 voice today on the show. I think the first time officially on the show, Joey Belladonna, Joey. Oh, thank you. What's up, boys? Metal Hall of Famer. Metal Hall of Famer, Joey Belladonna. And Kenny. Kenny, what's going on, buddy? How you doing? How's everybody doing? Hi, Joey. Where are you guys going? Where are you guys at? I'm from Brewster, Joey. I saw you two weeks ago, behind Frontiers over at the Chance in Poughkeepsie. So that's in that area, right? Yeah, I'm like 20 minutes down the road. And how about yourself up here? I'm in Montreal, Canada. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's where you guys played at. Heavy Montreal. We inducted you guys in the Metal Hall of Fame, yeah. Now, how do you guys, what's the, I'm interviewing you guys right now. How do you hook up with us together? Well, you know, do the Metal Voice over the years and Kenny offered his services many years ago. And he kind of takes care of the tri-state area, we'll say. And we do shout outs, run around, interviews. That's nice. Bring the BF up there to the Montreal and Canada area. That'll be good, right? Absolutely. Joey, I gotta say, you looked really, really happy up there on the stage that night doing those songs. You were bashing out one hit after a journey, hit after another. And you looked really comfortable for one and really happy up there. I gotta say that. Well, you know, for the second show, it's just starting to groove. You know, I mean, I didn't want to stop after we finished that third one. It was a really great night, too. Now, that's a good tight band you have there. Is that that Lee Greenwood's backup band normally? Is that the Nashville guys? Yeah, all those guys played with Lee and still play with Lee. You know, the bass player has been in and out doing his thing. He plays, you know, plays with a band called the Mummies, too. But either way, yeah, great tight band those guys have. They love doing it, too. So it helps when you got people that are really into it. So you can tell from the stage, you guys looked like all you guys were enjoying it. And like I said, there was never a quiet moment and you went run right through a tune like two hours of a nonstop. Yeah, just bang them out. I don't like that. All about the music, not on us, chitter chat. You know, it was a couple of tossing some stuff around, but not much, you know. But let's set this up here. So I guess anthrax is on a sort of small hiatus, right? We'll say because Charlie's sort of out with Pantera. So I guess everybody's doing their little thing. Is that it? Until the Franky put an EP out? Yeah. You know, to me, it's just part of what I like to do. I don't, my, me, you know, Chris and I, you know, working together, putting something together now, it's just a matter of time when you can get it right and to do it, you know, I've always wanted to and it just happens to be now, you know. It looks like, yeah, I'm trying to do something while everybody's doing stuff. No, I would just want to do it, keep doing it. So I don't plan to just do it for the heck of it, you know, when I feel like it, we'll do it when we're, we have shows coming up in fact in March. So just taking them as they come, you know. But Joe, you always did, you did a classic rock cover bang about Chief Bigway, right? You used to take that out on the road in the tri-state area, like upstate. Yeah. Yeah. We did, we did some stuff, you know, as much as I liked the event, I was like, to take that. It wasn't anything I planned to do, like on the road type of stuff. But I mean, if I had shot to take it out of town, we did. Now, obviously I played drums in that band too. We were a three power, powerhouse three piece, you know, nothing but just plain three piece, you know. I'd like to catch that one day. Are you still going to be doing that? Well, I'm not sure, you know, I'm actually going to probably end up doing a lot of little solo stuff by myself. I have, I've been working on it like over the last couple years, some recordings, a lot of songs. And I mean, like talking like deep, deep cuts, deep stuff, stuff I'll never be able to do in a band. I mean, I could do a whole night of Steeley Dan or Huda or Eagles. That night in the parking lot, you guys were talking about, you might expand and do another next, you might do, not turning next time, you might go out and do like Dio or something, correct? Is that coming? That we'll put together too. But obviously right now, we've, you know, you finally get this button up to where it's like actually really ready to perform and everybody feels comfortable and get some shows under our belt, you know, we didn't want to, we only did two rehearsals before those shows. So for in order for us to, I mean, I could sit here today and learn more Dio as I go, but we're not ready to get into that just yet. So the plan is you're going to go out and do journey, right? Do you have more dates coming up other than the few that are in Florida? Yeah, more dates. Yeah, March. So you have two in March in Florida. Are there more dates going to be popping up or are you just kind of working on that? I mean, the book is open basically like any other band would do. They're processing and whatever comes up, you know, we're just ready to take on, you know, because I wanted to grow. I wanted to, you know, be a normal thing for everyone, you know, and even my guys in this band, obviously too, they have, I'm talking to Beyond Frontiers, they have their own stuff that they do, obviously too. So but their goal is to do this. Okay. Did you have any set time frame for the your solo stuff coming? Is it the summer next year or the fall? Well, the solo stuff really is just me with my tracks. And it's kind of an odd, it seemed like it's an odd thing. But man, I just cover up a lot. I cover a lot of music. And I just show up and I do my thing and I call the shots and I, you know, I could do four to six hours, just nonstop. I mean, I'm going to call him like Joey Baladana's jukebox. Is that what his name is? Seriously? Yeah, I was thinking about it calling him. That's pretty cool. It made me smile. So I think that's good. You know, it's a good set. I mean, it is, I mean, a flurry of just music, you would like, get that out of here, you know, I mean, no, seriously, I mean, I can do a whole night in Chicago or something. I mean, it's just different for me and and doing it for two years, or even two and a half years, to know that I can actually pull it off and do it without worrying about who's showing up, who's available. I'll probably I'll probably be up in Hampton Beach in the summer. Maybe I'm