Anthrax’s Scott Ian explains his lifelong passion for Rush

In 2018 Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian told Prog about his reaction to hearing Rush as a teenager, and how the Canadian trio have remained his band’s heroes throughout their thrash metal career.

“I got into Rush because I was 14 at the right time! As a kid growing up in New York City in the late 70s, I was constantly discovering new bands, and Rush sounded like a more muscular Led Zeppelin to me – at least on their first couple of records.

But Geddy Lee ’s bass playing was my biggest attraction to that band. That’s what initially caught my ear, because it was just so original and so punchy.

Is it too much of a cliché to say that La Villa Strangiato is my favourite Rush song? As a kid who loved Tolkien , Hemispheres was right up my alley. How could I not like a concept record with a nine-and-a-half-minute instrumental and a song about trees?

La Villa is just such an epic. It was just three guys who challenged themselves so hard by doing this; they certainly never took the easy route, and I think that really shows in that song.

They never pigeonholed themselves as being one thing: they’re Rush. Anthrax have always felt that same way. We started out as a heavy metal band but we’ve never been afraid to push the boundaries and go places that no other heavy metal band had gone. You have to do these things for yourself and hopefully everyone else will come along for the ride.

The other guys in Anthrax are even bigger Rush fans – that’s one of the reasons we covered Anthem on our 2013 Anthems EP. We’ve always wanted to do a Rush song and I think it was [drummer] Charlie Benante ’s idea to do that one.

Geddy and Alex Lifeson heard our version of Anthem and said they liked it, which was amazing to hear. I would love to cover La Villa at some point as well.

We almost ended up performing with Geddy at the Revolver Golden Gods Award Show [in 2013] – but the logistics just didn’t work out. In a weird way it was almost a relief, because we would have been there with our jaws on the floor, staring at him the whole time and not being able to play our instruments.

I think, in hindsight, it’s better that it didn’t happen!”