Mark your calendars! Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Butcher Babies singer Carla Harvey are teaming up to showcase their artwork. This two-day engangement was originally supposed to take place on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday November 15.

Unfortunately, due to new COVID-19 guidelines, the exhibit has been pushed back three weeks. The new dates, times remain the same, are Saturday, December 5 from 6pm - 11pm, and again on Sunday, December 6 from 11am - 5pm at Zhou B Art Gallery in Chicago, IL,  Charlie and Carla will be at the gallery, located at 1029 West 35th Street, both days to greet fans.

Speaking exclusively to BraveWords scribe Aaron Small, Charlie Benante details how his first-ever art showing came about. “Most Anthrax fans know that I do all of the album cover designs and/or illustrate some of them. I also do a lot of the merchandise art for the band. I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid, and I’ve always been fascinated with drawing things like monsters and my idols who I look up to, just sometimes weird shit. My girlfriend Carla (Harvey, vocalist for Butcher Babies), she’s also an artist, and she kind of convinced me to do it, to be honest with you. For me, the way I feel about doing things sometimes, if I’m not surrounded by a drum kit, then I don’t do it. I like that security of knowing I’m surrounded by drums. But with this, I’m not surrounded. So it took a lot to get me to do it, and that’s the truth.”

As opposed to the traditional art gallery or museum setting where everybody is quiet and demure, there will be DJ sets, live art pieces, live painting, and two full bars – one featuring cocktails provided by Deep Eddy Vodka, and the other a full coffee bar provided by Dark Matter Coffee. “Yeah, it’s going to be a mixture of things going on. I just want everybody to come, have a good time, and maybe see something that’s a different side of myself, and get liquored up! Also, the first 30 people that enter, I have the little 2 oz. Anthrax hand sanitizers to give away.”

Both Charlie and Carla’s individual pieces will be on display, as well as a collaborative effort. “I’ll have my sketches, and pieces that I’ve done. Some of the Anthrax album cover designs I’ve done; I also did some variations of the album cover designs as well,” elaborates Charlie. “And you can buy them. There’ll also be prints available for some of them, for a lesser amount of course. If you like it, you want it, sure, take it.”

Charlie provided BraveWords with four examples of his pop-culture inspired artwork, serving as a small preview of what will be shown at Zhou B Art Gallery in Chicago on December 5 and 6. The first piece, named “Oz”, depicts four skeletal head renderings of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and The Lion from The Wizard Of Oz. “That was done digitally,” explains Charlie. “A lot of them were done digitally, there’s some where I’m actually using canvas and paint. For some reason, I have an affinity for rock musicians who influenced me, or still to this day resonate with me. This past year saw the death of two of my biggest idols. One was Neil Peart (drummer for Rush), and one was Eddie Van Halen (guitarist for Van Halen). I wanted to do two pieces on them. Two of them are pretty much hand-painted, and there’s one Eddie Van Halen I did digitally as well.”

“‘Oz’ measures somewhere in the 16” x 20” range,” continues Benante. “The way I am sometimes, if I’m really focused and I have that energy to do it, I’ll bang ‘em out in two days. Some take a little longer, but that’s only because of my attention span. If I’m into it – bam! Before I know it, it’s done.” As far as the topic goes… “The Wizard Of Oz is one of those movies that you saw when you were a kid. It’s the earliest memory I have of watching a movie with the family, you know what I mean. My sisters were always into that movie. For me, I’ve always loved it. I think it kind of became the template for movies that came after that; it resonated so well with kids, and older people too. It’s a fuckin’ dream, or is it? I think cinematically, the way it looks, it starts off in black and white, then it changes to this beautiful technicolor movie that always made me feel like… you know when she opens the door and everything’s all colored, that’s a beautiful fucking message right there.”

It’s cliché to say, but The Wizard Of Oz was ahead of its time. “Way ahead of its time. The fact that the studio, at the time (in 1939), put on such a huge production… like I said, it was the template for movies to come after that. And the characters, the way they looked… there’s no place like home – the message that it sends. It’s an emotional piece, and here I am, making skeletons of them.” That’s the metal thing to do. “I did a series of skeleton heads with different characters. I have a Beatles one, The Beatles look just like that. I have a bunch of monsters, and then I have a McDonald’s one where the characters are pretty creepy and scary. I did Ronald (McDonald), Grimace, Mayor McCheese, and Hamburglar. I posted a picture of it a month or two ago and people were saying, ‘Oh that’s cool, it looks like Mac Sabbath.’ What the fuck is that? Then I remembered, it’s that band (a Black Sabbath tribute band that dresses up like McDonald’s characters).”

The second sample is the Dimebag Darrell Simpsons character portrait. There’s so much detail in that piece. Initially you see The Simpsons likeness, but upon closer inspection, the Pantera / Damageplan guitarist’s tattoos are revealed, instead of ‘Dean’ on the guitar’s headstock, it says ‘Doh’ because it’s broken, and that’s Homer Simpson’s catchphrase. Then there’s the Crown Royal bottle, and the Nike logo on the shirt with the phrase ‘Just Do It’ modified to ‘Just Drink It’. “The story behind that whole thing is, maybe seven years ago, or more, Dean asked me to design a guitar for charity, so I did it. But on the back of the guitar, I snuk in this Dime Simpson character, and it was a big hit. Everybody loved it. But there’s no piece of paper with the drawing on it; the original is on the guitar. So, whoever has that guitar now has the original. I was talking to Rita, Darrell’s wife, and I said, where is that fucking guitar? She said, ‘I don’t know. They auctioned it, someone bought it.’”

