Scott Ian


Scott Ian is an American musician, author and spoken word storyteller best known as the rhythm guitarist, backing and additional lead vocalist, and the only original remaining member of the thrash metal band Anthrax. He writes the lyrics on all their albums. Ian is the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death for which he is also the lyricist. He has hosted The Rock Show on VH1 and has appeared on VH1's I Love the... series, , and SuperGroup. Ian is also the rhythm guitarist for the metal band the Damned Things, and played with experimental band Mr. Bungle for seven reunion shows in 2020.

Biography

Early life

Scott Ian Rosenfeld was born to a Jewish family in the Bayside section of the New York City borough of Queens; he has a younger brother named Jason and a half-brother named Sean. Ian attended Bayside High School, with classmates Dan Lilker and Neil Turbin.
Witnessing KISS live at Madison Square Garden in 1977 made a huge impact on Ian, who has been vocal about his love for the band. Ian went on to be influenced by British heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Judas Priest, as well as the punk rock band Ramones. The musical style of his playing and songwriting including fast alternate picking was also largely influenced by the German metal band Accept.
Ian states that Malcolm Young, Rudolf Schenker, and Johnny Ramone were his biggest influences to pursue rhythm guitar.

Anthrax

As a founding member of Anthrax, Ian helped to create thrash metal in the mid-1980s alongside Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica. Ian came up with the idea to collaborate with the rap group Public Enemy, covering their song "Bring the Noise" in 1991. This has been considered a foundational recording of the rap/rock genre. In 2005, Ian was invited by Chuck D of Public Enemy to perform "Bring the Noise" with them as part of their induction into VH1's Hip Hop Honors Hall of Fame. Ian also joined Public Enemy on the Rock the Bells tour in 2007.

Other ventures

Ian began working with music television channel VH1 in 2001, when he was asked to host the program Rock Show. During his 48 episodes as host, Ian interviewed guests including Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Ted Nugent, Stone Temple Pilots, Megadeth, 3 Doors Down, Sevendust, Tenacious D, and the Cult. The musician was a regular commentator on various VH1 shows including the I Love the... series, 100 Most Metal Moments, Awesomely Bad Number One Songs, When Metallica Ruled the World, and episodes of VH1's Behind the Music featuring Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax. Ian was prominently featured in VH1's History of Heavy Metal. In June 2006, Ian starred in the VH1 reality series SuperGroup with Ted Nugent, Sebastian Bach, Jason Bonham and Evan Seinfeld.
Ian plays guitar in the group Pearl, who toured with Velvet Revolver and Meat Loaf. Pearl's debut album was released on January 19, 2010, through Megaforce Records. Ian performed with Pearl on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 20, 2010.
In 2008, DC Comics asked Ian to write a two-issue prestige-format comics series for the character Lobo. Books one and two of Lobo: Highway to Hell were released in November and December 2009.
In 2008, Ian signed with UltimateBet, the third largest internet gaming site in the world, as one of their online professional players. Ian joined professional poker players Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke as one of Ultimate Bet's star pros. He won Ultimate Bet's premier Sunday 200K tournament and cashed in in 2010's WSOP main event by finishing 634th out of 6494 players.
In 2010, Ian joined the metal supergroup the Damned Things, which released their first album on December 14, 2010. On June 21, 2011, Ian's wife gave birth to the couple's first child, Revel, thus forcing Ian to briefly depart from Anthrax's tour. Andreas Kisser of Sepultura filled in for Scott on guitar during Scott's absence.
Ian provided voice work for the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, as the character "Some Guy Who Snuck Into Dethklok's Trunk Last Night When They Were Pretty Hammered" in the "Season III: The Dead Man" opening episode "Renovationklok", as well as providing guest voices in the episode "Tributeklok".
Ian did a spoken word tour entitled Speaking Words, starting in May 2013, in the UK.
In 2014, he and his wife joined former members of Mother Superior to form Motor Sister. They released their debut album, Ride, on March 9, 2015.
He also toured Europe and North American with a solo spoken word storytelling act called "Speaking Words" that year.
In 2015, De Capo Press published Ian's memoir titled I'm the Man: The Story of That Guy from Anthrax.
On December 12, 2017 Scott Ian released his book Access All Areas: Stories from a Hard Rock Life which is a follow up to his first autobiographical book I’m The Man, published November 24, 2015. The book features stories about his life including not only his adventures with Anthrax, but also with other musical celebrities such as Madonna and David Lee Roth.
In 2018, he toured Australia on another spoken word act called "‘Spoken Word Stories by Scottie’" also known as "One Man Riot".

Personal life

Ian was formerly married to his high school girlfriend, Marge Ginsburg, in the 1980s; the marriage ended in divorce.
In 2011, he married singer Pearl Aday, adopted daughter of singer Meat Loaf. They have one child.
Ian is a New York Yankees fan and enjoys snowboarding. He plays poker and is an online pro at UltimateBet; he finished 637th in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, taking home $21,365. He is also a Battlestar Galactica fan and has posted numerous blogs about the show, even making an appearance for the red carpet series finale; he also played guitar on the soundtrack of The Plan, a made-for-DVD Battlestar Galactica film. He is a fan of the television series Doctor Who, as seen in "The Best of the Doctor," which aired August 13, 2011 on BBC America. Ian is a fan of hip hop and rap music, particularly Public Enemy and Run-DMC. He was known to wear Public Enemy shirts while performing gigs in the late 1980s. He has also said Run-DMC came out with the same aggression that metal bands played with, and that Run-DMC was the group that put rap on the map.
He co-owned a hard rock bar called Dead Man's Hand in Las Vegas with Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains.
Ian is an avid fan of Stephen King and has collected first and limited editions of his books. A lot of Anthrax's songs were inspired by King's stories such as Among the Living, A Skeleton In The Closet, Lone Justice and Breathing Lightning.

Discography

With Anthrax

With Stormtroopers of Death

Stormtroopers of Death videos

Collaborations

Scott Ian uses his signature Jackson guitars and signature Randall MTS Series heads and cabinets. He is known to use Dimebag Darrell tribute Deans and previously endorsed Washburn. During the mid 1980s, he used ESP guitars for a while, also getting Kirk Hammett his ESP endorsement. Scott uses a DigiTech signature Black 13 distortion pedal, and a DigiTech chorus pedal for his clean sounds. Many of his guitars have been equipped with custom made Seymour Duncan "El Diablo" pickups, but can also be seen using standard Seymour Duncan SH-4's and '59 pickups on several guitars, including his newest signature Jackson. He also recently began endorsing Evertune bridges.
In late 2009, Ian ended his endorsement with Washburn and went back to Jackson guitars. He was seen using custom made Soloist and Randy Rhoads guitars during the 2009 Sonisphere Festival. On March 27, 2010, Ian announced the production of a new signature guitar by Jackson via Twitter and YouTube. He said it would be based on his Soloist from 1987. It has a silverburst finish, a single Seymour Duncan J.B. humbucker, lightning bolt inlays, and a string-thru/tune-o-matic bridge. A dual-humbucker version with a Floyd Rose tremolo will also be released. He stated, "I am so stoked to be back with Jackson." He was seen using this guitar while playing with Brian Posehn at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards and with the Damned Things at the 2011 Download Festival.

Guitars

In Rack Case:
On Floor:
Other: