ANTHRAX's SCOTT IAN: 'The People Buying Records Are Young Girls And Older People'

December 19, 2014

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian has responded further to KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons' recent comment that "rock is dead."

Simmonstold Esquire magazine in September — in an interview conducted by his son Nick — that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

Simmons went on to elaborate that as a result of file-sharing and other issues, record label support for rock music was not available like it was when KISS was coming up, concluding, "It's finally dead. Rock is finally dead."

Asked to weigh in on Gene's comments, Ian told Ultimate Classic Rock (see video below): "There's a lot right in what he's saying. I disagree in the fact that I don't believe rock is actually dead. What he's saying about the industry will not allow for the next LED ZEPPELIN and things like that, I do agree with that, to an extent, because the industry is not what it was. There is no industry anymore that signs bands to develop them over a course of five records, like it was in the sixties, seventies and eighties, and then that all went away in the Nineties. So for a band these days to get to make five albums until they… Bands don't sell records anymore, so the whole idea of that even is out the window; just the whole model has changed and it has to change, because people steal music now.'

He continued: "If people still bought records, then maybe there would be labels that would be willing to spend the money to develop a band and allow a band or an artist to make five albums until they were selling gold, but it just doesn't exist anymore. And until people stop stealing music, it will never exist. So he definitely hits the nail on the head — some of the stuff he's talking about. But I also think that as long as there's a band out there playing music from their gut, rock will never die. Not everybody on the planet wants what the media forcefeeds them, not everybody cares about the next sixteen-year-old pop sensation. That's for the girls who actually buy music; that's what's scary."

Ian added: "I'm going off on a little bit of a tangent, but it's true: the people buying records are young girls and older people, who buy country and Adele. That's people who buy records, because they don't even know how to steal an album. So the fact that the record labels, basically, are running their businesses on the taste of fourteen-year-old girls, that shows you why the stuff that's big is big, because that's who's spending money. So if fourteen-year-old girls would start buying rock records, everything would change… as they did in the sixties… in the fifties and the sixties.

"I think there is a shift; little by little, you just see it. I mean, look, we're a band that's kind of transcended all this crap since the eighties. Same with METALLICA, same with SLAYER, same with KISS, same with AC/DC and IRON MAIDEN… I could list, from here for the next ten minutes, I could reel off bands that are still doing it the same way they've done it forever and still having success, because we've built it on a different foundation, without radio and without MTV support, when they played music. People come to see us because we make good records and we're a great live band, and they will continue coming to see us, and we make new generations of fans every year. For the newer bands, I understand why it's next to impossible these days to break through and get someone to give a shit; I see how that could be harder than ever."

Find more on Anthrax
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).