planning on maybe doing something up there, like a four night kind of residency type of thing, you know, and doing a happy hour type of four to eight type stuff I'm thinking of doing, you know, you don't shy away from sort of like the grass roots clubs, right? You're open to anything, right? I mean, you would probably walk in there, you would think the jukebox was going on. I didn't know there was a dude up there doing it. It looks familiar. What was that? Yeah, it happened every time I've done it before. People were like, is the band going to start? And like bartender said to the one girl, she goes, he's been that's been him for the last hour and a half. That he paid attention to thinking that I was that somebody was spinning records. And it was me singing dollars yet, you know, so it's cool. Anyhow. Well, before anthrax, when you were upstate, you were written like AOR type of rock bands, right? That's what you did. But before even before Bible Black, you were doing that type of music, correct? Yeah, I mean, my band in high school got we were doing we were doing anything like, I mean, I'm not saying in order or any exclusive many tunes of the type of bands that we're doing. But my high school dance consists of mantros, tubes, Aerosmith, got a cheap trick, whatever. I mean, I can't even think of the list that we had, we had, you know, Van Halen, we were doing all kinds of stuff back then rush. Do you name it? I mean, we really had a lot of cool songs, UFO, you know, and it was just whatever we wanted to learn and play we did where there was no rules for us. Obviously, some of the stuff I did back in the day, even before I joined anthrax, you know, I had certain bands that we did such deep cuts that nobody would dance to, even though we were kicking hard, nobody could dance to it. So obviously, I learned that lesson, it's like, wait a minute, now maybe I should pick some stuff that get in these clubs and not just throw it out the door. Even though we're playing grape and nobody gave a shit, you know, that's a David Lee Roth model, you know, if you can dance to it, don't play it. That's kind of his philosophy. Yeah, I'm like, that's what's cool. If I do the solo stuff, I could give you something, you'd be like, oh my God, that sounds like that's a really good song. What the hell is that by? You're like, yeah, tons of that. You might never even have heard the tune before. I love doing stuff like I'll never play these songs ever in a band in my lifetime. It's just not enough time, not enough people that would like, oh, no, I'm not playing that. Oh, I don't know anything about that. Oh, that sucks. You know, it's like, that's the cool thing. But back in the day, yes, I did a lot of cover stuff. And I like doing that. I mean, but we just like, yeah, it's and obviously, I mean, it's funny. I mean, sadly, Jeff Beck passed away. And all that kind of music was such a big influence on me, you know, UK and, and, and Kansas and yes, and all the progressive stuff. I mean, I got a bunch of that stuff. I love doing that kind of thing too. You know, I love something with the melody, but a lot of good playing, a lot of good musicianship. Tell me about this. Before you mentioned you have recordings. When you sing recordings, you mean original material recordings or just recording cover song recordings? People have recorded a bunch of stuff for me. And I do a lot of I do all the vocals, the backups and stuff like that. That just it's different versions of songs. Some of it sounds a lot like it. Most of it will sound a lot like it. You know, and that it's just it's already I'm singing to my playbacks, you know. No, but I'm saying is it original material? Are you getting at or is it? No, it's all cover songs. It's all of it. Okay. Custom done. Okay. All right. So now I just want to talk about Bible Black for a second. How did you get involved in that? I mean, Eric Adams was with them way before you were there and then Jeff Finall was in there. And then then you came in and did like two demos with them right before anthrax. That's what the extra elf guys Gruber and Driscoll, right? I mean, I can't even remember how I got the call. I took a bus from Syracuse to Ithaca. Remember, duck picked me up at the airport. I mean, at the bus station, went to the house and I ended up staying there. But it was just as duck would say it, they just weren't ready to do anything. They were just kind of kind of at their last kind of leg of even really wanting to do anything, even though the spirit was there. There were songs. Those the demos I did, God, I wouldn't even know what we were doing when we did them. We went to this little teeny, teeny little place and just kind of winged it. I mean, I have tapes of ideas and stuff, the riffs that they had that we could have done. I mean, God, I mean, I learned all the other stuff that they had already recorded. I mean, I didn't even get the chance to jam one tune at any given place, even at the house. Gary would have the kit. He'd come home from work and he'd bang in his, you know, awesome. It was this great listen to play, but nobody ever played in one room with that band. Remember, again, where I got the call to go down and meet with them. So that was, but it was great because as I left there, do Carl Kennedy enough to say, Hey, geez, there's this guy Joey was, I mean, you should give him a call. And of course, anthrax was looking for somebody. So, you know, they asked me to come down and check them out too. You know, I mean, I always feel it's weird. Like, yeah, I read in the paper, this band anthrax is looking for a singer. So I hopped in a plane and jetted down to Ithaca to beat up with these boys. But I felt like, Hey, they were sussing me out too, you know, even though I know nothing about them, nothing about that music. And, you know, it worked out great. Obviously, I was a little intimidated to join because I didn't know if the music was even really my style. But I saw it through it enough, you know, but I know Bible black. Yeah, there was a great, great opportunity that never really got going. So your early days, you audition, what was the audition like? What were you what songs that they asked you to play covers or originals by anthrax? You know, well, we just, I mean, I, I got, I mean, everybody always hears the story about the journey thing. I, it was one of those things, you know, you get to the point like, All right, so let's get the mic set up, let's get in that room and let's sell it. You know, I mean, if you want to warm up, you want to, let's, you know, get the mic, let's get some levels on your