Anthrax’s Scott Ian on when metal fans might see another ‘Big 4’ tour

Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth last played together in 2011

Anthrax‘s Scott Ian has discussed the possibility of another ‘Big 4’ tour in the future.

The band are known together with Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer as ‘The Big 4’ of thrash metal. The four bands played 14 shows together in the early 2010s in Europe and North America, with a live DVD released of a Bulgarian show.

Discussing the likelihood of more shows with Metal Edge, Ian was directed to recent comments from Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, who is hoping for more ‘Big 4’ shows in the near future.

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“Yeah, I saw Mustaine was kinda fishing for some of that,” Scott responded. “I mean, I don’t know. I don’t think Metallica need to do that right now. They’ve got so much coming up in the next two years.”

He went on: “Here’s the thing: [Metallica] just announced their ’23 and ’24 plans, and I was looking at those dates this morning and thinking, “Well I wonder if, like, they do these two nights in each city here in the States and one night is the Pantera night and the other night is the Five Finger [Death Punch] night. So are people gonna be clamoring for the Pantera night and nobody’s gonna show up on the other night?”

“But then I stopped myself, and I said, “Hold on a second. They could’ve just announced it as ‘An Evening With’ – with no opening bands – and they’re still selling out two nights in every stadium.” It doesn’t matter who’s opening. None of that matters. They don’t need support bands. They do it to make an event out of it, I guess, but they don’t need it.”

He added: If the Big 4 was to ever happen again – in any capacity – it’s certainly not going to be before ’25 now, because they’ve already announced their plans. So, there you go. Anyone who has a question about the Big 4, hold that thought until 2025. [laughs]

In his own recent interview, Mustaine expressed a keen interest in reviving the concert series from 2010 and ’11.

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Introducing the idea of recruiting his fellow big four to perform a “Big 4 passing of the torch” to the “new Big 4,” he said: “I think it would be really cool symbolically if we did something at like, the LA Coliseum, even if it’s one show and that’s it.

Slayer is from Los Angeles, so it would probably make it more convenient for them to go home at night,” Mustaine said. He acknowledged that Slayer would need to “come out of retirement” in order to play such a show, given that the metal icons’ farewell tour concluded in late 2019.

“I personally have been hoping for this for a while, and I keep asking and asking and asking,” Mustaine added, revealing he had been in contact with the other big four, but to no avail. “They’re just not into it. But that’s up to them.”

Elsewhere among the ‘Big 4’, Metallica are releasing new album ’72 Seasons’ this year and touring it worldwide while Slayer‘s Kerry King recently labelled the band’s split “premature”.

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