shows.
“Yeah, it was awesome. The shows were amazing. All three of ’em were great. It was a lot of fun. I got pretty favorable reviews from people. It was cool for me to hear those songs live as well as to hear all those guys in [Category 7] play them so well. And I think for the fans, a lot of those people probably felt like they may never hear those songs live again. And so there was a lot of emotion in the crowd from hearing those tunes. It was really, really cool. So it was all a big giant plus, and I’m glad I finally did it. And I wanna do more. It’s just gotta fit in with my schedule. I am playing Milwaukee Metal Fest with it, and so is Armored Saint the day before, so that should be fun. But there’s a lot of territories I would like to play with. It just has to coincide with my life right now. I’m kind of focused on Saint, and we have a new record coming out. So, I’m kind of distracted, but, yeah, we’ll see.”
Bush also suggested that his old bandmates in Anthrax celebrate not just his contributions, but those of the band’s other vocalists Neil Turbin and Joey Belladonna. And the perfect way to do that, he suggested, was with a special show where all three perform.
The subject came up when The Metal Voice‘s Jimmy Kay mentioned that Helloween did something similar.
“I think it was really cool what Helloween did with all that. I think it’s a very creative, and it was something that I think I would like to do that. I think that probably the person that would have to be convinced would be Joey, quite frankly. And I understand whatever his perspective is on it, whether he doesn’t or does wanna do it. It’s up to him, really. And the band, of course. But I think everybody would have to feel like ‘I’m in’. Or not. And if you’re not, then don’t do it by any means.”