August 23, 2024 • 44 mins
🎸🌌 In the latest episode of Signals From Mars, host Victor M. Ruiz and guest Ed Ferguson dive into thrilling fantasy scenarios! This week, it's all about "What If? John Bush." 🤘
🌟 We know John from his epic days with Armored Saint and Anthrax, and many remember he was invited to join Metallica. Did you catch him rocking "The Four Horsemen" with Metallica during their 30th anniversary shows? 🔥
But what if John had been with Metallica from the start? What if he lent his iconic voice to other legendary bands? 🤯
Tune in for the first installment of our "What If?" series, where we explore these electrifying possibilities and more! 🚀
🎶 #SignalsFromMars #JohnBush #ArmoredSaint #Anthrax #Metallica #FantasyScenarios #MusicLegends #WhatIfSeries #PodcastEpisodes #MetalMusic #RockLegends
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome one and all to episode 393 of Signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor
(00:07):
and for this episode Ed Ferguson and I kick off a new series, at least a new idea
here on the podcast. What if, what if John Bush, man we know he was in
anthrax, we know he's an armored saint and we know that he was offered to be in
Metallica. I'm ready. Let's do it!
(00:56):
As of this recording the category 7 album is going to be dropping on Friday.
It's actually the day that I'm flying to the States and I haven't had a chance to
listen to anything from it beyond the videos that I have posted on Patreon and
subsequently added to my 2024 playlist. So this episode kind of came about by
(01:22):
accident. Ed and I were talking about economics and music and before we
recorded that episode, which is episode 388, we started talking about the
category 7 project and mentioning how it was members of Overkill and Exodus and
(01:47):
Mike Orlando, excuse me, plus Phil Demel who's been in a bunch of
things at this point. Kerry King, most notably for Ed, but also Machine Head, so
on and so forth. So we started talking about different things and with regards
to this and Ed brought up, well imagine if John had actually gone to
(02:13):
Metallica, what they would have sounded like and I said, oh I can show you
exactly what they would have sounded like. So I showed him the clip of John
fronting Metallica at the XXX shows, the 30th anniversary shows at the
Fillmore in San Francisco with John singing the Four Horsemen. If you haven't
(02:33):
checked it out, I recommend that you do because it is fantastic. Beyond belief, it
is great. It is, as the kids are saying here, some of my players are saying it is
very elegant. So anyway, I've asked John about this in the past, asked him about
(02:54):
the song selection, we've talked about him in Metallica over the years on a few
occasions, so it is cool to talk to Ed about this and actually expand upon the
idea. So I don't want to give too much away, but two things that I want to
bring up. I think it's a fun concept and it's something that just came up all of
(03:16):
a sudden while we were talking. I said, wait, we possibly have another episode.
So we recorded two episodes back to back. We did the economics and then we did
this one, which is a little under an hour. It's about 45 minutes to be honest,
but I think it's still a cool discussion and something that I would like to use
in the future with other guests and maybe have people submit their what if
(03:42):
type concepts. I think it would be really cool to discuss. Ed is a patron. I do
want to remind you guys about Patreon and look, I mention this all the time. It's
anywhere between $2 to $25 a month depending on what you want to pledge,
depending on what you can afford. And if you can afford it, nobody's holding a
(04:05):
gun to anybody's head. I know that there are some people that just don't want to
pay any money for podcasting at all. They want to keep it free and that's cool. I
get it. But if you're so inclined, just know that there is a Patreon, there is a
PayPal, there is a buy me a pizza, there are Amazon purchases that you can make.
(04:28):
And because I am an Amazon associate, I get a kickback depending on what you
purchase. And there's also merch that you can pick up. There's t-shirts, there's
sweatshirts, there's bucket hats, there's caps. There's a bunch of different things.
Just go to signalsfrommars.com and there's links to all of that great stuff
so that you can help support this show, help us expand, help me expand what I'm
(04:54):
doing show. How about that? Alright, thanks. Hope you enjoy the episode.
(05:16):
Welcome everyone to another edition of Signals from Mars. I welcome back Mr. Ed
Ferguson to the show. Ed, how are you? Still doing good. Awesome. Yeah, so we just
finished recording another episode. You had me back. Wow. That's it. We talked a
(05:40):
bunch before recording the first episode and we had some standby topics just in
case if we couldn't do the entire hour and it turned out that we could without
a problem. So we're back. Yeah, I probably talked too much. Yeah, I was recently told
(06:03):
that I don't communicate well. I would say that I probably over communicate as
opposed to not communicating well where I can talk for hours on end. But anyway.
Yeah, not communicating well could be one of my mottos probably. But that's
why I connect with music so much. Just like so many people, it helps you
(06:23):
express what you don't know how to say. Yeah, absolutely. How many times have we
copied lyrics to especially back in the day when you're exchanging? Yeah, to my
parents I paste them on the wall. Dear mother, dear father from and justice for
all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I put that one on the wall, cuss words and all. My mom
(06:46):
wanted to have a talk about that. But speaking of Metallica. Speaking of
Metallica, James Hepfield recently talked about how a band that kind of jumped out
at him was Category 7, a band that features John Bush from Armored Saint,
formerly of Anthrax, on lead vocals. I've had John on the show a bunch of times. I
(07:10):
can remember one of the only blabbermouth headlines that I've ever
gotten. It said, John Bush says, it made no sense for me to join Metallica. It
made all the sense in the world for me to join Anthrax. They took that out of
the interview and they ran with it. Now, before we started recording earlier
(07:33):
today, we had talked about how James had mentioned Category 7. The two songs that
we've heard so far are beyond the great. I mean, they're... Listen, and James'
comments, I don't think were to besmirch Armored Saint in any way. But this is
(07:55):
completely different to Armored Saint. It isn't what he did in Anthrax either.
It's pretty thrashy. It features Phil Demel, a violence and machine head on
guitar, features Michael Orlando, who's probably best known for adrenaline mob,
(08:17):
features Jack Gibson of Exodus on bass, and features Jason Bittner, currently in
Overkill and also in Shadow's Fall on drums. So they're all pretty heavy
hitters. My only issue is that they said initially that this was gonna sound like
Thin Lizzy. Yeah, where did they come up with that description? Yeah, I'm not sure
(08:40):
either. But that first video that you posted especially was a great tune. The
video was fun to watch, just watching them have fun jamming. Yeah, good stuff.
