Former Anthrax and current Armored Saint singer John Bush recently addressed his comments about a potential multi-singer Anthrax reunion. He clarified his position in an interview published on Loudwire.
Bush spoke about his Anthrax tribute shows and responded to a question about whether any of the Anthrax members had reached out regarding his performances.
When asked, “John, to some extent there will always be a connection to Anthrax, but I was wondering if any of the guys reached out or had anything to say about you doing those performances. Was there any input?” Bush offered a detailed response.
“Charlie [Benante] came to the Chicago show, and St. Charles and Frankie [Bello] came to the New York show, and Scott [Ian] was alluding to … he goes, ‘Well, maybe I could be another guitar player,'” Bush said. “And I was like, ‘But I mean, these are your songs. You can do whatever you want. You can be as involved or you can be not involved at all.'”
“At the end of the day I kinda did it ’cause I felt like I had to do it, quite frankly,” he continued. “But again, those guys, it’s their music. They wrote it. Scott had tons of lyrics and vocal ideas and stuff.”
Bush then turned to the subject of a recent misunderstanding surrounding an earlier interview, in which some interpreted his remarks as a push for a multi-singer Anthrax tour.
“Something recently came out with an interview I did and this is a perfect opportunity to explain myself,” he said. “I think somebody got misinterpreted what I said and I suggested that I was saying that maybe we should go out as the three singer thing, which Helloween has been doing and I think what they’re doing is great and it’s really cool. And I would embrace that idea. I think it’s a great idea. But it’s not like I’m saying, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’ ’cause I’m quite content of just doing what I just did.”
He was clear about where he stands personally, while leaving the door open for others.
“So I want it to be clear that I’m happy doing John Bush sings the songs of Anthrax by myself with The C7 guys,” Bush said. “But if that idea came up and the guys wanted to do it, then that’s great. But it wasn’t me pushing that narrative here. I just wanted that to be clear. And there’s no better place to do it than on your show.”
Bush also reflected on the warm reception from his former bandmates, noting the emotional weight the material carries for everyone involved.
“That being said, it’s all been great and those guys are super supportive and they probably miss playing those songs,” he said. “Charlie said he got melancholy a couple times during the show. And that some people slept on those records. It was very complimentary. So again, they put a lot of their heart and soul into that material when we were writing it, recording it on tour with it, doing interviews with it. So everybody’s invested in it as well.”
Bush’s clarification comes amid ongoing interest in a possible multi-vocalist Anthrax project, though no official plans have been announced.
The comments offer a window into how Bush navigates the dual identity he has carried for decades — a founding pillar of Armored Saint who also left a defining mark on Anthrax during one of the band’s most critically discussed eras.
Bush fronted Anthrax from 1992 to 2005, replacing original vocalist Joey Belladonna. During that period, the band released three studio albums — Sound of White Noise (1993), Stomp 442 (1995), and Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998). These records pushed the band in a heavier, more groove-oriented direction. It is precisely this catalog that Bush has been revisiting in his tribute performances, framing the shows as a personal reckoning with material he helped shape rather than a formal reunion campaign.
Meanwhile, Bush has remained active with Armored Saint, the Los Angeles heavy metal band he has fronted since the early 1980s. A recent YouTube interview revealed that Bush credited the band’s longevity — now spanning over four decades — to a deliberate avoidance of ego clashes. That same grounded approach appears to inform how Bush handles the more complicated terrain of his Anthrax legacy.
The multi-singer concept Bush referenced draws a natural comparison to Helloween’s celebrated “Pumpkins United” reunion. That project brought together former and current vocalists Michael Kiske, Kai Hansen, and Andi Deris for a world tour beginning in 2017. The format proved enormously successful for the German power metal band and has since been held up as a model for how legacy acts can honor different chapters of their history simultaneously. Bush acknowledged the appeal of that model but was careful to position himself as an observer rather than an architect of any similar Anthrax arrangement.
What remains clear is that Bush’s tribute shows have resonated with both fans and his former bandmates. The presence of Benante, Bello, and Ian’s expressed interest in participating speaks to a shared investment in that era of the band’s catalog. Whether that goodwill eventually translates into something more formal is an open question, but for now, Bush appears content to let the music speak for itself on his own terms.
