John Bush Taking ‘Baby Steps’ With Anthrax

Last week, we brought you exclusive news on Anthrax's ongoing plans to regroup with former frontman John Bush, with drummer Charlie Benante telling us that the band's new LP, 'Worship Music,' might end up featuring Bush's pipes. "We are in the process of regrouping with John Bush." But is Bush back yet? Over the weekend, both Bush and guitarist Rob Caggiano were interviewed about the band's plans, and its looking like Anthrax and Bush are bound for reconciliation.

Caggiano said the band is "just kind of taking it easy right now, getting ready to finish the new record [and] getting things rolling with that ... I'm producing and engineering the whole thing. I'm sure you guys know the whole story, but the record's pretty much ... I mean, it was done ... and now, it's not confirmed or anything yet but it looks like John Bush's gonna do the vocals on it. So we're all kind of keeping our fingers crossed and hopefully it's gonna go great. The record rules; we're all really, really excited about it."

Of course, Anthrax finished the new album with former frontman Dan Nelson handling vocals long ago. When Nelson and the band parted ways in July, the album's release was reconsidered. Now, it seems the band's working on Bush, who has played several live gigs with them since Nelson's departure, who now fronts Armored Saint.

"I'm committed to [doing] these five [more] dates, which is the Soundwave festival in Australia in February, and I'm looking forward to that," Bush said in an interview over the weekend. "That's as far as it's gone. I'm taking really tiny steps with that, because that feels like the natural thing to do. The experience's been great [so far]. And the band is sitting on [an already completed new] record [with Nelson's vocals] that they're probably a little unsure what to do with, and we've discussed that, and we're trying to figure that out, too. And I've listened to some music and it sounds cool."

But it's not as though Bush is confirming the reunion. "I kind of wanted to [complete] the [new] Armored Saint [album], as far as creativity-wise, before I could enter a new area of being creative with Anthrax," he says. "And I've talked to them and I wanted to be super straight up about everything. It's an area that I'm still kind of entering with... not trepidation, but just ... again, baby steps for me and trying to figure out the right way."

Bush says he definitely doesn't want to spend his life on the road. "I don't wanna go out and slug it out for months on the road; I'm just not feeling that anymore," says Bush. "It doesn't bring happiness to me. There's like this two-and-a-half-week window where everything goes south and it's just like, 'I don't wanna be here.' It's just not what I wanna do with my life anymore at this stage. So that's where we're at. We're kind of seeing what's gonna happen, and everything's been a positive thing."