Yeah. So we ended up talking about how James brought up the fact that John Bush
(09:03):
was the guy that they wanted in Metallica. Yeah. And you were unaware of
the fact that for their Triple X shows to celebrate their 30th anniversary,
that they did four nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Yeah, and I
remember the stuff with Dave Mustaine. Right. But I don't remember seeing stuff
with John Bush. Okay. So, yeah, so they ended up doing Four Horsemen with John
(09:30):
Bush. Yeah. And I played you a little piece of that. Because when the site
used to be called MetallicaLive.com, I'm not sure if it's just Metallica.com now
or you can just purchase the live songs, the live material. I purchased the
(09:51):
Triple X shows and I listened to the hell out of them. Specifically, John Bush
doing Four Horsemen with them. And it's funny because one of the times that
I've interviewed John, I think I've interviewed him five or six times at
this point in time. I asked him, I said, you know, this is one of the songs that
(10:17):
Mustaine has always claimed was his. Obviously, Four Horsemen and Mechanics
or Mechanics, however you want to pronounce it. He's always claimed to,
well, he's always claimed it. No, he's got writing credit for it. So anyway, I
asked John Bush, I said, did you were you asked to do this song because it
(10:44):
would get them out of, you know, kind of shit with Mustaine or who chose it? And
he said, no, no, this was all me. I've always loved that song and I wanted to
do that one. So now you've heard a small piece I played up to the chorus, more
(11:05):
or less. And what are your immediate thoughts of hearing John Bush fronting
Metallica? I think he sounds great. And when I I told you earlier that when you
read that headline, I started thinking about what John what John's voice would
(11:30):
sound like singing different Metallica songs. So I was going about getting
ready for work and singing Master of Puppets in my head that replaced James
with John and started thinking, man, that would sound really good. And so I
started in my mind listening to other songs with John like Ride the Lightning
(11:51):
and just started realizing, you know, if and then I was thinking about if you
replaced, you know, Dave and Megadeth, what that would sound like, you know,
basically the big four thinking about all of them and realizing that, you
know, John probably would have sounded best in Metallica. Right. I mean, his
(12:14):
voice goes really well with Metallica's music. It's kind of changed the style,
but it has more character to it. A little more, maybe a little more bass or
something there. And I'm forgetting my thought what I was going to say after
(12:35):
that. But yeah, I mean, he oh, yeah, I was going to say that he, you know,
being an anthrax, even though he did some good records with them, that's a
very different style of singing. Right. From Joey. Yeah. But you could put him
in Metallica and it would it just fit it would have been a perfectly natural fit.
And it makes you wonder what their career would have been like, you know,
(12:59):
if they had had him playing or singing and James just doing the rhythm guitar.
Yeah. Here's the other thing to consider that he brought up when I interviewed
him. The dynamic of the band probably would have changed as well because he
would have written more of the lyrics. Maybe the song some of the songs wouldn't
(13:23):
have been as popular because of the fact that you have a different lyricist.
The the content of what the songs were about could have changed radically.
You know, imagine a song like, I don't know, fade the black or for whom the
belt holes, something like that right off of Ride the Lightning. Let's say he
(13:46):
comes in on Ride as they're writing it and he.
Start saying that he wants his own lyrics, that he doesn't you know, he
doesn't want to sing James's stuff. He wants to he wants to add his own lyric
lyrical material to those songs. That could have changed radically where the
(14:08):
band went, how they were, what songs they came up with, you know, and.
Yeah. And my thoughts, everything is the same just with John's voice.
Right. Yes, you're right. It would have been different songs had they written
those with him.
So here's something else to take into consideration.
(14:33):
And this was something that just so people know, this kind of came about
or no, it did come about because I mentioned this story on my Patreon.
Podcast. And I mentioned, imagine having like a side project.
James and John do a side project now.
(14:56):
They should.
I mean, that's the thing.
The first thing that I thought of when I heard category seven was a this is him
doing what he's been wanting to do with Anthrax all these years.
He's finally got players where he can go out and do those Anthrax songs live.
(15:18):
Plus do new material kind of mix both in there.
And then it made me think he's kind of spreading his wings and showing that he
can still do some of this stuff, because when he was in Anthrax, he was he was
doing the Joey era stuff as well.
Yeah, we also know that he did that album called The Lesser of Two Evils, where he
(15:40):
it was all. Covers of Joey songs redone with him singing.
But you can also tell, even though he does those songs well, he's having to strain
his voice in a different way, you know, to try to kind of get that same melody or
whatever that Joey had that kind of fits the song.
(16:02):
Whereas when you hear him singing those Metallica songs, this is very natural
because, you know, James is not a super dynamic singer.
Yeah. And, you know, a little bit on injustice for all, but especially from the
black album on for me, listening to James gets kind of tiring after several songs,
especially when he started throwing that yeah thing in over and over again on
(16:28):
later on in the 90s, I think he's kind of gotten away from that, thankfully.
But he can get a bit tiring to listen to for me, whereas I could listen to John
much longer.
Yeah, I think the first thing that came to mind.
(16:49):
When rehearing them doing the Four Horsemen was.
How John's and James voice complemented one another.
Yeah, they do.
And how I thought, you know, hey, if they were ever to do an album together.
It would be pretty interesting to see what that would sound damn good with their
(17:18):
voices like that.
And James is, you know, chops on the guitar.
Right.
Maybe throw Dave Lombardo in the background.
We're going to have another dream the band up episode here.
Who's on base?
I'm trying to figure that out.
I'll have to get back to you on that.
Would you throw Tomari in there to have a third voice?
(17:45):
No, I don't think they would need any more voice.
OK, I mean, they sounded good enough.
You know, in that video by themselves.
Yeah, that would sound good.
So all right.
So how about this?
(18:05):
Well, could an Ellison be brought into something like that or is he still?
Yeah, I was going to maybe mention him because he can lock in with that kind of music.
It's fine because he's got those Megadeth chops.
You know, Megadeth has that kind of helicopter sounding thrash groove, you know, and that's
(18:31):
what Dave Lombardo has got that kind of groove is in his playing as well.
And James has got the right hand chops to keep up with anything that's thrown at him,
it seems.
Although, you know, he has been talking about getting older and not being able to play as
well, which I can understand getting older myself.
You know, those right hand chops go away really fast if you're not doing it all the time.
(18:55):
Right.
Who would who would be this?
Well, would you bring in a second guitarist?
Only maybe for lead purposes.
OK, I think, you know, if they needed two tracks of guitars, I think James could do
both.
(19:16):
Maybe invite someone to do a little lead playing.
OK, so who would you bring in to do the lead?
Kiko, maybe.
OK, yeah, he's got some time.
OK, so.
So let's let's think of one step forward here.
(19:39):
They're OK, so they're going to do shows live now and they'll play some of their originals
that they've written and recorded together.
And they're also going to play some some songs from each of the members of the band's other
(20:00):
bands.
What songs do you want to hear?
This band do live.
What what Metallica songs would you like to hear them do live?
Well, definitely the thrashier tunes, so you'd be dipping back into Kill em All.
(20:25):
And probably some of the deeper tracks of Kill em All and Ride the Lightning, you know,
like Trapped Under Ice or Damage Inc.
You know, some of those things where they can really jam away for us.
Well, that's a good question.
I could think on that one for a long time.
(20:47):
What we've got it else.
What are you thinking?
What's my thinking?
OK, from Metallica standpoint.
Yeah, I mean, we've heard him do Four Horsemen.
I mean, that would sound ridiculous.
