INTERVIEW: Scott Ian – The Damned Things

The hype around the return of punk/metal hybrid super-group THE DAMNED THINGS has been monumental, with second album High Crimes due to land just before the band head out on a short US tour. In the run-up to this, Distorted Sound sat down with rhythm guitarist Scott Ian to have a quick chat about their return, the record and Ozzy Osbourne being, well, Ozzy…

Scott, thank you very much for joining me. So, when news broke of THE DAMNED THINGS coming back, the internet exploded. Now I know you’re a seasoned professional and you’ve been doing this for years, but given that the band was essentially just a coming together of friends initially, did you ever expect to have a response like this?

Scott: I’m kinda unaware of the response so it’s news to me! [laughs]. That said, I’m obviously happy that people are happy that we’re doing something because WE’RE happy that we’re doing something. We’re able to have time to get together again and have some fun with each other and if, on the other side of that, people are excited about it then that’s awesome. It’s a short attention span world and it has been for a long time, so the fact that we’ve been gone for about nine years or so I guess it would be easy for people to forget, but it’s nice to know that people have held on!

I know a lot of people who got into you through Ironiclast but didn’t get the chance to see you and they’re pumped for your return; the hype is massive, at least over here. Why now, specifically, to come back?

Scott: There was no ‘specifically’, it’s just the way it happened. We had no plans at all regarding making a DAMNED THINGS record, there had been no talks at all to do anything for a long time. We see each other and hang out whenever we can though: Joe and his family live in LA like me so we see each other socially, Andy played in my wife Pearl’s band for a while and I see Keith whenever I can. You know, it’s something that we were all friends going into that first record and we remained friends amazingly through that process, because a lot of times you get into a band with your friends and then you fall out, but we became better and it’s continued through all those years.

It kinda just happened out of the blue though. Joe was writing some songs for another artist – a mutual friend of ours, Jay Ruston was producing this album and had asked him to write some songs for it – but that project fell apart and then Joe sent those songs to the rest of us and said ‘Hey, I wrote these songs and maybe, with a bit of work or as is, I feel like they sound like DAMNED THINGS songs,’ and I couldn’t have agreed more. That was the start of it. Timeframe-wise, I couldn’t tell you when that was but I want to say about two years ago and that was the spark. Slowly but surely, over the next two years, it came together mostly out of Joe’s tenacity and awesome riff-writing [laughs].

That’s really cool! You’ve got Dan Adriano on board this time on bass duties, whereas before you’d had [EVERY TIME I DIE] member Josh Newton. Why didn’t he come back?

Scott: I don’t know if that was ever a thing. The core of THE DAMNED THINGS has always been Joe, Andy, Keith and myself so even though Josh was on tour with us the first time around, but I guess if you want to be technical about it, he wasn’t actually a member of the band, whatever that means. So I actually don’t know what discussions were had or not had between Joe and Josh at all. All I know is we were working on songs and it was getting to the point again of ‘What do we do about a bass player?’, because on the first album Rob [Caggiano, former ANTHRAX and current VOLBEAT guitarist] played all the bass if I remember correctly but the decision was made to get Dan in because we felt we needed a real bass player on our record. Rob’s an amazing musician but he isn’t a bass player and we wanted a real bass player to come in on these songs and add what a real bass player would add and I really feel that Dan’s playing is our secret weapon on this record because we certainly didn’t have that on the first album and I think his playing really adds to the songs, to what Keith is doing and on top of all that he’s a really good dude.

I have to agree with you – the album is so infectious to listen to!

Scott: I agree, I am the biggest DAMNED THINGS fan there is! [laughs] I’m not kidding, I look at this band and yeah, I happen to play guitar in it, but it’s something that I can easily put myself on the outside looking in as if this is just a band that I’m a fan of as well because I’m such a fan what everyone does, both collectively and individually, and it’s so much fur for me to have new DAMNED THINGS songs to listen to and I also get to play them, so bonus for me!

That’s amazing! For you as well, personally, what does THE DAMNED THINGS offer that ANTHRAX doesn’t?

Scott: Well musically it’s very different, especially this record as it’s not as dense as Ironiclast was, for one way of describing it, but yeah, musically very different animals so it’s always fun to play my guitar differently so that’s always attractive to me in every sense, whether I was playing in THE DAMNED THINGS or jamming AC/DC covers so getting to do something different is always something I’ve been interested in.

You play rhythm guitar in THE DAMNED THINGS, which is a position you’ve played for the vast majority of your career, save for STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH. Have you ever been tempted to play lead?

Scott: Temped, no [laughs]. I can’t say tempted. If I have an idea for a solo I certainly wouldn’t shy away from it, and I’ve certainly played my fair share of harmony guitar parts over the year, but rhythm guitar is where my heart is, it’s what I love to do and I feel like I’m pretty good at it, so I know my lane and that’s not to say I’m limiting myself but I know where, certainly in the context of ANTHRAX where we’ve made a lot of records and been together 38 years, I know where I work best and that’s something I never want to fuck with. It’s a bit looser in THE DAMNED THINGS because we’ve not spent nearly enough time together as a band so things are still, in a good way, a little less known. Joe and I have to get together at the end of the month before the band even rehearse to go over all the parts and make sure we’re on the same page guitar-wise because I think the two of us really need to be tight before we get in a room with the rest of the band.