mic. I said, How would I'm gonna just bust out some shit? And I, I, I cold caught just some journey stuff, you know, I think I might have did. I don't even remember. I think lights maybe or Oshari, a little bits of pieces of stuff. I don't think I did whole tunes tunes, but and then at that point, they're like, Okay, now this isn't what we expected. And when I gather, you know, because, you know, I was down in Queens and we all heard rumors about what was going on down in the area about what was, you know, and we heard they got a, they replaced Neil with a Dio Steve Perry type singer. And it was he, he was going to be the first guy in a thrash band that could like sing, sing. That's the way to sing, sing, sing, like really hit the notes and everything. But, you know, I mean, I mean, right here, right, speaking of sing sing, you know, I think probably right out the box. I mean, I, I thought that I kicked off armed to dangerous, you know, that was probably one of the first ones maybe that I tried, you know, to start out with, because it was, you know, had a nice little beginning to it. And I mean, I actually had the demo of me singing it. It's pretty damn close to the record. You know, I, it was just one of those things you just, there you go. Start singing. And that, that was a lot of the stuff right out the box. And then at the very, very, very end, AIR was done together with everyone. So you kind of get a little bit of both of where we're all coming from. But you got a little taste on that EP, but you killed it with the spread of the disease. You really came up and hit a home run with that. Yeah. You know, what's good about that record? And I always people ask me what my favorites are. That one always hits me because at that point, nobody was really pushing me into a corner and like boxing me in and not let me do something. I just, I mean, give him a shot. Let him do his thing. You know, Carl and I, we were just like constantly try things. We had so much fun. You know, I was laying on harmonies and stuff. And it just really, really made for a cool record without even really even knowing anything about that band at all, you know, musically especially. When you hit the stage and you had to sort of do this material and the metal thrashing, mad material from the fistful of metal. I mean, what was that? What was that? Neil was a great singer too. Like, right? He's another great singer, right? So I mean, there's challenges making your own, right? You got to make it your own. Yeah. You know, I did everything but a couple of songs off that record. There's an instrumental. And I think we didn't do a subjugator. We didn't do across the river. If I remember correctly, I'm not looking at the titles, but did a lot off that record. I had, you know, just it was just inevitable. And at that time, I'm not even sure really how many people really even knew that record at all, or even spreading the Z so much. I mean, we played clubs that I had already previously played in cover band. I'm thinking, well, is this the where it's going to be? You know, those big decisions, you know, not that I was bailing out of my thoughts of being in the band. It's just like, you have to wait for the progress to happen. Yeah, I thought I could do much more than just what they did with fistful of metal. I mean, there was a certain thing that I wanted to do more than that, you know, definitely a lot more clarity and a lot more depth, you know, dynamics to, you know, I think, you know, obviously they can explain a lot more to where they went and how they were with Neil and all that stuff. I didn't know Neil and I don't, I don't cast any kind of opinions on it. I just know what I thought when I heard that. Of course, when I met them, they didn't set me down. Let me listen to all that. And I was like, okay, but I'm thinking, God, I can, man, I could take this on, you know, we could do a lot more with this. And we're spreading the Z's when you put them both together. There's a lot, a lot of both on there, you know, yeah. Now how open would they to you coming in writing was most of spreading the disease written already? Yeah, when I walked in that record, I mean, other an AIR was a brand new tune. Yeah, musically, there wasn't any that I know of. I don't remember any recordings being done other than AIR, you know, from right from the drums, you know, but I, you know, you had to go in and start banging these tunes out, you know, make them, make them work for me and them and the music, you know, and the band, obviously. Would you take the melodies? You write the melodies up and stuff? Every time I look at it this way, every time I go in and sing something, I got to come up with everything, you know, along with whatever input anyone has, you know, I don't, I don't sit around and get coached every second. And I don't, especially like I mean, I can even jump to our last couple of records. I mean, just go in and you get a guideline and you just take it on as a professional and you do enormous amount of things. You come up with, I mean, I come up with ideas all the time throughout the process of even doing each song. You know, in one day between 12 and 6 o'clock, you got a whole tune that's just starting to whip up some, some smoke, you know, it's really coming together. Like, by the time we go out for like, like a dinner-ish lunch, like I'm still like reeling from what I just did. I was like, wow, okay, geez, I'm never hurting. And I'm digging it. And now I get my feet, well, we'll come back and we'll start buttoning it up. And even if I come back the next day with ever the band here's, there's, there's a lot that's been done that people dig. So there's not a lot of changes, you know, you know, of course, everybody has input. It can't really teach what I'm doing. Well, Graham Bonnet, you know, when I, when I, when I talk to him, he said, you know, Jimmy, I learned that melody is writing the song. I mean, people think lyrics and just the guitar parts, right, the riff, but melody is just as important as any, you know, part of the composition, right? I mean, you could talk to me. You could talk to me. I mean, if you wrote, I don't know, say, uh, carry on wayward, son, you said, carry on wayward song. You know, like, okay, go on and do something like that, whatever. You know, that's not a good example, but you know, I mean, it's a great example because if you sing it really well, it's a different song altogether. Raising. I mean, our stuff, our stuff is so crazy because there's so much wording going on. Some words are even hard to pronounce on just a normal conversation. They