Friends of Metallica who by no means fairly scaled the identical heights as James Hetfield and co, LA’s Armored Saint have been one of many nice cult bands of the Eighties. In 2017, Steel Hammer sat down with frontman John Bush to listen to tales of triumph, tragedy and thwarted ambition.
“I obtained a name from Jonny Z, who was the supervisor of Metallica on the time, and he stated they needed me to sing with them,” remembers John Bush, ex-Anthrax singer and longtime frontman with US steel veterans Armored Saint. “Do I remorse turning that down? What I all the time inform folks is that Armored Saint was growing and we have been doing properly, and these guys have been my buddies, you realize? Metallica have been doing properly, nevertheless it wasn’t prefer it was Metallica in 1987. It was just a few years earlier than that. So, I didn’t wish to depart my band. I preferred them and I nonetheless do!”
There are two issues that each thrash connoisseur is aware of about John Bush. Firstly, he may have been the singer in Metallica. Secondly, he has had first-hand expertise of Anthrax’s once-inexplicable revolving door vocalist coverage. You might also remember that he recorded voiceovers for Burger King commercials. In fact, nevertheless, probably the most pertinent truth about John Bush is that greater than three a long time after forming in Los Angeles, California, his first band, Armored Saint, are nonetheless a really potent going concern and are heading to the UK for a uncommon correct tour this March. Beloved of diehard metalheads however nonetheless comparatively unknown within the rock mainstream, the band’s profession has been considerably episodic, with not less than one seemingly remaining break up alongside the best way. However as we speak they’ve the wind of their sails. 2015’s Win Arms Down album was broadly acclaimed, and confirmed that these lifelong buddies have nonetheless obtained loads of shared chemistry to use.
“Oh yeah, our friendship goes all the best way again to us being little boys,” John grins. “Gonzo [Sandoval, Armored Saint drummer], Joey [Vera, bassist], myself and Phil [Gonzo’s brother, guitarist] went to the identical elementary faculty. We met one another across the third or 4th grade, after we have been round eight or 9. Clearly Gonzo and Phil knew one another as a result of they’re brothers! However that’s when the friendship developed, and I’d say it was a robust friendship by the remainder of our teenage years, and it simply saved going. Clearly there was just a little time after I joined Anthrax that the connection turned just a little extra distant, however we didn’t have telephones again then, so I’d be on tour and searching for a rattling pay cellphone, ha ha!”
Shaped in 1982, Armored Saint stood out from the beginning, not least as a result of the vast majority of steel bands of their native LA have been firmly within the sleazy, Sundown Strip camp, as MTV started to take discover of heavy music’s burgeoning reputation. By the point the band’s debut album, March Of The Saint, emerged in 1984, the thrash motion was noisily underway too, however John Bush and his bandmates’ bluesy and melodic however exact and muscular tackle the old-school steel template didn’t match into that scene both.
“We’ve all the time been in a type of limbo state,” John shrugs. “We began in ’82 and we performed with all of the bands that got here out of LA, in order that’s Ratt, WASP, Quiet Riot, Steeler, Black ’N Blue, Nice White, everyone. They have been nice exhibits and people bands have been cool and we obtained together with them. However we sounded just a little completely different from the majority of the LA bands and that turned extra apparent as time handed. We all the time wished we have been from England, and I imply that truthfully. Our favorite bands have been Priest, Motörhead, Sabbath and UFO.
“When thrash occurred, we had some songs that have been quick, however we have been all the time extra of a bluesy onerous rock, heavy steel band, and we’d write gradual songs, in order that didn’t actually slot in with that scene. We did excursions with Metallica, and I’m certain we may have executed the identical with Anthrax and Slayer, however we weren’t in that scene, so folks could be like, ‘So, what are they?’ Again within the day it was considerably irritating, as a result of we couldn’t join with a scene, however as time has gone on, I’m glad, as a result of we ended up doing our personal factor.”
Regardless of their plain sq. peg standing, Armored Saint retained a sizeable following of heavy steel connoisseurs all through the 80s, and have been approaching the 90s and the recording of their fourth album with a level of optimism till authentic guitarist Dave Prichard succumbed to leukaemia and handed away in 1990.
As they mourned their buddy, John and his fellow Saints made a collective vow to complete engaged on the songs that Dave had been writing previous to his loss of life. The outcome was 1991’s Image Of Salvation, broadly considered Armored Saint’s masterpiece, and an album that, with hindsight, prompt the band have been higher outfitted than most to climate the oncoming storm of grunge and nu steel. Sadly, the emotional fallout of shedding a cherished comrade, coupled with years of onerous slog, introduced the primary chapter of Armored Saint’s story to a untimely finish.
“I believe we in all probability had these expectations that Image… was gonna be larger than it was,” John remembers as we speak. “However in truth, although we obtained lots of acclaim on that report, we didn’t get the outcomes that maybe we’d anticipated. There was some frustration on the US tour that we did after the album got here out. It was one of the vital depressing excursions I’ve ever executed in my life. We have been driving by the Rockies with all our baggage and 10 guys in a van. I believed we have been going to die each time we hit the highway and there have been a lot of brief fuses within the band. It felt like an enormous sigh, you realize? We’d made Image… however we have been exhausted, mentally, bodily and emotionally. The tour was horrible after which Anthrax got here alongside. It simply appeared like the suitable time to finish it.”
John Bush jumped ship to affix the New York thrash legends in 1992 and went on to report 4 well-received studio albums, culminating in 2003’s traditional We’ve Come For You All. However Armored Saint was by no means really executed and dusted, and the energy of its members’ friendship ensured that the band have been again in motion once more when the twenty first century dawned, releasing their fifth album, Revelation, in 2000. Not like a lot of their earlier friends, the band’s sound was fluid and malleable sufficient to be deftly upgraded for a brand new period, and John’s soulful rasp had by no means sounded higher. It will take the band an additional decade to make a follow-up, 2010’s La Raza, however with the logistical intricacies of the is-our-singer-in-Anthrax-or-not debacle receding within the rear-view mirror and the common thumbs-up given to Win Arms Down, the previous couple of years have been among the many band’s most profitable to this point.
Having stop Anthrax after the start of his youngsters to keep away from being away on tour for lengthy intervals, John Bush admits that Armored Saint won’t ever return to a full-on touring schedule once more, however the probability to take care of some unfinished enterprise in entrance of an ever-expanding, multi-generational and worldwide viewers is just too good a possibility to waste.
“There are nonetheless lots of territories that Armored Saint have by no means performed that I do wish to go to,” he says. “We’ll attempt to make that occur. We simply need to discover a solution to do it so we’re not gone for months at a time, as a result of then I’ll be divorced and a junkie, and that’s not the highway we wish to go down, ha ha! It labored out completely after I left Anthrax, as a result of I’d simply had my daughter and it appeared like the suitable factor to do for my household. The one factor you possibly can’t get again is time. However I do love performing. I really like singing. It’s one of many few issues in my life I do properly!”
It’s onerous to think about that John Bush doesn’t often daydream about how his life may need turned out if he’d accepted Metallica’s supply all these years in the past. However in 2017, he may hardly be happier, and Armored Saint have by no means been extra in demand. Generally gradual and regular wins the race, arms down.
“We’ve all the time simply believed in ourselves. To not get too religious, however the Armored Saint factor is simply right here. We’re a cool entity! We’re fairly distinctive, and never too many individuals can say that they’re in a band with folks they’ve recognized for 40 years. We’re solely in our 50s and we’ve recognized every for 4 a long time. So there’s lots of historical past right here and it’s fairly superior. I dig it!”
Initially printed in Steel Hammer journal challenge 294, March 2017