Scott Ian has never been one to cancel a show. When Anthrax took the stage on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise in late January, they did it in conditions more suited to a Norwegian black metal ceremony than a Caribbean sailing — and Ian paid for it with weeks of debilitating back spasms that left him operating at a fraction of his capacity across two continents.
The guitarist revealed the full story in a conversation with Australian outlet Heavy ahead of Anthrax's four-date Australian tour, which kicks off March 23 in Brisbane.
How Bad It Was
The trouble started during Anthrax's second performance on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. What should have been a warm late-January sailing off the Florida coast turned into something considerably more hostile.
"There was a freak cold weather shit that happened," Ian explained. "Miami, Florida that time of year should be 70, 75 degrees Fahrenheit. And it was in the 30s — it was snowing weather. And we're out on the ocean, and the winds are blowing 40 miles per hour."
The band pushed to reschedule their outdoor pool deck show to the indoor theater. It didn't happen. Three thousand fans were already outside in the cold. Anthrax played.
"We are very physical performers. I move around quite a bit on stage, jumping, stomping; I'm all over the place. And there was no way for my muscles — even though I warmed up — my muscles never warmed up."
By the following day, his back had given out entirely. "I could barely walk for a week probably. I couldn't tie my shoes. I couldn't fucking put pants on. I never had pain like that, back spasms like this. It was insane."
He Played Through It Anyway
What might have sent other musicians straight to a physiotherapist and a hotel room sent Ian onto a series of long-haul flights. Immediately after the cruise, he flew to South America for shows with Mr. Bungle. Then it was Canada, where Anthrax joined Megadeth and Exodus for a stretch of dates.
"I was flying these 10-hour flights and I couldn't even move, dude. It was agony."
Every night on the Canadian run, Ian was working through the show with whatever professional help he could find — massage therapists, osteopaths, anything to keep him upright and functional enough to play. At his worst, he estimates he was operating at "maybe 40%" of his normal ability.
The part that stuck: the crowd never knew. "The audience doesn't know I'm up there with fucking spasms running down my leg in the middle of the show. They don't know — they just think I'm making a metal face."
The physical limitations forced some adjustments on stage, though Ian found the humor in it. "I couldn't jump. I couldn't stomp my feet... If anything, maybe my playing was better. What else can I do? I headbanged harder, because it didn't hurt for me to headbang."
The Broader Picture
Ian's situation echoes a conversation that's been growing louder in the scene — the reality of aging bodies carrying decades of touring. He mentioned Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, who recently stepped back from touring due to physical limitations. Ian praised Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna specifically for how he's maintained his voice into his sixties.
"We're hyper aware of having to take care of ourselves," Ian said. "The guy is in that rare air of dudes that age who can still sing."
That self-awareness is what allowed Ian to manage the injury rather than collapse under it. Physical therapy back home is producing results. His benchmark for Australia is getting somewhere in the 70–75% range before stepping onto the Brisbane stage — a realistic target, not a guarantee.
Australia, Then the Album
Anthrax's Australian run spans four shows over six days. Brisbane kicks things off on March 23 at Fortitude Music Hall. Adelaide follows on March 25 at Hindley Street Music Hall, then Melbourne's Festival Hall on March 26. The run closes March 28 at Enmore Theatre in Sydney. It's the band's first proper Australian headline run in over two decades, and Ian acknowledged the long gap all but removes the pressure of setlist strategy.
"It's been so long. Really, it doesn't matter what we do at this point," he said. That said, he's still planning to rotate around the catalog. On recent North American dates, the band opened with "A.I.R." — the lead track from 1985's Spreading the Disease — in place of the usual "Among the Living," a change that caught some fans off guard.
"It's always odd to me what people know and don't know off our records," Ian said. Streaming algorithms, he noted after the interviewer pointed it out, have increasingly shaped what fans arrive knowing — with the top 20 playlist songs dominating audience awareness while deeper cuts stay invisible to all but the dedicated.
Beyond Australia, the larger story is the new record. Anthrax's long-awaited studio follow-up to 2016's For All Kings is tentatively due in May, released in North America through Megaforce and in Europe via Nuclear Blast. The mixing sessions — and part of the recording — took place at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge, California. Producer Jay Ruston, who also handled For All Kings and 2011's Worship Music, is back at the helm.
After a gap of nearly a decade, one of thrash's most decorated bands has a new album on the way and a guitarist who powered through the kind of physical adversity that would have ended most tours early. That's the Anthrax operating principle in one story.
Grab tickets for the Australian dates at Ticketmaster. Pre-order the new album at Amazon.
For more tour news across the heavy metal landscape, visit our Tours hub. Keep up with breaking developments in the scene at Metal News.
