Armored Saint ‘Distracted’ by Vocalist John Bush’s Activity With Anthrax
When Armored Saint started working on 'La Raza,' their first studio album in 10 years, vocalist John Bush was out of the Anthrax picture. The New York thrash veterans were working with a new vocalist, Dan Nelson, and Bush and bassist Joey Vera were having a blast writing songs together. Then in July 2009, Nelson and Anthrax hit a majorly sour note and, suddenly, the band was again looking for a lead singer. That's when Anthrax asked Bush if he would fill in for a couple shows.
"In late August they asked him to do the first show in the U.K., and we were scheduled to go into the studio in October," Vera told Noisecreep. "He made clear to me that he was only going to do a couple shows. He was there, he was dedicated. He was very much into the songs and the music we wrote. He said, 'Don't worry. I'm gonna be there,' and he assured me that was the case."
A couple of shows later, Anthrax were still courting Bush, and the singer seemed interested in keeping the lines of communication open about continuing to work with the band. At the same time, he kept his promise to remain dedicated to Armored Saint and he remained focused on the project.
"For me, it was just a little distracting because one of the Japan shows he agreed to do [with Anthrax] fell in a weekend in the middle of our session in October," Vera said. "That was terrible timing, in my opinion. But in all fairness to him, he did a great job. When it was time for him to be there he was always there, he was always on time and he always stayed as long as he had to. He definitely put 110 percent in, and his voice sounded great. The distraction is we keep talking about it and the subject is just never going away. It's even distracting for him. But it's one of those things you have to deal with and make it fit."
Fortunately for Bush, Armored Saint have no firm plans to tour, so now that the singer is done working on 'La Raza,' he can devote more of his time to Anthrax if he sees fit. Recently he told MetalSucks that he might recut at least some of Nelson's vocal parts on the upcoming Anthrax album 'Worship Music.'
"That is what they want to do, and it's been a conflict for me, to be quite frank, simply because I kind of felt like I wasn't part of the creation of it," Bush said. "[This was] something that they've already actually completed [without me]. I haven't disregarded it completely ... They want to put some of it out, if not everything ... and we've talked about [releasing] an EP. We're still trying to figure out if we can do that."
Armored Saint would like to have the option of touring with Bush, but they've made it clear that they're not interested in playing a small club tour and would only go out if the right offer presented itself.
"Like I said before, we're not trying to reclaim anything or rekindle our career," Vera said. "So it's not like Antharx are taking Bush away from us or anything. It's just that the timing of it is not good. And it's probably not good for Anthrax either because maybe had we not been in this place with John or with this record, maybe it would have been more likely that he would have gone back to Anthrax. It's kind of strange timing for everybody, really."