try to get them in vowel. There's vowels involved. There's keys that are being, their keys are written. There's nowhere to go. You know what? If you stop here, hold a long note, then you guys come in after this, and then I'll do this, and then you guys do that. We don't do that. Everything is buttoned up. And it's cool. I mean, why change it, I guess, right? I don't know. But then again, who knows what would happen? Like, I mean, even take Bible Black. If we went in the room, we started busting some songs out or anthrax to anybody. Holy God. And you really think you could sing something like that over this? Well, I never thought of that. Wow, that's cool. You know, so there's all kinds of stuff that happened. And there's, you know, it's tough when people go, no, I wrote that or I had that. I did that. It's like, really, at the end of the day, if you get something decent, like, you know, like everybody just give a high five and let's move on. I don't know. That's just, well, I mean, lyrics are important, but at the end of the day, lyrics are important, but if the melody is not there, it doesn't really matter what the lyrics are. We can sing, we can talk about climbing the castle all day long. But if it's, I mean, to appeal your taste, you lost me in the first couple of lines, buddy. The melody carries it. The melody carries it. It looks to lyrics for a long, long time when I used to do stuff. I mean, get the needle on there, like it's a purple umbrella, whatever the hell, you know, that Zeppelin, I mean, I never knew he said purple umbrella. I just, you know, just did the melodies and everybody was cool with it, you know. And now I listen back, oh, I didn't, they said that. And like, oh, that's what it means. Okay, sure. I don't even like. Man for Man's always the perfect example for that, you know, like a douche. I love that. Those are my favorite things, the way people phrase stuff. It doesn't sound like something. And it's just, that's the trick of singing, you know, you can't always get stuff out the way you think that some, if somebody else said, like, yeah, do it that way. It's like, well, I can't, but I could try, I could try something else like this, sort of like that. And it works for me better, you know, as people push, push, push. And it's like, for a while, there, there are a lot of those records, I mean, people push so much, it's like, you just want to crawl into the carpet or leave, you know, it's like enough already, you know, give me a chance, you know. Yeah. I think you're the, you know, what happens, I guess Scott's sort of worn a spotlight. So you're like the unsung hero in anthrax, at least in my opinion, it's sort of you give so much and you do so much, but maybe because you're not always in the spotlight in that sense, or the forefront, even though you are the lead singer, but I'm, you know, I'm trying to get at it. I'm trying to get at that. Sometimes you're overlooked because of that. Oh, I mean, you know what, it's so late in the game to even consider all that. I, you know, I totally understand what you're saying. And I, you know, I'm just saying you're the unsung hero. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I appreciate that. You know, I, a lot of times I just listened to everybody like yourself, you both use, you have such good perspective on things and you know damn well how things go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And at the same time, I mean, I can't, I can't, I'm in that situation and the way we roll, it's like you do, you can to up the ante for everyone. I mean, I think the team playing was much, much more appropriate than like, you know, I want to be the guy, you know, I never, never wanted to do that. I just wanted to be good enough to carry my weight and carry the band into a better place. You know, I mean, it must have been like, like I saw you guys when you, you came back to the band and it was, I think it was that you guys were opening for priests. Another story too. That was two. But I mean, but there must have been a part of you that says, you see guys, I was right all along, you know, kind of feeling right. Nobody wants to hear it out. I used to say, no one wants to hear that they're wrong. Nobody likes to hear that. Very, very true. Very true. And it's all, it's all in the memory. It's all in the bank. And you know, obviously it'll never leave my heart. And I, and I continue to be as humble as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Move forward, which that's what we all want to do. And then you handled it very well, Joey. I think you really do. It had to be tough. And then I, I don't know how it would have been going back, you know. Yeah. Something was like, what, what are you nuts? It's like a marriage at that point. Correct. I mean, Yeah. You've been in relationships. I mean, it's kind of the same idea. I mean, you can either be on the same page or you can be a little deviant and send it off course and expect a lot more from someone that you're not doing your part. You know, and what are the reasons? There's a lot to it too. There is sometimes there's just no reason for it. You know, and what do you get from it? And then you got a backtrack. And then you got to pick it up again. Twice, you know, but hey, I just, I guess I have to Yeah. Well, I, I appreciate that too for everybody's sake. And I mean, I'm happy for the fans, you know, I just think people need to see it the way they, you know, the way it was, you know, there was nothing wrong with it in my eyes. I mean, I think everything we were doing, even to the last minute before I was gone, persistence. I mean, come on. That was pretty great album. Yeah. You good stuff. And then there was also the sign of the times. The times were changing. They really were. And everybody, everybody was, you know, trying something different early nineties. I mean, a lot of times, you know, there's stuff that's going to come right back around. I mean, yeah, I mean, we could change as a band, which even our new stuff is, you know, I think it's adapting to some of the newer styles without really deliberately doing anything. And that's a whole different opinion on everybody's part, I guess. But I feel it's got a lot of both of everything, you know. But again, we're still originally, still have our own, own style, our own sound with definitive, it's pretty definitive, you know. I think being humble is the best way to be. And I think that I think at the end of the day, it's the fans that make all decisions, right? Surely you are where you are today because the fans made that decision and no other