Anthrax’s Scott Ian recently joined a fan Q&A and disclosed that he received no payment for the ‘Game of Thrones’ video, released in 2019.
Besides Ian, the video also featured musicians like Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, and Brad Paisley. They all played guitars from Fender’s Sigil Collection. After explaining that they didn’t get to keep the guitars they used, he continued:
“And then I’ll let you in on a little secret: so a couple of weeks later, we all get a very nice email from Fender… And I have nothing bad to say about Fender. I play Jackson guitars and EVH amps; it’s all under the Fender umbrella, and they’ve treated me very fantastically over the years.”
The guitarist then detailed the email he got from Fender:
“And we all get this very nice email about how many millions of views this thing has gotten, and how many of these custom very expensive, very expensive, like… I think the Lannister one was like 40 grand or something to have built.”
Scott also revealed the text he received from Bettencourt, explaining:
“So I get a text from Nuno, not five minutes after these emails — they obviously emailed everybody involved at the same time — and he’s like, ‘These mother… — excuse my language — these motherf*ckers’, he goes, ‘I just did the math, they made about 9 million dollars on the f*cking video we made, and they couldn’t even give us a guitar!’ And I’m like, ‘Hey, brother, you’re preaching to the choir, I’m with you.’ Again, I love Fender, but dammit, I want one of those.”
The Fender collection included three models: the House Stark Telecaster, the House Lannister Jaguar, and the House Targaryen Stratocaster. These guitars were individually handcrafted by Ron Thorn, the Principal Master Builder at Fender Custom Shop, and were made to order. Their prices ranged from $25,000 for the House Stark Telecaster, $30,000 for the House Lannister Jaguar, to $35,000 for the House Targaryen Stratocaster.
In addition to the video he played on, Ian also embraced the world of Westeros by turning into a White Walker. On his Bloodworks podcast, he got dressed up in makeup and costume. You can see his transformation here.
Below, you can watch both his fan Q&A and the ‘Game of Thrones’ video.
