ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante has teamed up with former TURBONEGRO vocalist Hank Von Hell, SUM 41 guitarist Dave Baksh and bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin to record a cover version of PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.‘s “Public Image”, filmed while they were in quarantine.
Benante uploaded a video of the performance to his YouTube channel, writing in an accompanying message: “When I was younger, I would sometimes go to work with my sister, who was a hairdresser in Manhattan. Below the salon was a record store called Disco Mat that I LOVED. I would spend hours in there and one day, I had a weird experience. I was in there going through records and I saw a man with a long coat and a beret looking through the bins. I knew it was Johnny Rotten because I was a huge SEX PISTOLS fan. I walked over to him all excited and he turned and put his finger up to his mouth and went ‘Shhhhhhhhhhhhh’ as in ‘STOP’. I took that as a leave me alone and that’s what I did. I continued to look around and then I saw him checking out and he called me over. I told him how much I loved the PISTOLS and he said that was all behind him and he was moving on. He took a Disco Mat card, turned it over and signed it for me. He talked a bit more and then left. The thing he was moving onto was PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.
“I love love love First Issue, it still makes me happy when I hear it.
“I was so happy Dave and Cone from SUM 41 were into doing this with me and when Dave mentioned having Hank Von Hell on it I was like WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO! I love TURBONEGRO.
“Hope you enjoy it, we had fun.”
Benante has been using his coronavirus downtime to connect virtually with other metal musicians and share videos of them covering various pop, rock and metal tracks, including those by RUSH, IRON MAIDEN, Billie Eilish and Tom Petty.
ANTHRAX has spent most of the last four years touring in support of its latest album, “For All Kings”, which was released in February 2016. A follow-up effort is expected in 2021.
