Jean-Pierre : You just released a DVD, can you tell us more about it?
John Bush : The DVD is 'Music Of Mass Destruction', it's finally coming out at the end of this month. We think it's awesome, it was recorded in Chicago at a live show. Chicago is a city that's a little bit more special for us in America. It's funny, the show is great, and there's some little 'behind the scenes' with everybody, and it's funny and entertaining and I think people really like it. It has a couple songs from a different show, with different camera angle, and there're all these different interviews with all of us. It also has an interview with Alex Ross who's the artist who drew 'We've Come For You All' as well as the DVD cover. so it's cool, it's entertaining, it's fun! Invite everybody over, have some wine and cheese and mosh in your room!

You re-recorded songs from the first 5 albums. Why this choice instead of bringing out new material?
It's because people said 'Why don't you do a live record with me singing the old material?'. And instead of doing a traditional live record we did the DVD, so that was different. Now we don't want to just do another live record so to peak. So we said 'why don't we go in the studio, play it live, sing it live-as live as we could-and release it like that'. Just the real stripped down version of those songs. So that's what we did. Our intention is not to try to reproduce those records, 'cause those are great records, they stand on their own. It's more just a different take on those songs. It's kinda like a rehearsal, but a really good one, like a really well-sounding rehearsal of those songs.

When this album will be released?
This album will be released at the end of the year sometime.

You recorded many covers through the years, thus showing us that your influences are rather eclectic. Many of them appear as B-sides, on EP's, or on tribute albums. Do you plan to gather 'em all in one cover album?
Some of them also appear on actual records themselves! You mean the B-sides of my era with ANTHRAX? No, because we re-released 'Sound Of White Noise' with all the cover songs that we had during that session, and same thing with 'Stomp 442'. I don't know about 'Volume 8', 'cause I don't know the deal was with that album to tell you the truth. So I don't think we'll do a whole other record like that again, because we put them again with the re-release of the albums.

You did a cover of 'The Cowboy Song' by Thin Lizzy. Are you fans of Thin Lizzy? If you were to do another cover of this band, which song would you pick?
One of the greatest bands! I don't know, hmm... I love 'Thunder And Lightning' which is an underrated record. So maybe it'll be cool to do something like 'The Sun Goes Down'. How's that? An unusual song.

Why did Frank Bello leave the band after all these years?
Frankie is irreplaceable, He's an amazing person and player, he was in ANTHRAX for ever and I just think that sometimes people need to go their separate ways and that was the case with this band. It was probably a long time coming. I think he'll be happier for it, certain members of this band will be happier for it, and then maybe he'll come back in a later time in Anthrax. But now it was a thing that had to happen. He's actually playing in the band HELMET and I think that's a good outlet for him, that's a great experience that he'll get to go through because he's only known ANTHRAX in his whole musical career, so he'll be able to do something different and play with different people, and then we'l see what happens.

Joey Vera is your new bassist. Is he a permanent member of the band or is he here just for this tour?
Well, Joey is the bass player who's touring with us, I played with him in Amrored Saint. I'm very happy about that, because, he's a great friend of mine. He's just doing this tour, and when we're done with the tour we'll talk about writing songs and we will evaluate that. Joey is an amazing bass player, he's having a great time on stage. You can feel that energy that he's happy. People like him!

As fan of old school rap, what do you think of rap nowadays?
Everyone is willing to listen to the new material. I think Charlie's probably more of a fan of some more current rap than anybody else. I think that everybody's favorite bands are bands like PUBLIC ENEMY, RUN DMC. I think there are some cool hip hop artists, N.E.R.D. has done some cool stuff, even though it's not full of hip hop. I think OUTKAST is really cool, especially Andre's record. But I'm getting bored with the same visuals and the same lyrical content. Obviously BLACK EYED PEA are a little more optimistic about what they're doing. But I get bored of scantily clad women in videos and jewelry and rings and cars. It's fuckin' old, it's like everybody would come out in leather and spikes! I find that be very limiting in hip hop and very tiresome.

What recent bands are you listening to? Are there some new comers that you dig?
I like THE DATSUNS, I like QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE a lot, I love THE DARKNESS. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE is a really cool band, we just toured with them, they're very powerful live. I think the new SLIPKNOT's record is gonna be big, the single's great. God, what else?

What is the last CD you bought?
The last CD I bought was the ICED EARTH record, and the DAMAGE PLAN. They're both ok. I won't say they're the top records of my collection, but they're ok.

'We've come for you all' had a pretty good feedback on Metal Sludge, how do you feel about that?
It's funny. I don't take it too seriously. They bust some people's balls, and it's good, it keeps people humble. I don't always agree with them, but that's to be taken light-hearted.

Are you disappointed that 'dallabnikufecin" didn't hit the charts as 'Every rose has its thorn', 'Heaven' or 'Love Bites' did? How do you explain that?
Probably the word 'Fuck' in it!

But this word wasn't in the song!
I don't know, that's a good question, why wouldn't it be big? Probably because it was to be a spoof, a joke, maybe back then you had to write a serious ballad to chart, like 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn', something very touching. It couldn't be sarcastic. And ANTHRAX has always had that sarcastic overtone here and there throughout the music, and that's good!

One last word for the French fans?
We're happy to play shows here in France, I wish we're playing more to be quite honest with you but, we're playing Strasbourg, and Lyon, then we go to Paris again. We haven't played Lyon since 1993, and we haven't played here ever, so thanx for waiting for us, and we'll make it worth everyone's while, and thanx for all the support.