Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna reveals that he once worked at a horse farm after he was first fired from the band in 1992.
In a video interview with Music Interview Corner, Belladonna – who rejoined the band from 2005 to 2006, and then returned in 2010 – spoke about life after he was let go by Anthrax. At that point, his final studio release with the band was the 1990 album ‘Persistence Of Time’.
Belladonna admitted the firing was “unexpected” and that he “wouldn’t have preferred it… but it happened.”
“I was actually working in a horse barn for a couple of years,” he said. “I was [in] maintenance, and Krista, my wife, we both worked at a pretty famous riders’ facility. I cut grass all day. It was so big there, I couldn’t complete all my work each day. It was a long, long day. It took me two, three days to weedy the whole place.”
He continued: “I didn’t really necessarily have to do that job. It was one of those things that fell into place and I enjoyed it and I got a lot of experience from it.” Watch the full interview below.
While working at the unnamed barn, Belladonna continued to work on music: “I also had a band; I was doing some cover music and I was playing drums [under the band Chief Big Way].”
“And it was kind of like the old days for me. So I just continued to do that and work on some original music and stuff. I kept myself busy. I didn’t really fall apart. I kept busy and just waited for some time, and all of a sudden I’d come back. So here I am.”
Belladonna’s eponymous band released two albums in the 1990s, a self-titled debut in 1995 and ‘Spells Of Fear’ in 1999, while earlier this year, Belladonna performed a slate of shows with a new cover band, including his wife Krista, honouring the music of Dio.
Last month, Belladonna’s bandmate Charlie Benante spoke out against streaming platforms, exclaiming that Spotify is where “music goes to die”.
“We have the music on there because we have to play along with the fucking game, but I’m tired of playing the game,” he said.
“We get taken advantage of the most out of any industry. As artists, we have no health coverage, we have nothing. They fucked us so bad, I don’t know how we come out of it. You’d probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner.”