Former Anthrax and current Armored Saint vocalist John Bush recently weighed in on the nature of artistic influence. He argued that all musicians borrow from others, in comments shared on The Plowzone Radio Show.
Bush explained why he believes every artist is a product of their influences. He said the key to originality lies not in avoiding imitation, but in drawing from a wide and varied range of sources.
“Even [The Rolling Stones frontman] Mick Jagger, he made the comment one time, ‘Nothing’s new under the sun.’ Something like that,” Bush said. “And he’s in The Stones. But they would copy a lot of people, for sure.”
Bush went on to describe what he sees as the ideal creative process — one that absorbs many different influences and transforms them into something personal.
“I think the key, my opinion, is take a lot of influences. Take a lot of them, and from different sources, different types of music,” he continued. “It doesn’t even have to be music. It could be something artistic, whatever. Take it all, and then churn it in your stomach, and then when you regurgitate — not to be too visual about it — but then hopefully that, with your personality of who you are, will give it uniqueness. So I think that, to me, is what you strive for.”
He also acknowledged that imitation and borrowing are universal among artists. He warned, however, against being too obvious about it.
“You’re always doing that — you are borrowing. You imitate, you steal. Everyone does a little bit. And copy. So you are doing that. It’s very true, all of that,” Bush said. “So it’s just about — the last thing you wanna do is be blatant about things, ’cause then you’re stealing from somebody. And I think that by listening to lots of stuff… ‘Cause, say you’re a heavy metal musician, but all you listen to is metal, somehow, some way you’re just going to just naturally probably really imitate all that stuff.”
Bush concluded by pointing to genres outside of rock and metal as a way to dilute direct imitation and develop a more distinctive sound.
“So if you in some R&B or some jazz or some bluegrass or maybe some African, indigenous music, and pull that in, all of that, and listen and then let that all kind of stew into you, then maybe you won’t be as blatant with it,” he said. “So I think that’s the key.”
The comments reflect Bush’s broader view that artistic originality is less about avoiding influence and more about how widely and deeply an artist absorbs it.
Bush’s perspective carries weight given his own career trajectory. He has fronted Armored Saint since the band’s formation in Los Angeles in 1982. The group has long been recognized for blending traditional heavy metal with melodic sensibilities that set them apart from many of their peers. That cross-genre awareness has been a defining characteristic of the band’s sound across decades of recording and touring.
His time with Anthrax — one of the so-called “Big Four” of thrash metal alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth — further exposed him to a world where genre boundaries were constantly being tested. Anthrax themselves were known for incorporating hip-hop elements into their music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. That move was considered bold at the time and is now widely credited as ahead of its curve. It reinforced the very philosophy Bush is now articulating: that musical cross-pollination is not a weakness, but a creative strength.
The Rolling Stones, whom Bush references through Jagger’s remark, are themselves a textbook example of the principle at work. The band built their early catalog almost entirely on American blues, drawing heavily from artists like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Chuck Berry. Rather than hiding those roots, they wore them openly. In doing so, they helped introduce an entire generation of British and American listeners to the blues tradition while simultaneously forging their own identity.
The debate over originality versus imitation is one that has followed rock music since its inception. Rock and roll itself emerged from a convergence of blues, gospel, country, and rhythm and blues, meaning the genre was never built on a blank slate to begin with. The artists who have endured longest are, almost without exception, those who absorbed the widest range of sounds and filtered them through a strong personal identity — exactly the process Bush is describing.
For working musicians today, Bush’s words serve as both a reassurance and a challenge. The reassurance is that borrowing is not only acceptable but inevitable. The challenge is to do it with enough breadth and self-awareness that the result sounds like no one else. It is a standard that Bush has spent more than four decades trying to meet. He clearly believes the next generation of rock artists should hold themselves to it as well.
