Anthrax’s Charlie Benante: How ‘Wipe Out!’ and Accept Influenced Him
On our ongoing video series Gear Factor, we've focused quite a bit on guitar players, but for this installment, we're going to take a closer look at one of metal's top drummers -- Anthrax's Charlie Benante. The Music Experience's Squiggy recently chatted with the legendary stickman about how he got his start.
He discussed how he started playing double bass drums. “I didn’t start playing another kick drum until around ’83. I was basically just single kicking and doing that type of stuff, and then I got another kick drum. It was only because of like Motorhead and Judas Priest records. I just …. I wanted to play like that,” says Benante.
That style also paid off, as he recalls, “There was a band called Accept … and they had a song called ‘Fast as a Shark,’ and at the time it was the fastest double kick that I ever heard and it was like, ‘Bam. That’s what I want to do.’” Benante says that song was one of the first he'd ever played with Anthrax's Scott Ian and Dan Lilker that resulted in an invite to join the group.
See more of Squiggy's Gear Factor chat with Anthrax's Charlie Benante in the video above, and look for the drummer behind the kit with Anthrax mostly playing shows in Europe for the remainder of the year. See the group's stops here.
Where Does Charlie Benante Rank Among the Top 66 Hard Rock + Metal Drummers of All Time?