NEW YORK (AP) - It was just a matter of time before hard rockers
Anthrax said a few words about its name in light of the recent outbreaks of the disease it's named for in Florida.
The band posted a message about the unfortunate situation on its official Web site on Thursday (Oct. 11) and said it would be posting links on how to help the Florida victims' families and protect yourself against the disease in the coming days.
The message reads:
"In light of current events, we are changing the name of the band to something more friendly, Basket Full of Puppies. Actually, just the fact that we are making jokes about our name sucks.
In the twenty years we've been known as Anthrax, we never thought the day would come that our name would actually mean what it really means. When I learned about anthrax in my senior year biology class, I thought the name sounded 'metal.' Everyone in my neighborhood had a band with an 'er' name, like 'Ripper' or 'Deceiver' or 'Killers' and I wanted to be different. Anthrax sounded cool, aggressive, and nobody knew what it was. Until a few years ago most people thought we'd made it up. Even our album, Spreading The Disease was just a play on the name. We were spreading our music to the masses.
Before the tragedy of September 11th the only thing scary about Anthrax was our bad hair in the '80s and the Fistful of Metal album cover. Most people associated the name Anthrax with the band, not the germ. Now in the wake of those events, our name symbolizes fear, paranoia, and death. Suddenly our name is not so cool. To be associated with these things we are against is a strange and stressful situation. To us, and to millions of people, it is just a name. We don't want to change the name of the band, not because it would be a pain in the ass, but because we hope that no further negative events will happen and it won't be necessary. We hope and pray that this problem goes away quietly and we all grow old and fat together."
The band -- Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, and John Bush -- ended its message with "be safe" and then quipped, "P.S. If an Anthrax member gets anthrax, call Alanis Morisssette. That would be ironic. Don't you think?" Yes, we do.