I would love to hear him hear them do the the title track off of Ride the Lightning.
(21:10):
Yeah.
John Bush would sound good doing Master of Puppets.
His voice would be a good track.
No doubt, even though we've heard it a thousand times.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
What about we have Alison in there?
What Megadeth songs do you want to hear John Bush sing?
(21:37):
I like maybe The Conjuring.
Oh, well, Black Friday, Little Good Morning Black Friday.
I love Bad Omen, too.
I know a lot of people don't like that as much as me, but I would love to hear it.
What's the last track off of that album?
(22:00):
I'm forgetting.
And, you know, some rest in peace songs might be good from them, too.
You like Take No Prisoners?
Yeah.
Maybe Kiko doing a little Lucretia for us.
I mean, there'd be a lot of the Megadeth stuff that would fit a band like that really well.
Old and new.
(22:22):
Like Headcrusher even.
Stuff like that.
That's a fun song to play, by the way.
Headcrusher.
Great jam.
That surprises me that you would say that.
Yeah.
My last words is the last track.
That's right.
Yeah.
(22:43):
Yeah, it's kind of sad.
I'm starting to get to the age where I'm even forgetting all those ACDC facts I could just
fire off at any moment that anybody asked me a question.
You know, it's just things are fading away up there.
But I remember the sounds.
Interesting.
(23:03):
Yeah.
Megadeth for me.
Man, I'm surprised you said Headcrusher, but there's some stuff like...
Man, I've always loved Ashes in Your Mouth.
(23:27):
Hearing John Bush sing that would be ridiculous.
Yeah, he'd be good with a lot of Countdown songs.
Yeah.
I would have liked Countdown better if John had probably sang on there.
There you go.
I know I would have liked Euthanasia and Cryptic Riding's better.
(23:48):
Risk is not even a...
You can't even call that a Megadeth record.
Yeah, that's such a...
We'll just skip over that one.
Such a weird album that for whatever reason, I've never understood why whenever risk is
brought up, a lot of people say, well, Metallica released St. Anger.
(24:12):
And I always thought, well, one really has nothing to do with the other.
Yeah, give me St. Anger any day.
Yeah, for St. Anger shortcomings, it still has three or four good songs.
That's right.
Yeah.
It's not...
It's another story, but...
Yeah.
I like the song Breadline.
(24:32):
It's got a nice melody.
Okay.
You know, that's a good song for any rock band to play.
But yeah, stuff like Crushem is just kind of embarrassing coming from your old thrash metal
bands.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay, you said Headcrusher before.
(24:56):
That's right, from like 2013, 2010, maybe.
You know why I thought it was surprising?
Because I thought you said Crushem, not Headcrusher.
Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.
That's why I was like, wow.
Yeah, I'm glad you cleared that up for the audience.
(25:16):
Yeah, because I was thinking, wow, that took an interesting turn of...
Yeah, you're ready to check my metal card there, weren't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
So let's see.
What Slayer songs would you want to hear John Bush sing?
(25:37):
Probably Stuff Off the South of Heaven.
I love that album.
You know, for some of the slower tracks, he would sound good on that.
I don't know, when it comes to Slayer, I can't hardly get myself to imagine anybody but Tom.
So it's even hard for me to think of that one.
As soon as I think about that, I just move on to the next band.
(26:01):
But there'd be a lot of good anthrax tunes, though, from both Joey's and John's years
that, you know, category seven could do really well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They could maybe make them sound better than a lot of those anthrax productions, I think.
Could very well be.
Yeah, that's what they need to put on their B-sides, or some anthrax cover tunes.
(26:26):
I wonder if anthrax would allow them to do that.
That'd be nice.
They're probably not.
I don't know.
Well, look at all...
Anthrax has done that for themselves so often.
Why not?
Let someone do it for anthrax now.
(26:48):
I have heard anthrax covers over the years.
So I mean, it wouldn't be anything new.
But yeah, I mean, obviously, again, I think that category seven is going to be a big kind
(27:09):
of litmus test for where John Bush goes.
If this album is just really, really good and a lot of metal fans get behind it and
they do any sort of touring with it.
Given anthrax in 2024, where you have Scott playing with Mr. Bungle, you have Charlie
(27:33):
playing with Pantera, Frank playing with Satyricon.
Would it be out of the ordinary for them to do shows with John Bush?
Yeah, no.
I definitely want to see that if they came through here.
(27:55):
Would they call it anthrax, though, or would they call it something else?
Oh, something else.
Sure, I'm thinking if category seven came through here, I'd want to see that.
Okay.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's a good question.
Would they call that anthrax or not?
I think it would be easy.
They could probably call the band Sound the Void Noise or something.
(28:18):
Exactly.
That's a better way to do it.
Yeah.
And this gets back to John Bush being the flexible singer that he is, the powerhouse
singer that he is, because if that wasn't there, we wouldn't be coming up with these
dream scenarios.
(28:40):
That's right.
Yeah.
Of trying to figure out who he could slot in with and who we could put around him.
Is there any other singer that you could think of that would instantly give you that kind
of connection with the James Hetfield to say, Hey, I'd love to see this combination work
(29:03):
together.
I'm sure there is.
But now that you're asking me, I'm not going to be able to think of, you know, remember
what I thought of.
I think for me, the one and just because I'm a huge fan.
And although they kind of have worked together again when they did the Tuesday's Gone cover,
(29:26):
there's Jerry Cantrell on it.
I would think a real interesting album would be Cantrell and Hetfield as well.
It didn't necessarily have to be a metal album.
It could be an acoustic album.
(29:47):
It could be a straight up rock album.
Even if you even if you pair those three together, kind of.
And I'm thinking in the way of of like the band Killer Be Killed, where you have three
(30:07):
distinct vocalists in there.
You have Max Cavalera, you have Troy Sanders from Mastodon, you have Greg Pucciato, who
used to sing in the Dilger Escape Plan.
I mean, I could.
I'm thinking of a mix between Anthrax's Black Lodge with some of the like more haunting,
(30:33):
creepy type Alice in Chains.
Yeah.
With James adding his.
His spin to it and his voice can be pretty haunting and like pretty emotional at times
as well.
Again.
I mean, having all of that together in there, that would be really interesting as well.
(30:59):
It sure would.
Yeah.
Hopefully he can do some things like that as he gets older and Metallica starts to fade
away.
Maybe he can do some other projects that would be interesting.
Yeah, that's that's another thing that's kind of interesting.
(31:20):
They're not getting any younger.
Yes, I know that three of the four guys that have been there since the first album are
still there.
Everyone bitches about Lars, but Lars seems to still be in good shape.
How long can they continue to go?
I mean, but also Kirk has recently come out saying that they don't play enough.
(31:44):
They're playing twice a week.
Yeah, they're playing twice a week.
So they're doing that so that they can extend their touring for a long period of time.
They go for like four or five months and then take six weeks off and they head out and do
another leg.
