Just another Jewish latchkey kid living in a cramped apartment in Queens with his mother and brother, Scott Ian occupied his time by reading comic books, skateboarding, and watching horror movies. However, after hearing “Rock and Roll All Nite” by chance on the radio, and seeing KISS live at Madison Square Garden in the late seventies, he knew he wouldn’t rest until he had tasted the limelight for himself. After cutting his teeth on Iron Maiden and Motörhead licks, Scott Ian and Anthrax would pioneer the hard-hitting, break-neck sound of the Thrash metal movement alongside friends and fellow metalheads in Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth, who would eventually all play together on the legendary Big Four Tour.
Making Anthrax into the metal icon it is today was far from smooth sailing for Ian. While lineup changes are nothing new, very few bands can boast losing as many vocalists while still managing to stay on the road. In I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy from Anthrax, Scott Ian offers a candid look at the trials he had to overcome in his personal life and the turbulent rise of Anthrax. His story includes two failed marriages, broken contracts, and being dropped from a label, leaving an entire album dead in the water. However, Ian also reflects on the happier moments: backstage paintball wars with Slayer, drinking lessons from Dimebag Darrell, and marrying Meat Loaf’s daughter.
Ian also covers the formation and surprising success of Stormtroopers of Death, which started as an inside joke but ended in a world tour; the groundbreaking tour with Public Enemy, which played a part in the later development of the “rap metal” genre; and producing an album with Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman. A book that shows the talent and tenacity it took for one long-haired kid to go from sitting on a couch to playing a packed Yankee Stadium, I’m the Man reveals what legends were like offstage and captures the heyday of Thrash metal in the process.