decision. And that's great. Yeah, I would hope to think that that's sure helped, you know, for everybody's sake, you know. Well, you did some stuff when you weren't in anthrax. You put out this one. I love this album. And then you came back a couple of years later, like 95 with the Spell of Fears. That stuff is, I mean, I got it. I got it stated. This is a great cover, Charlie. You got it, man. Yeah, I mean, that's a cool, I have a backdrop to that. That's cool stuff. That, that record really is all the demos that artifacts one and artifacts two. Spell of Fears is a complete demo. It's not even, it's not even ready to, that shouldn't even have saw the light of day, or it should say demo. Because that was like two weeks of just blasting out ideas. There is a difference. There is a definite difference between the two albums, definitely. The first one is definitely worth it. You got a guy that comes in out of nowhere from LA and we just kind of hang out in the room, and it's a, okay, let's put it out. And, you know, obviously I look back and I say, you know, that shouldn't have never left the house. Not that I'm embarrassed at it, it just doesn't finish. Artifacts one and artifacts two is, is really the spawn to make that, that one record with different people, which is another completely different story. I could go into great details of all that kind of stuff. But all that stuff, other than that one you held up the bell down on that one, all of its demos to make that record. And unfortunately, it wasn't on a label that really did anything. What was that? Mausoleum the first one? You know, hey, we found somebody that really wanted it. That's a tough road to be on just in itself to try to get a deal back then. You know, I was all by myself. I mean, try that, try that yourself. You know, none of the guys really went off on their own that much like I did, you know, after a long period of time. But I'm proud of the demo stuff. Pauli Crook and I, we rocked every day we wrote it. Right, Paul Crook saw that stuff, you're right. And the demos, that, I mean, we really, that lineup, you know, obviously that all fell apart and then everybody went their ways and that kind of thing, no bad bloods and all that kind of stuff. Just people were just moving out. We were just sitting every day writing and then everybody moved. We could, we probably could have done the record together, at least the drummer, Jeff and me and Pauli and I. But at that time, the label had something. I had some guys that had a band we were going to play and and all that, you know, his history. But yeah, I'm glad to have some stuff out, but I'm clear that those are. Those effects one and two are an eight track cassette. Yeah, they were they were written and recorded at the day. We would go have dinner and go back and start another one. We were just banging them out and it was a blast. I don't think I've had so much fun writing music like that. Pauli, we would just constantly sit around and just bang songs out and record them. Three microphones on the drums. We had foam on the cymbals. I sang on a fifty eight, you know, a fifty seven, I'm sorry. You know, and we just raw balls out eight track cassette, you know, old school. When anthrax started moving into, OK, your first album, second album, then you're going amongst the living right. Then you started touching into the rap business. Were you sort of a little put off with that? Or what was your opinion on I'm the man and bring the noise? I love those songs. Don't get me no clue. No clue what was going on. I remember walking in the room. There was kind of a heated moment about certain things about that. And when I heard them working on it, I thought I walked in the wrong room. I honestly did. I had no idea what was going on. I mean, obviously they think move and they go and they do whatever they need to do. And I'm happy to be a part of all of it. I had the experience has been great. I love playing drums on some of the stuff. And I love jamming with public enemy. I love listening to their stories about how they come together and play. It's super cool. And you can't you can't deny the the fans having so much fun with that stuff. But I have no idea. I mean, I even did a rap thing with this band UTFO. If I'm correct, I got called up to do something. I mean, be on their record. I mean, I don't even know who they are. And I remember doing something, but I don't know much about rap. I couldn't be. I mean, I'm the furthest thing from it. When you're in that video, did you really feel out of place with the public enemy video? Bring the noise. Bring the noise. Give me something I can, you know, I'm not going to stand around and that's it. That's it. Drinks while everybody's shooting a video. I can give me some turntables. I get that, you know, it works. You should have played drums. You should have played the drums. Let's probably sing. You know, honestly, I probably should, but it's funny. My favorite one of my favorite stories is Flav. That's the only instrument that was there all day. So Flav, of course, you know, in the middle of a basketball court. All day. I'll just jamming away on by himself. It was the best. I mean, they got on a megaphone. I got everybody riled up and it was fun. It was a fun video, but there really wasn't much for me to do. But what I did was, I think, you know, fits the mold of where I'm at. You know, it's funny, Joey, because I remember when that video first went on, I go, oh, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. And then I go, where's Joey? And then, you know, he's on the tour. Why isn't he singing or rapping? I was just, I was just like, what's going on here? I mouthed a few things, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I, but I get it. I get it. Like, I'm not trying to diss it because I liked it. I'm just saying like it was out of place. Stop, man. You're over, you're over here. Oh, you good? Okay. All right. Yeah, but by doing that stuff, you definitely separated yourself from the other Thresh fans, the other big, the big four and everything. You definitely did. I mean, it is Chuck, Chuck. Every time I see Chuck, when he comes to join us, he is so psyched to do it. We're so psyched to see him show up. It's like, he's here, man. It's great. I actually bumped into Flavor Flav and Times Square when I was leaving my building one time and I had an anthrax shirt on and that, he stopped dead in his tracks and was like, yeah. Did he have a clock on him? Was he walking around with a clock? He was doing his VH1 stuff and he was down the block at that and he was just walking