(32:04):
But at the same time, these legs of tours that they're doing, they're just doing Friday,
Friday, Sunday shows or Saturday, Monday shows.
And it's helping with, I think, the longevity of the band.
And yeah, they probably could play more shows, but I think James Voice wouldn't be as good.
(32:25):
I think Lars's playing wouldn't be as good.
I think this is you get worn out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they've they've always been a step ahead of so many bands.
I think improving it with this as well.
It's helping tack on years, tack on longevity.
And maybe they get to a point where they say, you know, no more or they were going to go
(32:49):
away for five years.
And in the meantime, we're each going to work on different things.
That's right.
Yeah.
You know, and just to because I'm already dealing with it.
Your muscles just don't snap back the next day.
You can have like a you can be really on fire one night, but it's not like it was when you
were a kid and you wake up the next day and just do it all over again.
(33:13):
You're probably dealing with a lot of pain in your muscles.
You know, your fingers are locked up, your wrist hurt, and you have to go and spend a
bunch of time warming up to get back to where you can play like you did the night before.
Right.
It takes time and discipline.
Yeah, it's just things are different.
I miss my my young hands.
(33:36):
Yeah, let's see.
Go quickly.
Let's see how how old John Bush is.
John Bush is 60.
Yeah.
(33:56):
And the voice to as they get older, it's going to go away, too, for most people.
Whitefield is 60 as well.
Lars is 60.
Wow.
(34:21):
Kirk is older than them.
Is he?
He's 61.
OK.
And he'll be he'll be 62 this year.
Robert Trujillo is the youngest.
(34:42):
He'll be 60 in October.
OK, let's see.
So Kirk will be 62.
Lars will be 61 this year.
James will be 61 in two months.
(35:04):
Wow.
James and John Bush are born 20, 21 days apart.
They're born three weeks apart.
OK.
So that's that's amazing.
Yeah, it's good to see they're still going.
(35:25):
Absolutely.
I mean, who would have thought of when when we when we were.
Whatever when we started listening to a lot of these bands that these bands would still
be going now.
I know, you know, we grew up in an age where hope I die before I get old was a very prominent
(35:51):
lyric on the radio.
And it's better to burn out than to fade away.
And like that.
So to all these people are the age of our grandparents when we were that age.
Exactly.
You know, and my grandparents looked way older than everybody does now at that age.
(36:14):
Well, I think they also didn't have the the money that these people have to continue to
stay young.
That's right.
That has a lot to do with it as well.
I mean, they're let's be honest, they're on a different playing field than we are.
(36:36):
When we talk about James's playing or other people's health, they're flying around and
they have masseuses and they have that are specialized in acupuncture and shiatsu and
(36:57):
all this stuff to keep them young and limber.
So their 60 isn't going to be our 60.
That's right.
They're having it nice.
Absolutely.
They definitely are.
Way different than they started off when they were singing all those angry songs about being
(37:19):
poor and having nothing to do except rock and roll.
It is very true.
And that's actually why D Snider said way back when that he had a hard time writing
lyrics.
That's right.
(37:39):
Because, you know, he had five Ferraris, five houses and a bunch of kids and life was good.
So he couldn't write rebellious lyrics anymore.
Yeah, that's that is a funny, ironic thing.
That's life for you.
It is very much that way.
(38:01):
It feels better, though, to have the money than not.
I think we'd all agree to that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Makes things easier.
So any other scenario you can think of like this?
Of other bands?
(38:22):
Yeah.
Members like that?
Yes.
Yeah.
But it would probably just kind of be in the thrash world, you know, taking different players
that I like and know how they play.
You can come up with quite a few different bands.
(38:45):
You know, all those players are so good.
Right.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's another thing I probably thought of bands.
But it wouldn't be able to think of anything right away.
Of course, I've always wanted to hear.
I enjoyed Carrie playing with Gary Holt and was kind of hoping they continue to do something
(39:10):
with Dave Lombardo.
There were rumors about that in the past, you know, before Carrie went on to do his
other solo thing.
But yes, stuff like that.
Of course, Dave Mustaine playing with different people is always good.
But yeah, I don't know, man.
(39:34):
Yeah, Dave did do a side project at one point.
He did do that MD 45 album, which originally had leaving from fear on vocals had Jimmy
DeGrasse.
Dan Spitz once.
What was that?
He did something with Dan Spitz once an album called Red Lamb.
(39:55):
Red Lamb.
He produced that.
He played on some tracks.
I don't know that he played on all of them.
I know Nickel McBrain appears on that as well.
Yeah, that was a good album.
I'd like to find a copy of that.
Yeah, I was close to interviewing him when that album came out and never ended up happening
(40:17):
with Dan Spitz.
I'd love to hear an interview from Dan if we ever could.
I always liked him.
He was one of my favorites back then.
I think he's got so much money right now that he doesn't need to do anything related to
(40:37):
music and doesn't have the time or patience.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, hopefully he'll just want to talk about the old time someday and he'll share it with
us.
Yeah, we'd welcome him here without any problems at all.
That's right.
It's close to having happening once.
(41:00):
It was close to happening and then something happened where it just didn't line up.
Apparently, I asked to interview him in the middle of the afternoon and I was told that
he was doing a sound check at that time.
I'm thinking at four o'clock in the afternoon, he's doing a sound check for an 8 p.m. show.
(41:25):
That kind of doesn't make sense to me.
But okay.
Right.
I was trying to think if Dan was part of that Anthrax documentary that came out a few years
back and he was because he showed off the whole watchmaking and repairing techniques.
(41:49):
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah, what a different job.
Yeah, it's amazing when some people leave the music industry, what they get themselves
into.
Yeah, that is always interesting.
Yeah.
(42:09):
Very cool.
John Bush, again, one of my favorite people to interview, Armored Saint.
I think they're going to be playing some dates in Europe over the summer.
They just did a run with Queensryche and I would imagine that they would be doing more
shows at some point in the fall.
(42:29):
It's interesting because they stopped touring as heavily because they all not all of them,
but the various members ended up having kids.
And now a lot of those kids are now graduating high school.
And, you know, the station in life that they're in isn't the same as it once was.
(42:51):
So it seems like they're more willing to go out to tour.
So with the advent of this category seven album, maybe it also helps once again, bring
other other projects to fruition and we get to see them not only live, but we get to hear
some new music from them as well.
That's right.
Yeah, I hope so.
Yeah.
(43:12):
Very cool.
So this has been an awesome discussion with you, sir.
Yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, it's always fun to talk from not being able to think of scenarios there for you.
No, that's fine.
That's fine.
We were doing we were talking about before recording the other show was was focused around
(43:34):
John Bush and Metallica.
So it's cool that we were able to get a good discussion out of this.
And I do encourage anyone that's watching or listening to this to send us your comments.
Maybe there are other combinations that you would be interested in seeing.
We'd be all ears to hear about them and think and contemplate what you guys think would
(44:01):
work and see what would be cool.
Yeah.
