What's Up Anthrax??? Part 2

As posted on Blabbermouth:

ANTHRAX's manager, Izvor Zivkovic of Split Media, has released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"As announced last week, thrash legends ANTHRAX regretfully cancelled the first three dates on the second leg of their European tour due to new vocalist Dan Nelson's unexpected illness. An additional seven European dates are also cancelled, those scheduled from July 22 to July 30.

"ANTHRAX is thrilled to announce that they will play the August 1 Sonisphere festival in Knebworth, England, with their good friend John Bush [ANTHRAX's singer from 1992 to 2005] joining them for a very special one-off performance.

"The members of ANTHRAX have confirmed the departure of vocalist Dan Nelson. In light of this development, ANTHRAX's slot on the U.S. SLIPKNOT dates set for August and September, has also been cancelled. ANTHRAX is already actively considering lead singer candidates, and looks forward to hitting the road before the end of the year."

So there you have it. For some reason (illness???) Nelson is out of Anthrax and John Bush is temporarily back in for a one-off show. Like I said, hopefully this isn't an instance of Nelson being seriously ill.

UPDATE: Nelson released a statement saying that he was willing to continue performing with Anthrax and was not ill. Apparently the band was having issues and decided to oust the singer before things got worse.

UPDATE 2: More info from Scott Ian.

Also, remember that CD "Worship Music" that was supposed to be released in October? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

It's a sad day for Anthrax and all the fans looking forward to this album. Now the search is back on for a new singer. Hopefully all goes well!

What's Up Anthrax???

Yesterday Anthrax released a press statement vaguely commenting on the band missing the first three shows of its European tour. The reason for the cancellation is due to Dan Nelson's mysterious illness.

Here is what Anthrax had to say:

The members of ANTHRAX regretfully announce that the first three shows of their European tour scheduled to begin tomorrow, Saturday, July 18th, are canceled. Yesterday, lead singer Dan Nelson unexpectedly informed the band that he was seriously ill and unable to travel or perform at this time. Options for the balance of ANTHRAX's European tour dates are being addressed posthaste. The members of ANTHRAX are devastated by this unfortunate turn of events and ask all of their fans to join them in wishing Dan the speediest of recoveries.

Nelson also wrote via Twitter:

July 16, 3:47 a.m.: "Funny, I don't feel so lucky...Wonder what everyone is talking about??"

July 16, 4:28 a.m.: "is done."

July 17, 7:54 p.m.: "loves his family and friends more than ANYTHING."

This all sounds like bad news to me, but it could just be the press blowing up Nelson getting some kind of minor illness.

Hopefully Nelson is OK and not seriously ill. He seems like a cool guy with a decent set of pipes. Also, hopefully nothing bad is going on with Anthrax as a whole, but we will find out soon enough I'm sure.