past us and he saw me coming out of the building and he stopped and he acknowledged the shirt. It was really cool. He gave me so many better, better one liners. One time he called me and he goes, you, man. You motherfuckers have been blessed. I'm like, cool. Thank you, man. It's just, it's just too funny. When you sort of, when persistence of time came out, the album did good and suddenly you're out, did you ever stop and say, you know what, maybe this is not for me, the music business. Maybe I'm just going to be a milkman or something or you know what, I'm going to keep doing this in another. Before I met those guys, like I said, I was constantly, I mean, my parents, my father, you know, obviously God rest his soul. But the thing is, he had a speaker and an old TV and put one in. So when we practice in the basement, like a loud as hell, he would crank the TV up and I'd, you know, I have to yell out, I said, dad, we're done. You know, because you never know, we stop and start, stop and start. Always used to play, did dances, played clubs, rehearsed, always practicing, never stopped before I even joined Anthrax. I was constantly doing it and I was destined to keep doing it. If I wasn't in Anthrax, I'd be doing something that would find, you'd find me somewhere at a club down in Albany or wherever it is doing something. So no, I would, when I left Anthrax, it was just a lot of, a lot less of things that I was doing. You know, obviously we were on the go all the time. So coming back and you had to regroup, it was a lot. It was a lot that, you know, it might as well be just set off the side of the road and try to look around and we're like, where do I go? What do I do? You know, so you got to think from it. I had, I had to take a little bit of time to deflate, you know. So a lot of people are like that, not only in the music industry, they work in a big corporate, you know, and a big job for like 20, 30 years. Suddenly they're, you know, they're let go and they don't know what to do with themselves. And they have to sort of, like you said, rethink what they want to do. And finding people was some of the hardest parts, you know, as you go. And as of even today, finding, like finding the beyond frontiers guys, it takes time to find people you can, and even then they're still like, okay, this guy doesn't want to do this today. And that guy wants to get up and this time and he doesn't want to play them. You know, there's so much to deal with, but I want to play. So I always try and try to find something and give somebody a shot to do something to play in a band together. It's really a hard, hard process, you know. But it never left my mind. I'm always willing to find that place, you know. How did you find those guys in Nashville? It's kind of. The keyboard player, Doug, we were on Shiprock together. And I wanted to do this journey on plug thing. And he was a keyboard player. And I said, dude, I go, what do you think? And you want to, you know, let's, can we do this before we leave? Can we put something together? You can learn how I'll give you some songs. We'll learn and we'll go on the boat. Sure enough, we put the thing together. And, you know, we had another gentleman Tyson, which is awesome too. He joined us on a keyboard stew. That was like last minute. I'm like, sure, yeah, whatever. If you think, you know, you know how to play, you can play some solos or whatever, sing some backups. But Doug, the keyboard player that's in beyond frontiers, I asked him, I go, after that was all done, we did some plug thing, which was awesome. I said, Hey, do you think you could, you know, I'd love to do a journey thing. Do you think he could, you know, want to do something like that? He goes, I can, I could definitely put a band together for you. I got the guys. There we are. You know, obviously we sat dormant for a little while for COVID. You know, there was no really no reason for us to push our way out the door for, you know, we did something just before COVID. But we, I don't even even met the guys except for the keyboard player. We never rehearsed. So that is thrown goes, which, you know, we opt out to do that again. But we still had fun. We did pretty damn good job for never even playing together or even seeing each other. So it's pretty awesome. But at the same time, we rehearsed this time. And here we are. But it's the same guys, you know, and they're really good dudes, man. Joey, have you ever, I mean, the vocals of your caliber? Have you ever had an audition? You want to say something? What did you want? Yeah, come on. You want to say? You know what? Obviously, I always say, you know, we, we've both been together on this. And she does a shitload of work. And, you know, a lot of times you get wrapped up in the whole band thing. But that's, that's part of it. You know, I always, I always, you know, I want to just say that she does a lot more than I do. Bring her on. Bring her on. No, no, no, I always just bring her on. But you know what? I bring her on. This is the guy. All right. How you doing? Oh, no, no, you know what? Bring her on. But wait, what's you going? Go back. No, I just. Here's the brains. You're saying, is that what you're saying? You're saying, here's the brains behind the audition. A couple of things you just need to take care of and stuff. He's always dreamed of doing this. All right. So what's, what's it like managing Joey Baladotta? Oh, it's a dream. Yeah. Well, and I have to say because we both feel the same way that how lucky we are to be able to bring joy to other people. Okay. And, you know, not every person you meet, especially every man is like that. Joey just wants to make people happy and the fans happy. And even when we're at the airport or we're in a restaurant, doesn't matter. Come over, say hi, get an autograph, take a picture. And to be able to work with somebody like that is, I don't know. How long have you been together? How long have you been together? Since 89. He asked me to marry him in January 20th, 1989. And did you know he was the singer of Anthrax back then or you did? Yeah, but we dated like. This isn't a Hank Williams. So she was a little scared of you. You get these stories, you get sometimes these stories of, you know, people who are, you know, famous and they didn't even know who they were famous when they met. Yeah, well, he, we dated over the phone pretty much. Oh yeah, back then, right? Back in the day, we didn't, you know, no cell phones, no zooms or anything like that. So I knew he was the one when, you know, when you're speaking with someone and there is a silence and you feel you