So feel free to send your comments on that note.
We're going to wrap this episode up.
I want to thank Ed for joining me once again, and we will see you guys the next time right
here on Signals from Mars.
(44:22):
See you, folks.
Thank you for listening to the Signals from Mars podcast.
You can subscribe to the show on all your favorite podcasts, platforms like Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon and more.
(44:44):
Go to signalsfrommars.com for more information.
This concludes our show.
Thank you for watching.
Welcome one and all to episode 393 of Signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor
(00:07):
and for this episode Ed Ferguson and I kick off a new series, at least a new idea
here on the podcast. What if, what if John Bush, man we know he was in
anthrax, we know he's an armored saint and we know that he was offered to be in
Metallica. I'm ready. Let's do it!
(00:56):
As of this recording the category 7 album is going to be dropping on Friday.
It's actually the day that I'm flying to the States and I haven't had a chance to
listen to anything from it beyond the videos that I have posted on Patreon and
subsequently added to my 2024 playlist. So this episode kind of came about by
(01:22):
accident. Ed and I were talking about economics and music and before we
recorded that episode, which is episode 388, we started talking about the
category 7 project and mentioning how it was members of Overkill and Exodus and
(01:47):
Mike Orlando, excuse me, plus Phil Demel who's been in a bunch of
things at this point. Kerry King, most notably for Ed, but also Machine Head, so
on and so forth. So we started talking about different things and with regards
to this and Ed brought up, well imagine if John had actually gone to
(02:13):
Metallica, what they would have sounded like and I said, oh I can show you
exactly what they would have sounded like. So I showed him the clip of John
fronting Metallica at the XXX shows, the 30th anniversary shows at the
Fillmore in San Francisco with John singing the Four Horsemen. If you haven't
(02:33):
checked it out, I recommend that you do because it is fantastic. Beyond belief, it
is great. It is, as the kids are saying here, some of my players are saying it is
very elegant. So anyway, I've asked John about this in the past, asked him about
(02:54):
the song selection, we've talked about him in Metallica over the years on a few
occasions, so it is cool to talk to Ed about this and actually expand upon the
idea. So I don't want to give too much away, but two things that I want to
bring up. I think it's a fun concept and it's something that just came up all of
(03:16):
a sudden while we were talking. I said, wait, we possibly have another episode.
So we recorded two episodes back to back. We did the economics and then we did
this one, which is a little under an hour. It's about 45 minutes to be honest,
but I think it's still a cool discussion and something that I would like to use
in the future with other guests and maybe have people submit their what if
(03:42):
type concepts. I think it would be really cool to discuss. Ed is a patron. I do
want to remind you guys about Patreon and look, I mention this all the time. It's
anywhere between $2 to $25 a month depending on what you want to pledge,
depending on what you can afford. And if you can afford it, nobody's holding a
(04:05):
gun to anybody's head. I know that there are some people that just don't want to
pay any money for podcasting at all. They want to keep it free and that's cool. I
get it. But if you're so inclined, just know that there is a Patreon, there is a
PayPal, there is a buy me a pizza, there are Amazon purchases that you can make.
(04:28):
And because I am an Amazon associate, I get a kickback depending on what you
purchase. And there's also merch that you can pick up. There's t-shirts, there's
sweatshirts, there's bucket hats, there's caps. There's a bunch of different things.
Just go to signalsfrommars.com and there's links to all of that great stuff
so that you can help support this show, help us expand, help me expand what I'm
(04:54):
doing show. How about that? Alright, thanks. Hope you enjoy the episode.
(05:16):
Welcome everyone to another edition of Signals from Mars. I welcome back Mr. Ed
Ferguson to the show. Ed, how are you? Still doing good. Awesome. Yeah, so we just
finished recording another episode. You had me back. Wow. That's it. We talked a
(05:40):
bunch before recording the first episode and we had some standby topics just in
case if we couldn't do the entire hour and it turned out that we could without
a problem. So we're back. Yeah, I probably talked too much. Yeah, I was recently told
(06:03):
that I don't communicate well. I would say that I probably over communicate as
opposed to not communicating well where I can talk for hours on end. But anyway.
Yeah, not communicating well could be one of my mottos probably. But that's
why I connect with music so much. Just like so many people, it helps you
(06:23):
express what you don't know how to say. Yeah, absolutely. How many times have we
copied lyrics to especially back in the day when you're exchanging? Yeah, to my
parents I paste them on the wall. Dear mother, dear father from and justice for
all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I put that one on the wall, cuss words and all. My mom
(06:46):
wanted to have a talk about that. But speaking of Metallica. Speaking of
Metallica, James Hepfield recently talked about how a band that kind of jumped out
at him was Category 7, a band that features John Bush from Armored Saint,
formerly of Anthrax, on lead vocals. I've had John on the show a bunch of times. I
(07:10):
can remember one of the only blabbermouth headlines that I've ever
gotten. It said, John Bush says, it made no sense for me to join Metallica. It
made all the sense in the world for me to join Anthrax. They took that out of
the interview and they ran with it. Now, before we started recording earlier
(07:33):
today, we had talked about how James had mentioned Category 7. The two songs that
we've heard so far are beyond the great. I mean, they're... Listen, and James'
comments, I don't think were to besmirch Armored Saint in any way. But this is
(07:55):
completely different to Armored Saint. It isn't what he did in Anthrax either.
It's pretty thrashy. It features Phil Demel, a violence and machine head on
guitar, features Michael Orlando, who's probably best known for adrenaline mob,
(08:17):
features Jack Gibson of Exodus on bass, and features Jason Bittner, currently in
Overkill and also in Shadow's Fall on drums. So they're all pretty heavy
hitters. My only issue is that they said initially that this was gonna sound like
Thin Lizzy. Yeah, where did they come up with that description? Yeah, I'm not sure
(08:40):
either. But that first video that you posted especially was a great tune. The
video was fun to watch, just watching them have fun jamming. Yeah, good stuff.
