Despite what Gene Simmons may think, rock isn't dead in the eyes of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. According to Ian in an interview with The Fred Minnick Show, rock and metal are in a pretty good spot. Or as Ian puts it later on in the interview, "I don't think guitar-based bands are ever gonna go out of business."
"I think it's super healthy — as healthy as it's ever been," said Ian. "You can't judge things anymore by album sales, 'cause people buying physical [product], people buying CDs, vinyl, it isn't what it used to be. And the streaming numbers for hard rock and heavy metal don't come anywhere close to the streaming numbers for pop or rap. But as far as ticket sales go, and going out on tour and all that, and just in general…
"Look, we've been doing this a long time, and the fact that I can still do this now — [2021] will be our 40th year as a band — I can still do this now and make a living at it, all these decades later, at a higher level than we did even in the '80s. I can only judge it by the health of my band, where my band is at professionally, and things are really good… So that, to me, is a good barometer for what's going on with hard rock and heavy metal in general.
"So many new bands in metal have come through in the last 10 years, and then, of course, you've got the grandpas like us and — I was gonna say Slayer, but they retired — us and Megadeth and Metallica. And even bands that I consider to be new bands, like System of a Down or Lamb of God — all these guys who have now been around going on 20 [or] 30 years. I think it's really healthy."
As for Anthrax in the future, the band is currently working on a new album in quarantine.
