ANTHRAX' Scott Ian has posted the following:

"Stan The Man Lee... ‘nuff said!

I went to the season two premiere of The Walking Dead the other night and it was great. There are some amazing zombie scenes and after one particularly brutal zombie slay I started cheering and the whole theater followed suit. Watch it starting October 16th on AMC and watch these webisodes (I’m in episode 6 at the 1:45 mark).

Amazingly enough, Zombies aren’t what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about meeting my idol/hero/mentor/reason for being… Stan Lee. If you don’t know who he is, you’ve really been living in a cave for 50 years and you’d better Google him immediately. I sent the pic you see here to my friend (and intrepid photographer) Andy Buchanan to frame up for me and he replied with my exact feelings on meeting him…

'That must have been fucking unreal. Stan fucking Lee. Literally immeasurable part of our lives. Imagine the friends you’d never have met, the experiences you’d never had had. The path your life would have taken. All because a guy with an idea wanted to tell the stories rattling around his head. As I type this I’m drinking coffee from a Silver Surfer mug for fuck sake! Like you (Gene aside!) I’m not a starstruck type, but that would have got me sweating. I know you well, and I can clearly see how excited you are. So amazing! Resized the pictures for you, good to print all the way up to 12×16. Again, amazing! Excelsior!!! Andy.'

Scott continues: "What Andy says is true. I started reading Marvel Comics when I was 7 years old. It was the gateway for me into everything else. Horror, sci-fi, music, you name it. When I was 12 KISS became my favorite band because they were a perfect combination of comics and music. I saw KISS in December '77 at Madison Square Garden and I knew that I was going to be in a band, it’s what I wanted to do, it’s what I had to do and when I left that show I started on a path that I have never strayed from. If it wasn’t for Stan Lee I may have never opened my mind up to the possibilities of the seemingly impossible.

We spoke for a few minutes and he was simply The Man. Funny, whip-smart, kind, self-deprecating, everything I imagined he would be from my years of worshipping from afar.

It was truly a life defining moment and I’m still buzzing from it. Inspiring would be the word.

Cheers my friends, see you on tour starting next week.

Scott."

(Photo: John Shearer)