ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian says that when he stated in a recent interview that "nothing would make [him] happier" than to see the entire music industry collapsing, he wasn't referring to some of the longest-running independent labels who have supported underground metal music for the past three decades.

Speaking to Australia's Loud magazine, Ian was asked for his take on the future of the music industry. "I don't even know — I don't care; I have no idea," he replied. "I really don't give a shit about the industry. If anything, nothing would make me happier than… other than some of the good people who actually have jobs that would be hurting if they lost their gigs. But as far as I'm concerned, I can only hope that the whole industry collapses and has to start over, or figure out something else, because I really have nothing good to say about the record industry."

He continued: "When you think about the billions and billions of dollars that labels ripped off from bands from the 1940s all the way through to the 1990s, and now they complain about nobody buys records anymore. Well, whose fault is that, you know? These companies, corporations and individuals literally stole billions of dollars and you've got artists, bands who no longer exist and are literally like, a step away from being homeless, or living in assisted-living places, whatever it is. But you don't see most musicians retiring and living out the rest of their lives because they got some millions and millions of dollars' cash settlement, just to leave a record label. The whole fucking thing is insanity, the way record labels were run. Especially in the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s when bands were really getting ripped off."

In series of tweets last night (Friday, January 25), Ian elaborated on his comments, writing: "Just to clarify what I said about the music industry collapsing in an interview recently… I'm not talking about independent labels like Megaforce, Nuclear Blast, Metal Blade, etc. etc. These labels have changed the business and have found models that work and they are not only fair to the bands they sign, they actually will work at developing a band the way it used to be done when we first started. The majors are no place for rock/metal anymore and if you're a huge band, you're better off doing it yourself. That's the point I was making."