For years, John Bush has talked about revisiting the music he made during his decade fronting Anthrax. Now, he's finally making it happen. This December, the legendary vocalist will hit the stage for a short run of shows celebrating all four albums from his era with the band: Sound of White Noise from 1993, Stomp 442 from 1995, Volume 8: The Threat Is Real from 1998, and We've Come for You All from 2003.
Joining Bush will be his Category 7 bandmates — Phil Demmel, Mike Orlando, and Jason Bittner — along with longtime Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera, who's stepping in due to Category 7 bassist Jack Gibson's schedule conflict. The plan? Category 7 will open each night with their own set before returning to back Bush on the Anthrax material.
In a new interview with SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Bush said the three shows are likely only the beginning of his Anthrax celebration. Though he does note a new Armored Saint record is coming in 2026, and he'll have to shirt gears to focus on that as well.
"Well, we're gonna take this step [by playing these three shows in December]. And for me, this was a big step. So I was, like, let's do this. And [Dan DeVita], like I said, my agent, he was, like, 'Why don't we do this? We'll kind of play like three shows, strategic, and start with this.' The [new] Armored Saint record is coming out in March or April, so I'm gonna be definitely wanting to do a lot of touring and association with that, because we're really stoked about this upcoming album — it sounds killer — so we're gonna do a lot of stuff with that.
"So it's finding a way to merge some of these things together, but let me kind of get this out there, see what the vibe is. It seems like it's actually pretty awesome so far… But let's see what we get and let's see what happens. And sure, there's a lot of places that I would like to take it — certainly Europe and even South America and maybe even Japan. And the sky's kind of the limit. Obviously, there's a shelf life 'cause this is not new material. These are records that are 20 to 30 years old at this point. So it's not new music."
Bush later noted that he's really only doing the tour because Anthrax largely doesn't play any of their Bush-era material anymore. He also mentioned that he hasn't spoken to his former bandmates about doing the tour, but hopes they're supportive of his endeavor: "I have not spoken to them. I know that they knew that I was flirting with this and I have been talking about it for a long time. So it's not like it's gonna come as some major shock.
"But I haven't really had a conversation with them after I made this announcement. But I'm hoping they're supportive of it. Again, it's celebrating the music that those guys made and those guys wrote and performed on. So, like I said, a lot of those tunes are great. So, I'm hoping they're just gonna be supportive of it and maybe will wanna come out and play a song or two. But for me, my main ambition is — it really comes down to, the primary reason is to honor those songs and honor those records and honor me singing them. And that's really the main thing. So, what happens after that? I mean, of course I'm open-minded, in terms of having people come out.
"I actually think it would be cool if I had some other various people maybe come out and do some little guest spots. I have some ideas of people. I don't wanna say who yet, but I think that would be really cool for other people to come in and stop in and do a song or two in one of the three shows. And I have some ideas.
"Like I said, I don't wanna reveal that yet. And that's not even including Scott, Charlie and Frankie [Bello, Anthrax bassist]. But whatever. I'm open-minded. I'm hoping it's a really positive vibe throughout the whole thing, and like I said, we're just celebrating some of those records that sometimes are forgotten, which, like I said, I get it. It's hard to compete, especially with the '80s Anthrax, because it was so huge and it was such an impactful time. And those are great, incredible records. But we did still make some really cool stuff in the '90s, and I know there's a lot of people that love those albums and songs, so I'm gonna rock 'em out."
The three shows are:
12/13 Los Angeles, CA Whisky A-Go-Go
12/18 St. Charles, IL Arcada Theatre
12/20 New York, NY Racket
