Scott Ian
Scott Ian
Scott Ianis an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist, backing and additional lead vocalist, and the only remaining original founding member of the thrash metal band, Anthrax. He also writes the lyrics on all their albums. Ian is the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. He has hosted The Rock Show on VH1 and has appeared on VH1's I Love the... series, Heavy: The Story of Metal and Supergroup. Ian is...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth31 December 1963
CityQueens, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I'm not the kind of guy who sits around at home and writes songs. Once in a while I'll pick up a guitar and noodle around, but it's rare.
A guitar for me is pretty much strictly in the context of writing songs for my band, coming up with ideas with my band, and then being able to perform those songs as best as I can on stage - that's what the guitar for me has always been.
I think the best riffs and the best songs come when you're jamming and having a good time.
Music and songs are written at different periods of time, at different times in your life. They reflect the feelings you have and to be honest, I quite like having positive emotions.
We've always been a band that just did out own thing. We've never really set any goals, we just did what we wanted and set out to do.
I don't think any of our lyrics have ever been erotic in a sexual term, because I haven't really written, touched on, that subject too often. But, uh... I mean, I suppose they could point the finger at us for violence maybe in certain songs.
Everything I do is metal. When I clean my house, it's metal.
To me, the guitar is a tool for songwriting, and it's fun, too. The day that it's not fun, that's when I'm not gonna play guitar anymore.
To be honest, I'm one of the least-technical guitar players around. I just want a guitar to feel good and sound good. That's it, period.
People think of Jews as the Woody Allen stereotype, the nebbishy kind of thing, but that's not the kind of Jews I know. I know plenty of Israelis and plenty of tough guys that are Jewish. So, I think it makes sense that Jews play metal.
As big as Metallica are, they're still not like a pop act. As big as they are, they're still not U2 or Lady Gaga. It's still underground.
I could care less about sitting around and practicing the guitar for hours a day and trying to be the best guitar player on the planet.
If someone wants to sticker a record for whatever reason, that's fine. But once it affects someone's opportunity to, you know, get that record, then I have a problem with it.
My grandfather was Orthodox, and he was religious, but neither of my parents were. Of course, as they got older, it seems like they get more religious the older they get, even though they're still not practicing Jews.