I think you just saying there you’re ‘pretty good’ at rhythm guitar might be the understatement of the millennium. You also mentioned about jamming AC/DC songs a little further back and they’ve always had that attitude of ‘Don’t fix what isn’t broken’, so I can totally understand you not want to mess with that as well.

Scott: Yeah, that’s kinda been my philosophy from the start and Angus and Malcolm Young have been my heroes from then as well; there’s a reason why I have them tattooed on my arms. That’s pretty much where I learned how to play guitar and it’s very much been my mindset as well.

Completely understand. When you came back to record High Crimes, was there anything that has changed from when you guys stepped back in the studio, because ten years is a long time and a lot can happen, or was it a case that you came back to it and the same energy was there instantly?

Scott: Yeah, it was very similar and done in a very similar way because, from a schedule point of view, it was very rare that we could come together at the same time so it was done in pieces, in different sessions over the course of two years, but the fact that we were working on DAMNED THINGS material was very exciting in that we were going to have an end product of a record which was just as surprising for us as I guess it was the rest of the world when we announced it was coming; it had been so long for us to be working that sounded like us and I think that was a really cool thing for us to realise. Getting to hang with any of these dudes and any time is always just great for me, personally.

If you could sum up High Crimes in as few words as possible, what would they be?

Scott: Umm…[laughs]…the most important album of the millennium. That sums it up! Of course not really, but for me I really don’t know. It’s the product of parents making a drunken baby. You went out, you had a really great night, and you went home, had sex and nine months later this wonderful bundle of joy came into your lives and everyone’s very happy about the whole thing, there’s no negatives at all. That’s what this record is. You had five dudes who were extremely excited and happy to give birth to an unexpected child.

I have to say, you can certainly tell you’re having fun! Jay Ruston produced the album this time as opposed to Joe and Rob; I imagine he was a good to work with as ever?

Scott: Yeah, I’ve been working with him for ten years now with ANTHRAX so I get on with him extremely well.

Good, always great to hear and you’re back out on the road in about a month’s time or so. I bet you can’t wait to hit the stage and show the world these songs live?

Scott: Yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to it – it’s been so long! We’ve got this short US run coming up in May and I don’t even know what to expect because of the time, the new material and the new member; I guess I’ll just have to wait until we get into a room together for rehearsals a couple of days before and see what happens. In this moment I have no connections with it.

You’re also taking CROBOT and HE IS LEGEND out with you on the road. What was the thinking behind them coming out to open for you, because they’re stylistically both very different from you and each other?

Scott: I honestly had nothing to do with it, I’d be lying if I said I did! [laughs] I think that was put together by management and agency and we just all said ‘Yes’. I know CROBOT but not the other dudes, but I personally had nothing to do it.

That’s fair enough. I know immediately that there will be certain things you can say and certain things you can’t, but any other dates in the works, particularly in the UK? Please, pretty please?

Scott: I know the whole world is being looked at but it’s a case of schedule wise what we can do and we’ve committed some windows of opportunity to go out and do this because we all wanna play and do shows, so nothing on the books yet past this, but that’ll change soon enough.

Well if you could come out here sooner rather than later, that would be grand! As we come towards the end, I wanted to ask about when you were interviewing people as opposed to us and take you back to your time hosting VH1’s Rock Show. Who was the best person you spoke to?

Scott: Oh man, back then? Umm, that’s a really good question…I’m trying to remember who I even had on…

I bet Ozzy was a laugh…

Scott: Oh yeah, I forgot about that, there you go! Yeah, having Ozzy was great, mainly because it was a huge get for us to even have him on, and it happened to be the Halloween episode and I dressed up like Gene Simmons with full makeup (except for a bald head) and full costume, the whole thing. I was told that Ozzy was told he knew that it was me dressed as Gene and it was the Halloween episode, but when he came on set and we started the interview, you could tell immediately that he had no idea it was me under the makeup. I was a really uncomfortable and awkward few minutes of me asking him questions and Ozzy giving me nothing back and acting very bummed that he was sitting there with some asshole dressed up as Gene Simmons. I was looking at my producer as if to say ‘You know, maybe we should stop,’ I was sweating through the makeup and it was all very cringeworthy. Then at some point, Ozzy leant in and he looked at me, staring at me intently and I was thinking ‘Is he gonna hit me? What’s going to happen?’ and then he just said ‘Oh, mate, Scott! It’s you! It’s you under there!’ and I went ‘Yeah, it’s me, I thought you knew!’ and he said ‘I didn’t fucking know! Sharon, did you know this was happening?’ and from there the next twenty minutes were great but the first five minutes I was like ‘God, what did I do to offend Ozzy?!’ [laughs]

That’s outstanding. Just very quickly, before we finish – any chance we could get Ironiclast on Spotify soon, because it isn’t on there right now?

Scott: Oh that’s way above my pay grade [laughs], but I will mention it to management and let them know.

I thought as much, but you don’t ask you don’t get! Scott, thank you so much for talking to me, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

Scott: No worries man, thank you!

High Crimes is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. THE DAMNED THINGS are featured in our latest digital issue, head over to our Patreon Page to read it!

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