Considering that they’re old pals, Scott Ian wasn’t surprised to get a random text from Tom Morello. The surprising part was the text’s content: “Do you want to come jam a Sabbath song at the final Black Sabbath show in Birmingham on July 5?”
Obviously, Ian – a lifelong Sabbath devotee – was in. Soon, the rest of Anthrax was in too.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Ian says. “I’ve been flipping out. It’s hard to believe it’s real. It’s not hard for me to think back to my childhood discovering them – and the earliest days of Anthrax. We were a bunch of kids in Queens [New York], doing our best to emulate the bands we loved, thinking, ‘Could you imagine if we ever got to do this?’”
Were you nervous when you got Tom Morello’s text?
“Tom had texted me because we’re friends, so we’ll text each other out of the blue, and I got this text, which I read back quickly. In my brain, I got so excited reading the text that I thought he was asking me if I wanted to play a song with Black Sabbath onstage at some final show that I knew nothing about – but that Tom is now texting me about. [Laughs]
“I literally started sweating, like, the thought of that… I was like, ‘How is this even possible?’ Then I calmed down, looked at the text again and realized, ‘Okay, he’s not talking about me playing with Sabbath together onstage with them.’ I was equally excited about it – just much less nervous.”
Do you remember the first time you heard Sabbath?
“My uncle Mitch, who is only 10 years older than me – and this would have been when we were still in Queens – we used to go over there a lot, and I’d sit in his room.
“He had these cool rock and black-light posters on the wall, and he had a huge collection of vinyl and comic books. It was like my dream room! I’d go through his records, and I was eight years old. One time, I pulled out the first Black Sabbath record.”
That cover must have been a real sight for an eight-year-old.
I said, ‘What’s Black Sabbath?’ My cousin said, 'Oh, that’s acid rock…’ That’s how he described them, which meant nothing to me and still means nothing to me
“I was intrigued! I was like, ‘What is this? Is it like a witch or something?’ I didn’t know from looking at it, and I said, ‘What’s Black Sabbath?’ My cousin said, 'Oh, that’s acid rock…’ That’s how he described them, which meant nothing to me and still means nothing to me. [Laughs]
“But he took it out, the record started, and I heard the sound effects and the bell, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ Now I’m sitting there scared, and there’s some haunted-house shit going on… it sounds cliché, but it just completely changed the whole mood.”
How do you measure the influence of Tony Iommi on you as a guitarist?
“Tony was such a big influence on me as a kid. I actually tried to play lefty… it didn’t work. [Laughs] I tried as hard as I could because I was convinced that him playing lefty was part of why he sounded so evil.
“I was like, ‘He’s the only left-handed player I’ve ever heard of, so it must have something to do with that.’ But I can’t even quantify it because I grew up learning by listening to Tony, the down-picking, the tone and the galloping.”
Where would heavy metal be without Black Sabbath?
“It wouldn’t be. Without Sabbath, Judas Priest wouldn’t have become the band they became, and then there’d be no Iron Maiden and so on and so on.
“Maybe there would have been another band… maybe in an alternate universe, there’s some other band that would have been like Black Sabbath is in our universe but without them… I don’t know. I can’t tell you that metal would exist the way it does in 2025 without them.”
What’s your favorite original-lineup Sabbath riff?
“The first thing that popped into my head is Into the Void, for whatever reason. There’s just something about that riff; it’s got what I consider to be the origin of thrash metal. The bridge in the middle, where they pick it up, and Bill [Ward] starts playing double kick – to me, that’s the beginning of thrash metal.”
Once you get onstage, what’ll be the biggest challenge in terms of doing justice to Tony’s unique style, which seems simple… until you try.
“Sabbath and AC/DC are similar to me because people make the mistake of thinking, ‘That’s so easy. It’s like a caveman. Anyone could play those parts.’ If they could, they would. That’s why there’s never been another Black Sabbath or another AC/DC – nobody else can do it!
“Nobody else could play those parts the way those guys do. They’re original entities on guitar, and that’s why I don’t even try. I play it the way I play it. We’ve always been a band that tries to honor it.”
Can you tell us what you’ll be playing?
“No! I’m not going to give away the song we’re playing. And I don’t think this is public knowledge, either, like the way it works for most of the bands on the bill; you do a Sabbath cover and one of your own.”
Have you gotten to meet or play with the Sabbath guys before, and what does it mean to be a part of this final show?
“Yeah, [Anthrax] played with them in ’05 at Download [Festival], I think. I got to stand on the side and watch them play. That would have been the last time I saw them. If I weren’t a part of this show, I’d still be going; I’d make the pilgrimage, be there all day and watch the whole thing.”
You’ve done a ton of cool things, but this seems like it’ll be at the top of your list when you look back.
“It’ll be high up there. Some of the coolest moments of my life are just having been involved with the fact that I got to stand and talk to Tony Iommi. He’s always been just so wonderful and fantastic to speak with. I call them ‘Who let me in here?’ moments, where it’s hard to believe I get to do this.”
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
