SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor was close to joining ANTHRAX in 2007 when the band was going through an uncertain period after parting ways with John Bush in 2005 and reuniting with Joey Belladonna for two years.
The group then hired Dan Nelson in 2007, who fronted the group for two years before Belladonna rejoined once more and has stayed in the fold ever since.
In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian was asked how does he think ANTHRAX album with Corey would sound like, to which he responded: “Well, I don’t know — ’cause I don’t live in the alternate universe where that happened. So, yeah, obviously it would have sounded good because it’s Corey and Corey‘s a great singer.
“But I couldn’t tell you how it would have turned out, I don’t know,” he continued. “But, Corey‘s a great singer, so I don’t know how it would have been anything but great.”
Asked if the thinks he could have had a great writing session with Corey, Ian said: “Although I can say that I just wrote a song for a movie that’s coming out next year — I can’t tell you what it is yet because they’re going to announce it, but we co-wrote a song together for a movie, me and Corey, and it came out great. So I can say that we worked very well creatively together, and that was just three weeks ago.”
Earlier this year, Corey Taylor looked back on coming close to joining thrash metal giants ANTHRAX during an appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation Virtual Invasion.”
“It was something that really we hadn’t talked about too much at length,” Corey said. “It was just something that we had talked about doing just ostensibly as a one-off, but we were just gonna kind of see what could happen.
“That actually started as an idea because of an acoustic gig that I did with Scott and Frankie Bello at a place in New York,” he continued. “And I cannot remember what the name of the place was. I know it was a club that Scott had maybe an interest in it, so we were helping to promote the club. And it was something really cool that it was just, like, ‘Hey, do you wanna come do this?’ I was, like, ‘Yeah, man. Let’s do it.’ So we went down, we had dinner, we did the acoustic show. And then afterwards, we were all kind of just hanging out, and the half-joking line got thrown out, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you joined ANTHRAX?’
“And we all laughed, and then we all stopped. And we all just went, ‘Hmmm. That could interesting.’ It was between Joey and John [Bush], so everything was kind of up in the air. It was before — what was his name? — Dan [Nelson]. And we talked about it more and more, and it was something that I was really, really into.
“They sent me a bunch of music, most of which ended up on Worship Music — luckily, because the music was so good. Nothing got recorded, because the day I was supposed to fly to Chicago to rehearse and start demoing with Scott and with Charlie [Benante], I got a phone call from Roadrunner [SLIPKNOT‘s record label] telling me that they weren’t gonna let me do it.
“They wanted me to go back and do [SLIPKNOT‘s] All Hope Is Gone, because we [were] still contracted to do another SLIPKNOT album, and they weren’t going to allow me the wiggle room,” Corey added. “I don’t even know if those people are still at Roadrunner, to be honest. But I know that they cracked the whip on it and were really hardcore.”
“It was the first time I had ever felt like I was kind of backed into a corner. Not that I didn’t wanna do a SLIPKNOT album, but I was so into the idea of doing an ANTHRAX album. And I remember having to call and tell the guys [in ANTHRAX] that I wasn’t gonna be able to make it. It broke my heart so hard. But, obviously, things worked out for the better for them.
“They’re making music that’s just as good now as the older stuff than it’s ever been. What needed to happen is exactly what happened. I’m just grateful that: a) I’m a part of their conversation, and b), that they’re still my friends.”