Yeah. So we ended up talking about how James brought up the fact that John Bush
(09:03):
was the guy that they wanted in Metallica. Yeah. And you were unaware of
the fact that for their Triple X shows to celebrate their 30th anniversary,
that they did four nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Yeah, and I
remember the stuff with Dave Mustaine. Right. But I don't remember seeing stuff
with John Bush. Okay. So, yeah, so they ended up doing Four Horsemen with John
(09:30):
Bush. Yeah. And I played you a little piece of that. Because when the site
used to be called MetallicaLive.com, I'm not sure if it's just Metallica.com now
or you can just purchase the live songs, the live material. I purchased the
(09:51):
Triple X shows and I listened to the hell out of them. Specifically, John Bush
doing Four Horsemen with them. And it's funny because one of the times that
I've interviewed John, I think I've interviewed him five or six times at
this point in time. I asked him, I said, you know, this is one of the songs that
(10:17):
Mustaine has always claimed was his. Obviously, Four Horsemen and Mechanics
or Mechanics, however you want to pronounce it. He's always claimed to,
well, he's always claimed it. No, he's got writing credit for it. So anyway, I
asked John Bush, I said, did you were you asked to do this song because it
(10:44):
would get them out of, you know, kind of shit with Mustaine or who chose it? And
he said, no, no, this was all me. I've always loved that song and I wanted to
do that one. So now you've heard a small piece I played up to the chorus, more
(11:05):
or less. And what are your immediate thoughts of hearing John Bush fronting
Metallica? I think he sounds great. And when I I told you earlier that when you
read that headline, I started thinking about what John what John's voice would
(11:30):
sound like singing different Metallica songs. So I was going about getting
ready for work and singing Master of Puppets in my head that replaced James
with John and started thinking, man, that would sound really good. And so I
started in my mind listening to other songs with John like Ride the Lightning
(11:51):
and just started realizing, you know, if and then I was thinking about if you
replaced, you know, Dave and Megadeth, what that would sound like, you know,
basically the big four thinking about all of them and realizing that, you
know, John probably would have sounded best in Metallica. Right. I mean, his
(12:14):
voice goes really well with Metallica's music. It's kind of changed the style,
but it has more character to it. A little more, maybe a little more bass or
something there. And I'm forgetting my thought what I was going to say after
(12:35):
that. But yeah, I mean, he oh, yeah, I was going to say that he, you know,
being an anthrax, even though he did some good records with them, that's a
very different style of singing. Right. From Joey. Yeah. But you could put him
in Metallica and it would it just fit it would have been a perfectly natural fit.
And it makes you wonder what their career would have been like, you know,
(12:59):
if they had had him playing or singing and James just doing the rhythm guitar.
Yeah. Here's the other thing to consider that he brought up when I interviewed
him. The dynamic of the band probably would have changed as well because he
would have written more of the lyrics. Maybe the song some of the songs wouldn't
(13:23):
have been as popular because of the fact that you have a different lyricist.
The the content of what the songs were about could have changed radically.
You know, imagine a song like, I don't know, fade the black or for whom the
belt holes, something like that right off of Ride the Lightning. Let's say he
(13:46):
comes in on Ride as they're writing it and he.
Start saying that he wants his own lyrics, that he doesn't you know, he
doesn't want to sing James's stuff. He wants to he wants to add his own lyric
lyrical material to those songs. That could have changed radically where the
(14:08):
band went, how they were, what songs they came up with, you know, and.
Yeah. And my thoughts, everything is the same just with John's voice.
Right. Yes, you're right. It would have been different songs had they written
those with him.
So here's something else to take into consideration.
(14:33):
And this was something that just so people know, this kind of came about
or no, it did come about because I mentioned this story on my Patreon.
Podcast. And I mentioned, imagine having like a side project.
James and John do a side project now.
(14:56):
They should.
I mean, that's the thing.
The first thing that I thought of when I heard category seven was a this is him
doing what he's been wanting to do with Anthrax all these years.
He's finally got players where he can go out and do those Anthrax songs live.
(15:18):
Plus do new material kind of mix both in there.
And then it made me think he's kind of spreading his wings and showing that he
can still do some of this stuff, because when he was in Anthrax, he was he was
doing the Joey era stuff as well.
Yeah, we also know that he did that album called The Lesser of Two Evils, where he
(15:40):
it was all. Covers of Joey songs redone with him singing.
But you can also tell, even though he does those songs well, he's having to strain
his voice in a different way, you know, to try to kind of get that same melody or
whatever that Joey had that kind of fits the song.
(16:02):
Whereas when you hear him singing those Metallica songs, this is very natural
because, you know, James is not a super dynamic singer.
Yeah. And, you know, a little bit on injustice for all, but especially from the
black album on for me, listening to James gets kind of tiring after several songs,
especially when he started throwing that yeah thing in over and over again on
(16:28):
later on in the 90s, I think he's kind of gotten away from that, thankfully.
But he can get a bit tiring to listen to for me, whereas I could listen to John
much longer.
Yeah, I think the first thing that came to mind.
(16:49):
When rehearing them doing the Four Horsemen was.
How John's and James voice complemented one another.
Yeah, they do.
And how I thought, you know, hey, if they were ever to do an album together.
It would be pretty interesting to see what that would sound damn good with their
(17:18):
voices like that.
And James is, you know, chops on the guitar.
Right.
Maybe throw Dave Lombardo in the background.
We're going to have another dream the band up episode here.
Who's on base?
I'm trying to figure that out.
I'll have to get back to you on that.
Would you throw Tomari in there to have a third voice?
(17:45):
No, I don't think they would need any more voice.
OK, I mean, they sounded good enough.
You know, in that video by themselves.
Yeah, that would sound good.
So all right.
So how about this?
(18:05):
Well, could an Ellison be brought into something like that or is he still?
Yeah, I was going to maybe mention him because he can lock in with that kind of music.
It's fine because he's got those Megadeth chops.
You know, Megadeth has that kind of helicopter sounding thrash groove, you know, and that's
(18:31):
what Dave Lombardo has got that kind of groove is in his playing as well.
And James has got the right hand chops to keep up with anything that's thrown at him,
it seems.
Although, you know, he has been talking about getting older and not being able to play as
well, which I can understand getting older myself.
You know, those right hand chops go away really fast if you're not doing it all the time.
(18:55):
Right.
Who would who would be this?
Well, would you bring in a second guitarist?
Only maybe for lead purposes.
OK, I think, you know, if they needed two tracks of guitars, I think James could do
both.
(19:16):
Maybe invite someone to do a little lead playing.
OK, so who would you bring in to do the lead?
Kiko, maybe.
OK, yeah, he's got some time.
OK, so.
So let's let's think of one step forward here.
(19:39):
They're OK, so they're going to do shows live now and they'll play some of their originals
that they've written and recorded together.
And they're also going to play some some songs from each of the members of the band's other
(20:00):
bands.
What songs do you want to hear?
This band do live.
What what Metallica songs would you like to hear them do live?
Well, definitely the thrashier tunes, so you'd be dipping back into Kill em All.
(20:25):
And probably some of the deeper tracks of Kill em All and Ride the Lightning, you know,
like Trapped Under Ice or Damage Inc.
You know, some of those things where they can really jam away for us.
Well, that's a good question.
I could think on that one for a long time.
(20:47):
What we've got it else.
What are you thinking?
What's my thinking?
OK, from Metallica standpoint.
Yeah, I mean, we've heard him do Four Horsemen.
I mean, that would sound ridiculous.
I would love to hear him hear them do the the title track off of Ride the Lightning.
(21:10):
Yeah.
John Bush would sound good doing Master of Puppets.
His voice would be a good track.
No doubt, even though we've heard it a thousand times.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
What about we have Alison in there?
What Megadeth songs do you want to hear John Bush sing?
(21:37):
I like maybe The Conjuring.
Oh, well, Black Friday, Little Good Morning Black Friday.
