In a new interview with eonmusic, guitarist Paul Crook has finally confirmed that he’s been in touch with John Bush about a solo tour of his Bushthrax Anthrax-era. “It's going to happen”, he stated, confirming that a band lineup has been discussed, and that; “it's going to be fucking badass.”
Crook made his comments while discussing the forthcoming Celebrating Meat Loaf shows, which hit the UK in May.
The idea of former Anthrax member John Bush going out and celebrating his era (1992 – 2005) as “John Bush – Only", or "Sound Of White Noise" was first presented to John in a question posed by eonmusic in January 2017. After Bush responded that; “I’ve entertained it. I haven’t done anything to actually put that into motion, but I think it would be cool to do maybe a handful of shows,” the story went viral, and has picked up momentum ever since.
In a follow-up interview in September 2020, the singer confirmed that he’d love to do it with the involvement of Paul Crook, who was with Anthrax between 1995 and 1999; “I said something about wanting to do it with Paul if I did it, because I really love Paul; he’s a really great guy, he’s an amazing player, and he was involved in those couple of records. He played on Stomp [Stomp 442], and he did the tour of that, and then he also recorded a lot of Volume 8. So the reason I thought it would be cool to have him involved if I did something like that is because he was involved in two of the four records of original material. And I just like him as a person; he’s just one of the nicest guys and fun to be around.”
When looking at a proposed timeframe, in the same interview Bush suggested that 2023 would be perfect for such a project. “You know, there is something cool about, well, ‘[Sound of] White Noise’, I guess in 2023, that would be 30 years [since its release], so you know, who knows? Maybe something in conjunction with that, at that point. And White Noise came out in ’93, and We’ve Come For You All came out in 2003, so it was 10 years later, so there’s an anniversary of both of those albums, because they both fall on the same year. So, I don’t know.”
Now, in an exclusive for eonmusic, Crook has confirmed that he has been in contact with John about the project. “Any time you're around John Bush, it's a blessing; whether it's musically, or just hanging out, having a drink, the guy is one of the greatest human beings that's ever walked the earth. Honestly, I can't say enough positive reinforcement about this man,” he enthused.
“Now vocally, he's one of the greatest ever recorded in metal. We know this. So the thought of sharing your stage with him, obviously, is incredibly, you know, I’m so honoured with the thought of that," he continued. “And then playing those songs?! You know, I love ‘White Noise’, you know, I love those records so much, so I'm really excited about this. And, you know, John and I, we talk about it. We’ve talked about it several times already. John and I are texting a lot. We do a lot of texting, and, yeah, it's still very much alive. This all still, could very much happen.”
Although stopping short of confirming any timescale of when it might happen, Crook doubled down on other details. “We have a band idea too. There is a band line-up. I'm not going to mention that, because that's John's thing, this is John's territory. But I'm letting you know that when this when this does happen - it's going to happen - it's going to be fucking badass.”
Read the entire interview where Paul talks about his time with Anthrax, working with Meat Loaf for over two decades, and the forthcoming Celebrating Meat Loaf dates, at eonmusic.
