Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian took a brutal jab at bands that fool fans with fake farewells. He spoke on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk. Ian explained whether Anthrax plans to call it quits in the near future. He also took a slight dig at other bands that market tours as their final ones to sell more tickets.
Ian first addressed why Anthrax would not use a farewell angle to promote new music or tour dates.
“Don’t you think, if that was the plan, we would play that card, like so many other bands have, and say, ‘This is it. Look, the album title says it. Our journey is over, so you better buy this one and you better go buy tickets. We’re only gonna tour now and do this for five more years,'” Ian said. “And then make an excuse why, ‘Well, we said the journey was over, but it was only kind of over. So now we’re making another record.'”
He then commented on the common argument that bands leave money on the table by retiring.
“You know the line everybody hears — it gets thrown around all the time,” Ian continued. “It’s one of those ultimate lines you hear all the time. ‘You know you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.’ That’s what you hear all the time.”
“I’m not talking about us, because we haven’t said we’re retiring,” he added. “But I hear about the other bands that have said they’re retiring, and then they come back, and it’s always, ‘Well, they were leaving a lot of money on the table.'” [Laughs]
Ian made the comments while discussing the future of Anthrax. The band has not announced retirement plans. His remarks carry extra weight because of the timing. Anthrax have just released a new album, and its title has fueled talk about the band’s future.
Cursum Perficio, the long-awaited 12th full-length studio album from Anthrax, is now out through Megaforce Records. The record came out on September 18. It is the band’s first full-length release in a decade, following 2016’s For All Kings. The album’s title and its place in the band’s catalog prompted the retirement question during the radio appearance.
The band has also said the record could conceivably be its last full-length effort. That is different from announcing a farewell, and Ian made clear Anthrax has not taken that step.
Anthrax are still busy on the road. They are touring with Iron Maiden on the Run For Your Lives World Tour 2026, with added dates in Montréal, Harrison, Los Angeles and San Antonio. The band is scheduled to keep touring through the rest of the year in support of the new album.