I love Bad Omen, too.
I know a lot of people don't like that as much as me, but I would love to hear it.
What's the last track off of that album?
(22:00):
I'm forgetting.
And, you know, some rest in peace songs might be good from them, too.
You like Take No Prisoners?
Yeah.
Maybe Kiko doing a little Lucretia for us.
I mean, there'd be a lot of the Megadeth stuff that would fit a band like that really well.
Old and new.
(22:22):
Like Headcrusher even.
Stuff like that.
That's a fun song to play, by the way.
Headcrusher.
Great jam.
That surprises me that you would say that.
Yeah.
My last words is the last track.
That's right.
Yeah.
(22:43):
Yeah, it's kind of sad.
I'm starting to get to the age where I'm even forgetting all those ACDC facts I could just
fire off at any moment that anybody asked me a question.
You know, it's just things are fading away up there.
But I remember the sounds.
Interesting.
(23:03):
Yeah.
Megadeth for me.
Man, I'm surprised you said Headcrusher, but there's some stuff like...
Man, I've always loved Ashes in Your Mouth.
(23:27):
Hearing John Bush sing that would be ridiculous.
Yeah, he'd be good with a lot of Countdown songs.
Yeah.
I would have liked Countdown better if John had probably sang on there.
There you go.
I know I would have liked Euthanasia and Cryptic Riding's better.
(23:48):
Risk is not even a...
You can't even call that a Megadeth record.
Yeah, that's such a...
We'll just skip over that one.
Such a weird album that for whatever reason, I've never understood why whenever risk is
brought up, a lot of people say, well, Metallica released St. Anger.
(24:12):
And I always thought, well, one really has nothing to do with the other.
Yeah, give me St. Anger any day.
Yeah, for St. Anger shortcomings, it still has three or four good songs.
That's right.
Yeah.
It's not...
It's another story, but...
Yeah.
I like the song Breadline.
(24:32):
It's got a nice melody.
Okay.
You know, that's a good song for any rock band to play.
But yeah, stuff like Crushem is just kind of embarrassing coming from your old thrash metal
bands.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay, you said Headcrusher before.
(24:56):
That's right, from like 2013, 2010, maybe.
You know why I thought it was surprising?
Because I thought you said Crushem, not Headcrusher.
Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.
That's why I was like, wow.
Yeah, I'm glad you cleared that up for the audience.
(25:16):
Yeah, because I was thinking, wow, that took an interesting turn of...
Yeah, you're ready to check my metal card there, weren't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
So let's see.
What Slayer songs would you want to hear John Bush sing?
(25:37):
Probably Stuff Off the South of Heaven.
I love that album.
You know, for some of the slower tracks, he would sound good on that.
I don't know, when it comes to Slayer, I can't hardly get myself to imagine anybody but Tom.
So it's even hard for me to think of that one.
As soon as I think about that, I just move on to the next band.
(26:01):
But there'd be a lot of good anthrax tunes, though, from both Joey's and John's years
that, you know, category seven could do really well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They could maybe make them sound better than a lot of those anthrax productions, I think.
Could very well be.
Yeah, that's what they need to put on their B-sides, or some anthrax cover tunes.
(26:26):
I wonder if anthrax would allow them to do that.
That'd be nice.
They're probably not.
I don't know.
Well, look at all...
Anthrax has done that for themselves so often.
Why not?
Let someone do it for anthrax now.
(26:48):
I have heard anthrax covers over the years.
So I mean, it wouldn't be anything new.
But yeah, I mean, obviously, again, I think that category seven is going to be a big kind
(27:09):
of litmus test for where John Bush goes.
If this album is just really, really good and a lot of metal fans get behind it and
they do any sort of touring with it.
Given anthrax in 2024, where you have Scott playing with Mr. Bungle, you have Charlie
(27:33):
playing with Pantera, Frank playing with Satyricon.
Would it be out of the ordinary for them to do shows with John Bush?
Yeah, no.
I definitely want to see that if they came through here.
(27:55):
Would they call it anthrax, though, or would they call it something else?
Oh, something else.
Sure, I'm thinking if category seven came through here, I'd want to see that.
Okay.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's a good question.
Would they call that anthrax or not?
I think it would be easy.
They could probably call the band Sound the Void Noise or something.
(28:18):
Exactly.
That's a better way to do it.
Yeah.
And this gets back to John Bush being the flexible singer that he is, the powerhouse
singer that he is, because if that wasn't there, we wouldn't be coming up with these
dream scenarios.
(28:40):
That's right.
Yeah.
Of trying to figure out who he could slot in with and who we could put around him.
Is there any other singer that you could think of that would instantly give you that kind
of connection with the James Hetfield to say, Hey, I'd love to see this combination work
(29:03):
together.
I'm sure there is.
But now that you're asking me, I'm not going to be able to think of, you know, remember
what I thought of.
I think for me, the one and just because I'm a huge fan.
And although they kind of have worked together again when they did the Tuesday's Gone cover,
(29:26):
there's Jerry Cantrell on it.
I would think a real interesting album would be Cantrell and Hetfield as well.
It didn't necessarily have to be a metal album.
It could be an acoustic album.
(29:47):
It could be a straight up rock album.
Even if you even if you pair those three together, kind of.
And I'm thinking in the way of of like the band Killer Be Killed, where you have three
(30:07):
distinct vocalists in there.
You have Max Cavalera, you have Troy Sanders from Mastodon, you have Greg Pucciato, who
used to sing in the Dilger Escape Plan.
I mean, I could.
I'm thinking of a mix between Anthrax's Black Lodge with some of the like more haunting,
(30:33):
creepy type Alice in Chains.
Yeah.
With James adding his.
His spin to it and his voice can be pretty haunting and like pretty emotional at times
as well.
Again.
I mean, having all of that together in there, that would be really interesting as well.
(30:59):
It sure would.
Yeah.
Hopefully he can do some things like that as he gets older and Metallica starts to fade
away.
Maybe he can do some other projects that would be interesting.
Yeah, that's that's another thing that's kind of interesting.
(31:20):
They're not getting any younger.
Yes, I know that three of the four guys that have been there since the first album are
still there.
Everyone bitches about Lars, but Lars seems to still be in good shape.
How long can they continue to go?
I mean, but also Kirk has recently come out saying that they don't play enough.
(31:44):
They're playing twice a week.
Yeah, they're playing twice a week.
So they're doing that so that they can extend their touring for a long period of time.
They go for like four or five months and then take six weeks off and they head out and do
another leg.
(32:04):
But at the same time, these legs of tours that they're doing, they're just doing Friday,
Friday, Sunday shows or Saturday, Monday shows.
And it's helping with, I think, the longevity of the band.
And yeah, they probably could play more shows, but I think James Voice wouldn't be as good.
(32:25):
I think Lars's playing wouldn't be as good.
I think this is you get worn out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they've they've always been a step ahead of so many bands.
I think improving it with this as well.
