THE BEAST

On December 13, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian took part in a "Build Series" session in New York City where he discussed his newly released second book, "Access All Areas: Stories From A Hard Rock Life". You can now watch the interview below.

Asked if he ever has any desire, in these tumultuous times, to revive STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH, his mid-'80s politically incorrect side project whose debut album, "Speak English Or Die", would likely cause an uproar if it was released today, Scott said: "We [in S.O.D.] were making fun of people who are that way — we were making of racists, we were making fun of misogynists, we were making fun of jerks, we were making fun of what we considered 'posers' in the '80s.

"Anyone who knew me, or Danny Lilker [S.O.D. bassist] certainly, knew we weren't racists. That's why I always kind of — especially back in the day — refused to ever even answer those questions about 'Speak English Or Die', because I was, like, if you have to ask me that question, I can't even… Anyone who would take that seriously on a record that has a song about milk, I mean, you're really not paying attention.

"But, yeah, I think [S.O.D. mascot] Sergeant D would have a lot to say about a lot of the things going on right now, and it's something I do think about quite a bit," he admitted.

According to Ian, "there was a moment" when he was contemplating launching a Sergeant D Twitter account that "was gonna be completely undercover." He said: "I was trying to get some of my comedian friends to help me with it and just use it as a way to really just rip things — on both sides. Because I can't stand super-ultra-left liberal stuff either — it's too much. But I didn't have time in the day to start worrying about tweeting every day. But, you know, I think about it a lot, and, believe me, I'm constantly writing, so whether or not that leads to a new S.O.D. record at some point, I don't know, but it could come out in another way."

Ian also talked about the concept of political correctness and how being politically correct has been increasingly equated with being of a higher morality.

"It's weird. We're kind of living in this crazy time of… on one hand, the political correctness thing is out of control," he said. "I've been having this conversation with many people now, especially with the sexual harassment thing that kind of… the Weinberg [sic] thing opened the door for that whole thing, and granted, it should all come crumbling down. But sometimes I think, 'Has it gone too far, political correctness?' But at the same time, there's a section of society now and in the media where I feel like there's no political correctness and certain people just get away with saying whatever they want whenever they want. Our president [Donald Trump]… I'm not gonna start a big political discourse here, but, look, I grew up in New York City, I grew up in a city where we know who that guy is. I don't care — everyone has their own opinion, and I have mine; it doesn't matter if I'm in a band or not. But I grew up in New York City — I know who that guy is. And he fooled… well, apparently, he fooled 30 percent of America; that's what it is. And I'm not a Republic or a Democrat; I don't subscribe to any party."

"Access All Areas: Stories From A Hard Rock Life" was released on December 12 via Da Capo Press. It is the follow-up to Ian's 2014 autobiography, "I'm The Man: The Story Of That Guy From Anthrax", which came out in October 2014. Via Blabbermouth