Anthrax bassist Frank Bello recently made an appearance on Throwback Throwdown with Toomey. While sharing an interesting story, he recalled KISS’ Paul Stanley’s reaction when he noticed that Bello was stalking them.
Anthrax is considered among the ‘Big Four’ of the thrash metal scene alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. Back in 1987, Anthrax released their third studio album ‘Among The Living.’ The album is often considered the band’s breakthrough and became their first gold-certified record. Anthrax toured for over a year to promote the album, and during that time, supported KISS on their ‘Crazy Nights’ tour.
Recently, Frank Bello joined Throwback Throwdown with Toomey on Knotfest’s official Twitch channel. Speaking about opening for KISS back in those days, Frank Bello recalled when he stalked the KISS members. Moreover, he revealed that he is a die-hard KISS fan, so it is no surprise that he did such a thing.
Bello stated that back then, he and his friend waited outside of KISS’s Manhattan office several times out in the freezing cold. After some time, they eventually met the band members and returned to the office to see them again. According to Bello, Gene Simmons even learned his name at some point. The bassist then added he also talked to Paul Stanley, who questioned how they manage to find them every time.
During his appearance on Throwback Throwdown with Toomey, Frank Bello recalled the story as:
“Even before I was in Anthrax, a group of my friends, specifically my friend Tom, he’d have this insight. He’d have this connection in the city with their management about when KISS was going to be in their management office in Manhattan.
I live in New York, I lived in the Bronx at the time, and it was an easy ride. There’s a 20-minute ride on the bus to get to the Manhattan office of KISS. So, we would find out, Tom would find out, and we’d go down there, and wait out front.
It could be freezing, it could be zero degrees for three to four to five hours. We’d wait outside – we didn’t even know what they really look like, because these were the days where they covered their faces, you couldn’t really see what they looked like, but we knew if we saw a six-foot-plus guy with long hair. It had to be guys in KISS who come into this place, so that’s what we did.
After a while, these guys, we’d meet them so much, we’d ask them every question, ‘What’s the new record like? When are you guys going to tour?’ Just ask them every fan question you could ask them, and after a while – and this is all in the book – some really fun stories about how they got to know us after a while.”
He added:
“I remember Gene Simmons after a while, he knew my name, he goes, ‘Frank Bello, what are you doing here, and how did you find out we were here?’ It’ll be like that, and Paul Stanley would just say, ‘I don’t know how you guys got here, I don’t know how you’re getting this information, but how do you always know we’re here?’
It was awesome, it was a great, great time, so when we toured with them, if you asked Gene now, even to this day, Gene still remembers these days, that’s how great of a mind he has and a memory. He says, ‘I remember those days,’ and he can tell you the story. It’s awesome.”
You can watch the full interview below.