It's helping tack on years, tack on longevity.
And maybe they get to a point where they say, you know, no more or they were going to go
(32:49):
away for five years.
And in the meantime, we're each going to work on different things.
That's right.
Yeah.
You know, and just to because I'm already dealing with it.
Your muscles just don't snap back the next day.
You can have like a you can be really on fire one night, but it's not like it was when you
were a kid and you wake up the next day and just do it all over again.
(33:13):
You're probably dealing with a lot of pain in your muscles.
You know, your fingers are locked up, your wrist hurt, and you have to go and spend a
bunch of time warming up to get back to where you can play like you did the night before.
Right.
It takes time and discipline.
Yeah, it's just things are different.
I miss my my young hands.
(33:36):
Yeah, let's see.
Go quickly.
Let's see how how old John Bush is.
John Bush is 60.
Yeah.
(33:56):
And the voice to as they get older, it's going to go away, too, for most people.
Whitefield is 60 as well.
Lars is 60.
Wow.
(34:21):
Kirk is older than them.
Is he?
He's 61.
OK.
And he'll be he'll be 62 this year.
Robert Trujillo is the youngest.
(34:42):
He'll be 60 in October.
OK, let's see.
So Kirk will be 62.
Lars will be 61 this year.
James will be 61 in two months.
(35:04):
Wow.
James and John Bush are born 20, 21 days apart.
They're born three weeks apart.
OK.
So that's that's amazing.
Yeah, it's good to see they're still going.
(35:25):
Absolutely.
I mean, who would have thought of when when we when we were.
Whatever when we started listening to a lot of these bands that these bands would still
be going now.
I know, you know, we grew up in an age where hope I die before I get old was a very prominent
(35:51):
lyric on the radio.
And it's better to burn out than to fade away.
And like that.
So to all these people are the age of our grandparents when we were that age.
Exactly.
You know, and my grandparents looked way older than everybody does now at that age.
(36:14):
Well, I think they also didn't have the the money that these people have to continue to
stay young.
That's right.
That has a lot to do with it as well.
I mean, they're let's be honest, they're on a different playing field than we are.
(36:36):
When we talk about James's playing or other people's health, they're flying around and
they have masseuses and they have that are specialized in acupuncture and shiatsu and
(36:57):
all this stuff to keep them young and limber.
So their 60 isn't going to be our 60.
That's right.
They're having it nice.
Absolutely.
They definitely are.
Way different than they started off when they were singing all those angry songs about being
(37:19):
poor and having nothing to do except rock and roll.
It is very true.
And that's actually why D Snider said way back when that he had a hard time writing
lyrics.
That's right.
(37:39):
Because, you know, he had five Ferraris, five houses and a bunch of kids and life was good.
So he couldn't write rebellious lyrics anymore.
Yeah, that's that is a funny, ironic thing.
That's life for you.
It is very much that way.
(38:01):
It feels better, though, to have the money than not.
I think we'd all agree to that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Makes things easier.
So any other scenario you can think of like this?
Of other bands?
(38:22):
Yeah.
Members like that?
Yes.
Yeah.
But it would probably just kind of be in the thrash world, you know, taking different players
that I like and know how they play.
You can come up with quite a few different bands.
(38:45):
You know, all those players are so good.
Right.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's another thing I probably thought of bands.
But it wouldn't be able to think of anything right away.
Of course, I've always wanted to hear.
I enjoyed Carrie playing with Gary Holt and was kind of hoping they continue to do something
(39:10):
with Dave Lombardo.
There were rumors about that in the past, you know, before Carrie went on to do his
other solo thing.
But yes, stuff like that.
Of course, Dave Mustaine playing with different people is always good.
But yeah, I don't know, man.
(39:34):
Yeah, Dave did do a side project at one point.
He did do that MD 45 album, which originally had leaving from fear on vocals had Jimmy
DeGrasse.
Dan Spitz once.
What was that?
He did something with Dan Spitz once an album called Red Lamb.
(39:55):
Red Lamb.
He produced that.
He played on some tracks.
I don't know that he played on all of them.
I know Nickel McBrain appears on that as well.
Yeah, that was a good album.
I'd like to find a copy of that.
Yeah, I was close to interviewing him when that album came out and never ended up happening
(40:17):
with Dan Spitz.
I'd love to hear an interview from Dan if we ever could.
I always liked him.
He was one of my favorites back then.
I think he's got so much money right now that he doesn't need to do anything related to
(40:37):
music and doesn't have the time or patience.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, hopefully he'll just want to talk about the old time someday and he'll share it with
us.
Yeah, we'd welcome him here without any problems at all.
That's right.
It's close to having happening once.
(41:00):
It was close to happening and then something happened where it just didn't line up.
Apparently, I asked to interview him in the middle of the afternoon and I was told that
he was doing a sound check at that time.
I'm thinking at four o'clock in the afternoon, he's doing a sound check for an 8 p.m. show.
(41:25):
That kind of doesn't make sense to me.
But okay.
Right.
I was trying to think if Dan was part of that Anthrax documentary that came out a few years
back and he was because he showed off the whole watchmaking and repairing techniques.
(41:49):
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah, what a different job.
Yeah, it's amazing when some people leave the music industry, what they get themselves
into.
Yeah, that is always interesting.
Yeah.
(42:09):
Very cool.
John Bush, again, one of my favorite people to interview, Armored Saint.
I think they're going to be playing some dates in Europe over the summer.
They just did a run with Queensryche and I would imagine that they would be doing more
shows at some point in the fall.
(42:29):
It's interesting because they stopped touring as heavily because they all not all of them,
but the various members ended up having kids.
And now a lot of those kids are now graduating high school.
And, you know, the station in life that they're in isn't the same as it once was.
(42:51):
So it seems like they're more willing to go out to tour.
So with the advent of this category seven album, maybe it also helps once again, bring
other other projects to fruition and we get to see them not only live, but we get to hear
some new music from them as well.
That's right.
Yeah, I hope so.
Yeah.
(43:12):
Very cool.
So this has been an awesome discussion with you, sir.
Yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, it's always fun to talk from not being able to think of scenarios there for you.
No, that's fine.
That's fine.
We were doing we were talking about before recording the other show was was focused around
(43:34):
John Bush and Metallica.
So it's cool that we were able to get a good discussion out of this.
And I do encourage anyone that's watching or listening to this to send us your comments.
Maybe there are other combinations that you would be interested in seeing.
We'd be all ears to hear about them and think and contemplate what you guys think would
(44:01):
work and see what would be cool.
Yeah.
So feel free to send your comments on that note.
We're going to wrap this episode up.
I want to thank Ed for joining me once again, and we will see you guys the next time right
here on Signals from Mars.
(44:22):
See you, folks.
Thank you for listening to the Signals from Mars podcast.
You can subscribe to the show on all your favorite podcasts, platforms like Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon and more.
(44:44):
Go to signalsfrommars.com for more information.
This concludes our show.
Thank you for watching.
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