have to feel that silence, he wasn't like that at all. I felt totally comfortable in the silence with him. Yeah, it's just nice to have some of that's into the music, into, to helping out versus like taking me out of my game, you know, some, some guys get taken out over a relationship, you know, because, you know, you're not enough of me time. You know, you got to do all that too, but at the same time, I'm glad that she's into helping and helping put it all together basically. And, you know, it's kind of our thing together, you know. So how did you meet? You didn't just elaborate on that a little bit. How did we meet? Do you remember that? Well, I remember being backstage at Maltesers Rock and I worked for Hawaiian Tropic. And I remember being chased down by somebody in a golf cart. Listen to somebody else. And so we went down to Maltesers Rock, which, you know, obviously a pretty big event back then that you only eat the Demonsers Rock. We actually ran into each other at a journey concert too. Hey, look at that. It was like almost fate. It was like we just kept running into each other when we didn't even, we lived how many states away. So I think we just, we kept running into each other. I was like, okay, this is just. So this is 89 is when you met or you got married? I'm engaged. Well, we met casually in 86, but we, you know, didn't even, there's a picture of us. He's standing behind me. He didn't even really realize it. And so, but the first time we really connected was at Maltesers Rock. Yeah. I mean, because you see someone you don't really, you know, I don't know. Joey, was she the one who sort of kept you going and motivated, you know, as sort of the lean years after persistence of time, you know, when you try to focus? Without a doubt. I mean, that's, that's the bond that we have kept us for 13 years. Being able to get through all that stuff. And it's always a challenge, you know, to get through it even now, you know, there's always every day, every day, is it, you know, you have to be focused and learn how to to cope without taking things too far, you know, but. A lot of sadly, there's still a lot of misogyny left in the entertainment business. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, as I'm, yeah. That's hard, hard for women, you know. Yeah, yeah. But it's getting better. It's getting a lot better. It's getting a lot better. Between the time when Belladonna toured for Motorhead, I try to remember the year, and I can't remember the year, but I tour managed Belladonna. That was a motor tour. And the difference between what I had to go through back then versus what I go through now is 108. It's so much better. It's unbelievable. And there's a lot more women like this last tour we did with Beyond Frontiers. I dealt with a lot of women at the venues. That's good. Some of the nicest people. Oh my goodness, we had the best people on this. So you're like a foremother, you know, like other women will see you now and say, you know what? I can do it too, because she can do it, right? That's that's kind of like, you know, how it is. Yeah, we're not. I mean, there's really no cut and dry situation. Some people had to learn just like anyone else. Gotta do it. There's really no. Does he do the dishes? Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, look, there you go. That's all you need, really. Does he cook? There's a lot more than I do. So that's the word. I do all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's why she's keeping on. There's that certain thing too, that the intertwine of like, you know, go get me breakfast every morning. Well, we have our different things that we do. You get her breakfast or she gets you breakfast? I managed at William Sonoma for a long time. So he used to cook professionally, I guess you would. And during that time, when you work for it as a living, you kind of don't like to do it at home. It falls out of favor a little bit. Yeah, yeah. He picked it up. And he's so happy. I know. It's such a cool thing because you can't really plan for that. It's like, okay, what you're going to do is this and I'll do that. It's like, no, it's whatever, whatever works, you know. Yeah. And you got to be thankful for that. A lot of just working together, compromise. And, you know, I just, we stick up for each other, you know. Yeah, that's hard too. There's a lot of defending going on. And it's challenging, you know. It's hard. Sometimes you just want to mediate things and kind of miss it sometimes, you know. Kenny, do you do the dishes at your house? I tried to do dinner the other night, but I almost flooded the kitchen out with the spaghetti over a long time. And I even got a dishwasher set. I don't think I've used it in about at least 15 years. I've never, I mean, I want to have enough dishes to really throw in there. But yeah, I don't mind. I just, that's a given. Wow. This is a very touching moment. I like this. And the cabinets before I go to sleep, it's all put away. Yeah. And vacuuming, what's up the story? Who does the vacuum? Look at this guy. Look at this guy. He's the singer. Look at that. He's the talent. He's the, he cooks. And he cleans. Look at that. Do you do windows? Do you do windows? He does do windows. I've done windows. I'm procrastinator about it. There's just too many of them to clean, you know. There's nothing that each of us won't do. You know, we'll, we'll both do everything. I'll work on the cars. I'll change the oil. Yeah. So I know this interview turned. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. No, I actually prefer this. I prefer this interview. Obviously there's, you know, we could talk about the same thing, record, joining the band, out of the band, but there's so much more to it. Right. I mean, I know some people are like, wow, that's cool. I didn't know that. So at the same time. So you've managed Joey now for 13 years. If that is that, that's what I'm hearing. Right. 