Digital Playlist: Scott Ian

Who: Scott Ian, guitarist and founding member of Anthrax and The Damned Things.

What: The top five most played songs ever in his iTunes account (as of spring 2011).

Where: About to invade Yankee Stadium with the Big 4 of thrash.

Latest Release: Anthrax’s Worship Music.







1.

STEEL PANTHER “Community Property” — “I just think they’re actually really funny. Comedy is super hard to do, especially in the context of music, and Steel Panther just nail it. They’re fucking hilarious and great players. I hate the music they play inherently. It’s music that I never liked in the Eighties, and I actually like when Steel Panther play those songs. They took a genre of music that I couldn’t stand and made it enjoyable for me. They started around 2000 as Metal Shop, and I used to see them at the Viper Room where they first started. They were great then, and they’re still great now. I love the fact that they get to do originals now. It’s awesome that people are getting into their original stuff.”

2.

PANTERA “Cowboys From Hell” — “I think it goes without saying. It’s Pantera, and it’s a great song.”

3.

MOTORHEAD “Ace Of Spades” — “Of course I love that song, but I think the reason this is so high up [on the list] is because if I arrange the songs in alphabetical order, that’s the first song that comes up. Sometimes it just plays automatically. I’ll put it in there anyway because I fucking love Motörhead, and it’s my favorite Motörhead song.”

4.

FAITH NO MORE “Ashes To Ashes” — “It’s off of, which was their last album. I was a fan of theirs from day one till the end, and I just think it’s a completely overlooked record by people in the States. In the rest of the world they remained huge their whole career, but in the States people didn’t really care after The Real Thing because he didn’t have another hit like they had with ‘Epic’. But to me, ‘Ashes To Ashes’ is such a beautiful song — the melody, the heaviness, it encompasses everything that I love about that band.”

5.





THIN LIZZY “Bad Reputation” — “I don’t know why that particular one actually because there other Lizzy songs that I like more than that, but in iTunes that’s the next song [on my Top 5]. I like the drumming. [laughs] It’s definitely an air drum song.”