Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian recently mocked bands that use fake farewell tours to trick fans into buying tickets, sharing his thoughts during an appearance on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk.
Ian explained whether Anthrax has any plans to call it quits in the near future and took a jab at other artists who market their tours as final only to continue touring later.
“Don’t you think, if that was the plan, we would play that card, like so many other bands have, and say, ‘This is it. Look, the album title says it. Our journey is over, so you better buy this one and you better go buy tickets,'” Ian said. “We’re only gonna tour now and do this for five more years, and then make an excuse why, ‘Well, we said the journey was over, but it was only kind of over. So now we’re making another record.'”
He also addressed the common financial justification often used by bands when they decide to return from retirement.
“You know the line everybody hears — it gets thrown around all the time,” Ian continued. “It’s one of those ultimate lines you hear all the time. ‘You know you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.’ That’s what you hear all the time. I’m not talking about us, because we haven’t said we’re retiring, but I hear about the other bands that have said they’re retiring, and then they come back, and it’s always, ‘Well, they were leaving a lot of money on the table.'”
Anthrax currently has no plans to retire. Ian’s remarks make clear that his criticism is aimed at other acts rather than his own band, and his position is backed up by the group’s current schedule. Ian confirmed in the interview that Anthrax has no intention of stepping away anytime soon, telling listeners that there are no retirement plans in the near future.
“There are no retirement plans in the near future,” Ian said.
The band’s activity reinforces that message. Anthrax completed an 18-show European run in November and December 2024 with Kreator and Testament, and Concertful shows the group performing a major London show at Finsbury Park in July 2025 alongside Slayer, Mastodon, Amon Amarth and Hatebreed. Rather than winding down, Anthrax is preparing new material as well. The band’s new album Cursum Perficio was released on September 18, marking its first studio record in more than a decade, with a tour expected to follow.
Ian’s criticism echoes a long history of rock acts that have announced farewells and then returned to the stage. Kiss launched its first farewell tour in 2000 before hitting the road again, while Mötley Crüe went so far as to sign a “Cessation of Touring Agreement” in January 2014 to guarantee fans that their farewell run would be their last — a promise the band later reversed.
The pattern extends well beyond those two bands. The 2010s saw Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Kiss and Slayer all begin or complete extended “long goodbye” runs, with Ozzy and Kiss doing it for a second time, while Judas Priest and the Scorpions publicly announced retirement plans before pulling back. That track record is exactly what Ian appears to be mocking, since comeback tours are routinely framed as a response to money left on the table rather than a genuine change of heart.