“So I decided to do a new one, and I put these little easter eggs in it like you said – the ‘Doh’, the shirt that says Vinnie and Dime, there’s like a Nike swoosh and it’s VD, ‘Just Drink It’. You have cans of Coke and the Crown, all Darrell’s tattoos. The fire is like fireworks cause he was always lighting off fireworks! I did this, and we are going to make a shirt that we’re going to put out, Rita and myself. This is the artwork that’s going to go along with it. Again, Darrell’s another one of my favorite – not only favorite people, but what he brought to the guitar world and the music world, it’s amazing!” Has any thought been given to an accompanying Vinnie Paul Simpsons piece? “I may do a Vinnie Paul piece too. I would just have to clear it with his people. But yes, I do want to do that.”

Benante’s third piece is labelled “Untitled”, but it’s obviously very similar to the State Of Euphoria album cover from 1988 with the red and yellow color scheme, and the faces going round and round. “Right, so the original idea and concept for that record – this was supposed to be the band’s faces in the vortex because this is how I felt back around that time. You have to remember, Scott (Ian, guitarist) and I were in the band in ’83. We put our first record out in ’84. Our second record came out at the end of ’85, which was Spreading The Disease. Then the whirlwind started. Between that time, and State Of Euphoria, I couldn’t tell you where I was because everything was moving so fast; that’s how the title came about – State Of Euphoria. That’s exactly how we felt. We were just fucking spinning everywhere.”

“The artist who did the cover didn’t get it quite right. He didn’t put each band member as the faces, he based it on one guy, that kind of looked like Joey (Belladonna, vocalist). What I did, is I changed it up and you see it’s all me in this vortex. Then I wanted to put almost like a 3D effect with these round circular things that are kind of floating. It just looks so pleasing to the eye, but it’s also very abstract.” Has this piece been floating around since the late ‘80s, or is it a newer creation? “It’s a newer creation, but when I was working on the Persistence Of Time 30th Anniversary, I had a chance to go back in and change the cover to my original idea.” With the melting clock, reminiscent of Salvador Dali. “That’s exactly what it’s supposed to be.”

The fourth piece, titled “Among”, is akin to the Among The Living album cover from 1987, but it’s got more of a spray-paint style, looking like it’s on a brick wall. “Right, so this is my version of a stencil piece; kind of like a Banksy-type thing. When I grew up in The Bronx, I had this fascination with graffiti, and writing on buses, stuff like that. I often talk about making my own magic markers back in the day. I’ve always been fascinated by graffiti art; I think it’s beautiful – not all of it. But the stuff that is amazing, I could just stare at it. Back in The Bronx, I always looked up to these graffiti artists, and one of the guys, Richie Seen, that was his tag on trains. His stuff was always cool to me. There was another guy, Lee, he was another great artist. I always wanted to do that, but I chose a different route. I still admire it, and touring around the world, I always stop and look at graffiti from different parts of the world because it’s so amazing how street art has grown to where it is now. This is my kind of version of that type of thing, using Among The Living as a backstory for a piece.”

Although not reflected in his own artwork, Benante is a fan of Vegas-based artist Michael Godard, known worldwide for his lighthearted perspective featuring animated olives and grapes. “It’s fucking amazing! I don’t know how he’s doing it? Is it acrylics? His paintings are so vibrant! There’s one with a strawberry in a bathtub (called ‘Bubbly Bath 2’), I want to know more (about him).” To see Godard’s paintings in-person is unreal. No matter how big your computer or television screen is, there’s no comparison. “There’s nothing like seeing things in person. Whenever I’m on tour, I usually like to search for any sort of exhibits that are going on, whether it be in a museum or wherever. Sometimes I luck out and there’ll be a Dali exhibit going on, and I’ll spend the day just seeing that.”

Art and music are undoubtedly intertwined. Several of Charlie’s contemporaries also paint and put their artwork on display for the public to view, namely Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, and KISS vocalist / guitarist Paul Stanley. “I follow Paul Stanley a lot, and I see a lot of stuff he does; I really like it. He kind of does a lot of pop art. He throws in some cool stuff there too.” Would that be a dream, to collaborate on a painting with Paul Stanley? “Oh, shit! That would be awesome! That would be killer. One of the pieces I have is a KISS piece. What I did was, it’s just their faces, and each face doesn’t have the white makeup, it has the color from each one of their solo albums, which I’ve never seen anybody do. So, Gene’s face is all red, Paul’s purple. That’ll be one of the pictures at the show too.”

In closing, although we are in the midst of a pandemic, Charlie assures anyone thinking of attending his Chicago art show on December 5 and 6, “It’ll definitely be a safe environment. We’re taking all the precautions to make sure everyone is safe and keeping distance. Come and enjoy it and have fun.” Face coverings are required. Further details, including RSVP options as well as VIP ticketing, can be found at this location.