Anthrax Ian hails 'god' McCartney

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has described meeting Paul McCartney as like "being in the presence of a god."

He’s only encountered the Beatles icon once, but remembers being blown away by the experience. He also reports that spending time with Jimmy Page, Ronnie James Dio and Gene Simmons have a huge effect on him.

Ian tells Mulatschag: “I got to meet Paul McCartney one time. I didn’t have a conversation, but I shook his hand. It’s the closest I could compare to, like, gods that are walking the earth with us.

“Granted, I know they’re just humans that fucking bleed the same colour I do, but the shit they’ve done and they’ve experienced in their lifetimes, it just can’t be touched.”

He adds of Dio: “Ronnie was a guy who just made you feel great when you were around him. He always made sure to take care of everyone else around him first. He was just such a great host and such a lovely man and always had something great to say. And after you’d be with him, you’d just be, ‘Goddamn, I love being around that guy.’ You just felt better about yourself afterwards.”

In the rest of the interview, Ian describes his friendship with late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.

Scott Ian on McCartney, Dio and Dimebag

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.