Anthrax Calls on Mike Heller Hours Before San Antonio Set as Charlie Benante Sits Out
The Raven drummer had only a few hours to chart the songs and get behind the kit for Anthrax's stadium set.
Anthrax turned to San Antonio-based drummer Mike Heller for an emergency assist Tuesday night after longtime drummer Charlie Benante was unable to perform at the Alamodome.
Heller, the current drummer for Raven and a former member of Fear Factory, received the call at approximately 2 p.m. on Sept. 29 — only a few hours before Anthrax was scheduled to open for Megadeth and Iron Maiden on the latter's Run for Your Lives World Tour.
The request came through Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who asked Heller if he was in town, knew any Anthrax songs and could cover the show. There was one significant problem: Heller had never learned the band's material on drums.
Heller quickly charted two songs before racing to the Alamodome, where traffic and confusion over parking further reduced his preparation time. Once inside, he met with Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna, and Jonathan Donais for less than an hour as the band walked him through the remaining songs and explained how its live arrangements differed from the studio recordings.
He then stepped behind the kit and played the set in front of what he estimated was a crowd of roughly 56,000 people.
"This is a night I will never forget," Heller wrote after the performance, thanking Anthrax and their crew for trusting him with the last-minute assignment. He also credited Verbeuren and Fozzy vocalist Chris Jericho with vouching for him.
Anthrax has not disclosed why Benante was unable to make the San Antonio performance.
Anthrax is currently touring behind Cursum Perficio, the band's twelfth studio album and their first full-length release since 2016's For All Kings. The album arrived Sept. 18 through Megaforce Records in the United States and Nuclear Blast in Europe.
