Back in early September, news came out that Anthrax had to cancel a European tour due to economic issues. In a statement released from the band, they wrote the following:
“Sadly due to ongoing logistical issues and 2022 costs that are out of our control, we have no other option but to cancel the European leg of our upcoming 2022 tour. We will however be coming to the UK as scheduled. Tickets can be refunded at point of purchase.”
Damn, rising inflation has even impacted Anthrax! But in a new interview with Blabbermouth, band bassist Frank Bello spoke to having to cancel this tour and some of the economic issues associated with the tour.
“When was the last time we canceled a European tour? We’ve never done it. The god’s honest truth: Everything budgeting-wise is insane right now. We budgeted it last year and came back to this year with the gas lines and all the shit that’s going on. It was three times the budget. We would have gone into a bad deficit, horrible. And the promoters are saying, ‘It doesn’t make sense for you guys to do it.’ The buses, just life in general. It’s horrible. We were able to salvage the U.K. But people know us. They know we’ll be back. We love it there. I can’t wait to go back. It’s just a bummer that life is in the way of metal. [Laughs] What’s going on in the world is in the way of metal and making people feel good with our music.
“We’ve been away. We just did the Black Label Society and Hatebreed tour and we got the taste back. We were looking forward to the next leg, the U.K., then right into Europe. We’re used to touring a few months at a time. Then our manager comes, ‘We can’t do this with the accounting.’ It’s like, ‘What? How did this happen?’ Then you read the papers and you understand. It’s terrible.”
That absolutely sucks to hear; here is hoping that for our friends over in Europe will get to see Anthrax soon.