In a new interview with the Irish Times, Anthrax drum monster Charlie Benante was asked a number of questions prior to their first European tour since 2019. 

It’s been forty years since the release of their debut, A Fistful of Metal. When asked if the music industry has changed for the better or worse?

“There is no music industry,” Benante counters. “That’s what has changed. There is nothing any more. There are people listening to music, but they are not listening to music the way music was once listened to.

It’s a different time now. Here’s a strange thing. While I have seen people eating a little bit more healthy here and there, the industry of music was one of things hit the worst and nobody did anything about it. They just let it happen. There was no protection, no nothing.

Subconsciously this may be the reason why we don’t make records every three years or whatever because I don’t want to give it away for free. I take music very seriously and what I do and what I write is very personal and, for someone to take it is not right.

It is like I pay Amazon $12.99 (€12.32) a month and I can just go on Amazon and I can get whatever I want. It is basically stealing. It is stealing from the artist – the people who run music streaming sites like Spotify. I don’t subscribe to Spotify. I think it is where music goes to die. We have the music on there because we have to play along with the f*cking game, but I’m tired of playing the game.

We get taken advantage of the most out of any industry. As artists, we have no health coverage, we have nothing. They f*cked us so bad, I don’t know how we come out of it. You’d probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner.”

Read more at the Irish Times.