The man who pounds the kit for Anthrax pays tribute to his influences with a star-studded album of eclectic covers.
Like many of us, Anthrax’s drummer Charlie Benante was losing his mind in quarantine. The endless days of endless nothingness were getting to him. But unlike most of us who just watched everything on Netflix, Charlie did something amazing. He reached out to several likeminded musical friends including Anthrax bandmates Frank Bello, Scott Ian and Jon Donais, his girlfriend Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Ra Diaz (Suicidal Tendencies) and the mighty Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC. The result: a truly unique album featuring covers of Charlie’s favorite songs called Silver Linings.
HUSTLERMagazine.com caught up with Charlie to do a deep dive on the album, discuss what’s next for Anthrax and talk about the one time he met Larry Flynt.
HUSTLERMagazine.com: Are you okay with being interviewed by us?
Charlie Benante: Oh yeah, because I’m a hustler. I’ve been doing so much hustling this past year, it’s appropriate.
Do you have any history with HUSTLER?
I met Larry Flynt one time. [LFP-published music periodical] RIP Magazine was in the same building as Larry Flynt’s office on Wilshire. We’ve done numerous records out there in L.A. and after my drum tracks were done, I would get bored and look for places to hang out. I went to see Lonn Friend, who ran RIP, and Lonn asked, “Do you want to meet Larry Flynt?” I said, “Yeah!” We went to Larry’s office and when you opened the door it was just black. There were no lights on. And there he was! It was Larry Flynt! The history of the guy. Only in America!
