Joey Belladonna has been back as Anthrax’s lead singer for roughly 15 years now, but not before being fired twice by the legendary thrash metal act. During his time away from the band, the vocalist worked a few odd jobs, including one at a horse barn.
While he wasn’t Anthrax’s original singer (there was a revolving door of vocalists in the early ’80s), Belladonna helped establish the band as one of the premier thrash acts from 1984 to 1992, singing on four of their classic albums: Spreading the Disease (1985), Among the Living (1987), State of Euphoria (1988), and Persistence of Time (1990).
Belladonna was ousted from the band in 1992, and replaced by John Bush for most of the ’90s and into the 2000s. He returned in 2005, but was replaced by Dan Nelson in 2007, before returning in 2010. He has remained a member of Anthrax since then, appearing on their two most recent LPs, Worship Music (2011) and For All Kings (2016), and also working on their as-yet-untitled upcoming album, expected to arrive in 2025.
During that time in the ’90s and early 2000s, among the various jobs Belladonna picked up was cutting grass on a horse farm, as he discussed in a new interview with Music Interview Corner (watch below).
“Well, for me to be out of the band for that long, it’s almost too long,” Belladonna reflected about his time away from Anthrax (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It was unexpected and it wasn’t my idea and I wouldn’t have preferred it. But it happened. And I just maintained myself. And I was actually working in a horse barn for a couple of years. I was [in] maintenance, and Krista, my wife, we both worked at a pretty famous riders’ facility. I cut grass all day. It was so big there, I couldn’t complete all my work each day. It was a long, long day. It took me two, three days to weedy the whole place.”
He added, “A lot of people don’t realize that you would even do that. I didn’t really necessarily have to do that job. It was one of those things that fell into place and I enjoyed it and I got a lot of experience from it. But I also had a band; I was doing some cover music and I was playing drums. And it was kind of like the old days for me. So I just continued to do that and work on some original music and stuff. I kept myself busy. I didn’t really fall apart. I kept busy and just waited for some time, and all of a sudden I’d come back. So here I am.”
Anthrax recently wrapped up a UK/European tour with Kreator and Testament. As mentioned, the band is currently finishing up work on its 12th studio album.
Watch Joey Belladonna on Music Interview Corner in the video below.