13 years. You really can say, we work together. I mean, people take a, she out with you. She's got to like guide you down the stairs and make sure you're sure. No, we just constantly helping each other. I mean, we just, we do things together. That's all. I don't know. All right. Well, you know, bring Bella Donna and your, you know, Beyond Frontiers to Canada, you know. Oh, for sure. I know it'll be nice to come up there. I know we're hitting there with anthrax this time around. We got what, the West Coast. You're getting the West Coast. Yeah, you got to come to Montreal though. You got to come to Montreal, let's say. We were just there. Basically, we were up in the middle of nowhere. Did you happen to show up for that show? You know what the problem with that was, and I'm just being blunt here. It was a great gig, but it's an hour and a half from Montreal. I heard a lot of people complain about it. Sometimes you just get a bid and you go out. Beautiful place. I mean, it is, it is, it is. And it was on a weekday from what I remember. And that's the problem. If it was on the weekend, it's easier to like make that journey, right? Yeah, well, obviously we're going to find our way back in Canada at either place. Well, fans. I would do a whole Canadian run. Yeah. It would be fun too, because I mean, motorhead, we did a quite a bit of stuff. You know, like Kingston, Ontario, like Kingston. You know, Joey, I think I remember when you came with, to Montreal, you played Fuffin Electric, if you remember this, and there was. Was it motorhead? No, it wasn't motorhead. It was a small club. The mid-90s too. Yeah, I think you lost the drummer that night. Yeah, you ended up playing the drums. That's right. I remember the club. I remember the drum set and everything. Wasn't that the place where Anthrox played? I think it was that place. But oh, no, it could be. It was a club. I know what you're talking about. It's like a 300-seater. It's a town town. It was kind of a downtown area. It's a Grand G. It's called Fuffin. It's like a Grand G sort of. Yeah, it was a good gig. I remember it was a lot of people were definitely ecstatic. Yeah, I remember I was a cool kid. I was like, I was on. Actually, here's my last question. All right. Bye. My last question is, have you ever had an audition throughout all your years? Like, you know, Aaron Maiden calls you up or Judas Priest calls you up. Was there any of that big audition when you said, look, guys, I'm in a band. I'd love to do it, but I can't because I'm working. And did I get any calls? Yeah, yeah. You know, I got a few that I don't even want to mention. There was stuff that just wasn't my style. Nothing that I wish that I would have taken. There was an individual in a band, a big, huge band that had a solo thing. I don't even want to mention the name either, but it's just at the time I was working on this and my solo stuff. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go overseas. You know, it was just one of those things, but nothing really in particular that I wish that I would have been able to do or came my way, you know? And obviously all that stuff is... I mean, being an anthrax, I think I probably scared half those bands away anyhow. Yeah, he's just a thrasher. You know, one thing about anthrax, probably put me in a little bit of a, you know, a situation where musically, vocally, maybe I wasn't... I'm not like, oh, my God. I didn't know you could sing ambrosia stuff and, you know, eagle. You can do that too, or you can sing. Wow. You know what I mean? So I think I probably missed a lot of that stuff, unfortunately. But that's okay, you know, because I'm just going to do more of it now. Yeah, yeah. Kenny, do you have a last question that you want to ask? I have one more question. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I noticed you've been hitting the National Anthem circuitly in the NFL. You did New York and you did Buffalo. And you did Buffalo. Now, you're an upstate New York guy, but I see this appears. It's a Joey Belladonna Minnesota Viking ultimate fan card. You're not a Buffalo Bills fan coming from upstate here. I like the Bills. Sure, I like the Bills. Yeah. Viking fan. I look at, you know, I can't hide a team that I've had since I was a kid. Okay. We're talking 10 days. You're going back. Yo cap, man. I mean, I watch the Vikings on TV in the snow, the purple, the helmets. I loved all of it. Then, you know, one of my friends back at home, we used to have Viking helmets and the other guys too had Ram helmets. We go and play against each other. We always, you know, I mean, come on. I love, I mean, I'm a fan. I never really diverted, but I also like some of the upstate teams. You know, I have them when it's time. Well, you just did Buffalo a couple of weeks ago. My wife's cousins are up in families up in Canada, and they come down to Buffalo for the games. And one of the kids were at the game. And I remember my cousin, Joey, text me. He said, you're a boy singing the anthem. Right around the time we were talking. It snowed like pretty crazy at that game. Seats were just packed with snow because it snowed that day. And they had cleaned everything up. But it was a really good game. And it was, it's always a lot of fun. That was my second, third, fourth, fourth time I've done Buffalo now. Were you born in Minnesota? Huh, born? Were you born in Minnesota? Just upstate, upstate. Upstate. We go, we go. We go, right? Yep. Right across the lake from Toronto, you know. My son's in Minnesota. He lives there now. Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't people like he's a Viking fan. Yeah. That's cool. Although they're at home this week, which is can't wait. You know, it's exciting, you know, two games, two games to go before you get in the dance again. All right. On, on that note, thank you so much, both of you. It's very nice to see both of you as a couple working together and being successful. I'll see you guys again on the 31st and Wellmont Theatre. And I'll be at the Jersey show. I'll see you there. We've been there before. Anthrax. I don't think Anthrax has been at the Wellmont Theatre. It's a beautiful theatre. Oh, a new, a new, something new. No, it's been around a while. It's like a Nazi theatre in Montclair, New Jersey. It's a great theatre. I saw Symphony X there this summer. Great, great show. I thought a film might have played there. You're going to like it. I think we might have played there if it's a theatre. Is it like right in the city? Like there's some nice shops across the street. It's a little village, like a nice little town. I think we, I think we played there a couple of times. I think we did with Kill Switz the last time we were there. Oh, that's right. You might have. You probably did. Yeah. Because it's obviously not brand new. And by now we, yeah, I'm almost sure. That's a cool place. Good place. I'll see you there. You're going to be there? And we expect you to come to Canada, at least the eastern part, not the western part, the eastern. But in a good word, we'll bring the BF up there quick. All right. All right. Got room. You bet. You bet. All right, guys. Good luck with Beyond Frontier, Joey. Thank you, good. It's a lot. Good seeing you both. I hope you enjoyed it. And thanks for asking us.