Anthrax’s Scott Ian Goes In-Depth About His Upcoming Solo ‘Speaking Words’ Tour

Scott Ian is a man who wears many hats (and beards), but the legendary Anthrax guitarist's latest endeavor will be not a spoken-word tour, but a "Speaking Words" tour. After over 30 years of Anthrax, appearances on 12 different VH1 shows, and even as a zombie in 'The Walking Dead,' Ian obviously has his share of stories to tell.

Ian will fly over to the U.K. in May 2013 to begin his 'Speaking Words' tour, and in a recent interview with Decibel, Ian spoke in great depth about what he hopes to accomplish with the one man show while citing Black Flag / Rollins Band vocalist Henry Rollins as a major influence. "I've seen [Henry] Rollins do it all these years; I saw Rollins, maybe on the first time he ever did a tour I went to see what it was going to be about," begins Ian. "I mean, I am a huge fan of Rollins' music and I had read all his books at the time, so I really knew that he had a point of view and something he needed to express and he did it really well.

Ian continues, "The last 32 years of my life spent in a metal band; I've got so many stories, whether it's s--t that I've done, people that I've met, stories that I know from other people … I've kinda been in this bubble for so long. I sit around in bars with my friends and I'll get around to telling stories, as we all do, and most of my friends are in this industry or connected to it somehow, so we all have stories and we all sit down and tell stories to each other and crack each other up. I always felt that people need to hear this stuff. This s--t is hilarious. It's just a really fun thing for me to do, to relate to people on that level. That's what it is. That's what the material is; it's s--t that I have been through in my life."

Check out Decibel online for Scott Ian's full interview about his 'Speaking Words' tour.