John Bush, former Anthrax vocalist and current Armored Saint singer, reunited with his ex-bandmates when Anthrax opened for Iron Maiden at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, and spoke about the encounter on We Go To 11.
Bush attended the show in late September and spent time with members of Anthrax backstage. He described what happened during the meeting and how the band treated him.
“I did have a chance to say hello to the guys in Anthrax, actually,” Bush said. “They were nice enough to say come into their… Well, they had like a box — kind of like a box at BMO Stadium. So, Pearl, Scott’s wife, she was nice enough to kind of come rescue us and bring us down there, which was great.”
“And so we hung out, actually watched the whole show with Maiden and Megadeth, and just hung out with Scott and Frankie, and I saw Charlie as well,” he continued. “And I didn’t really see Joey, but we saw Joey’s wife. And it was a lot of fun.”
Bush also praised the experience of watching from the band’s private box. “I saw Jon, the guitar player, and, yeah, it was cool,” he said. “It was cool to watch from that perspective. It was, like, down on the field. The view was perfect, and Maiden was off the charts. Bruce Dickinson, he’s insane. He’s so good. So it was a lot of fun.”
The reunion took place when Anthrax played at the Los Angeles show as part of Iron Maiden’s tour.
Bush’s history with Anthrax spans multiple periods. He joined the band in 1992 and remained until 2005, during which time the band recorded Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442, and Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. He returned briefly in 2009 and 2010 for live performances. The band’s September 2026 appearance at BMO Stadium was part of Iron Maiden’s 50th anniversary Run For Your Lives world tour, which featured Megadeth on all dates and Anthrax on select shows.
Bush has kept the music from his Anthrax era alive through other performances. In December 2025, he and Category 7 performed three American concerts playing material from all four albums he recorded with Anthrax—Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442, Volume 8, and We’ve Come for You All. The shows drew strong audience response and Bush has expressed interest in bringing these era-spanning celebration shows to Europe.
The backstage meeting at BMO Stadium gave Bush a chance to reconnect with the current lineup of Anthrax, with whom he worked during a significant chapter of the band’s career. His time as vocalist from 1992 to 2005 produced some of the band’s most notable material during an era that Bush continues to celebrate through his performances with other artists.
