Scott Ian Blog

Pre-order the CD here: http://gomerch.com/thedamnedthings/

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Totally insane crowd in Chile

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Hey how are ya??

If you haven’t already registered to win the trip for 2 to see Anthrax and many more at Sonisphere UK July 31, do it now!

www.scottiansendmetosonisphere.com

Just download and create a new account, then you’ll be ready to play. It’s free, no deposit needed. The password for the tournament is Apollo. You’ll need that to register to play.

If you already have a UB or AP account, just log in before 7PM EST on June 30 and use the password Apollo to register.

Here’s some instructions on how to find the tourney for those of you that have never played before:

And if you’ve never played, so what! It’s free, beginner’s luck can go a long way.

And remember, if you knock me out you win one of my guitars!!!

There’s also 2K in prize money for places 2-65.

Cheers,

Scott

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Do you like free trips to London?

Do you like free trips to London with a guest and a 5 star hotel to stay at?

Do you like free trips to London with a guest and a 5 star hotel to stay at where me and Anthrax are staying?

Do you like free trips to London with a guest and a 5 star hotel to stay at where me and Anthrax are staying and backstage passes to the Sonisphere Festival?

Well then today is your lucky day because I can make this happen for you. How?
So easy and most importantly, it’s FREE.

The Scott Ian send me to Sonisphere contest is up and running and the grand prize is an all expenses paid trip for 2 to London to see Anthrax and a ton of other bands at the Sonisphere Festival. We’ll get you to London, we’ll get you to the festival, we’ll get you backstage where you’ll be hanging out with the bands. Sick!!
And how do you win this? Playing poker of course. Whether you’re a pro or an absolute beginner, this is open to everyone and once again, it’s FREE.
Go to www.scottiansendmetosonisphere.com and click on the Download link. That will take you to UB.com where you set up an account. No deposit is needed. Just sign up, get your username and you’re ready. The tournament is happening on June 30 at 7PM EST. There’s also $2000 in cash and prizes for the people that finish #2-#65. But the grand prize…..a trip to London, that’s AMAZING.
2 days before the tournament on June 28 a password will be released via Twitter. You’ll use that password to register for the tourney. Once again it’s all free. I know this may be confusing to some of you if you’ve never played poker online before but I promise all the details and steps will be laid out for you here and you can follow me on Twitter or follow @ultimate_bet.
It’s easy, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and it’s free!
Cheers,
Scott

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Hello my friends , it’s been a while. I’ve been around the world six times since we last met and my head is spinning. Nothing new for me. What’s new is I am actually home right now at my new house. We moved in at the end of March and I’ve been here a total of 10 days. I’ve got three more days here and then I’m off to NYC, Europe and then of course Vegas for the WSOP.
I am bummed that I won’t be in Vegas the whole time but my alternative is pretty sweet. I’m going to be on tour with Anthrax as part of the Big Four tour with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. It’s the first time the four of us have ever played together. These will be the biggest shows I have ever played, 50-100K people expected. If you’ve never seen 100K people headbanging, moshing, throwing the horns etc etc, you should. It’s unbelievable. If you’re in Europe in June, here’s the dates: http://www.sonispherefestivals.com/
Also, if you’re not in Europe and you want to see this we are going to be live on the big screen on June 22 worldwide. We are beaming the show to movie theaters all over the world from Sofia Bulgaria. How sick is that. Here’s a link to theaters and tickets: http://www.thebigfourlive.com/
Just click on your country, click on buy tickets and it will show you all the theaters it’s going to play in. Sneak in some beer, grab some popcorn and come bang your heads with us!
I’ll be hitting the main event pretty much right after these shows so I will be in a killer mind set for it. It’s going to be a great summer.
See you in Vegas or somewhere around the globe.
Cheers,
Scott

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I know that it has nothing to do with poker, but I had to share the video of this mosh pit in Loud Park, Tokyo. Good Times!

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“Beer, the cause of and solution to, all life’s problems.”

That quote is from one of the world’s most famous philosophers; Homer Simpson.

And who better to take advice from? If I would’ve known this as a teenager life would have been so much easier!
My relationship with booze is an odd one. In the throes of my youth booze was what my mom drank before she would turn into the Wolfman and break my G.I. Joe stuff and howl at the world. She’s since worked all of that out and we get along fine. Love you mom! As a post-Bar Mitzvah-now you’re a man without a clue (with that never-been-shaved dirty upper lip) at 14 in NYC in the 70’s, my first forays into drinking were clumsy and strange. My friends and I would forage through our parent’s liquor/drug supplies and imbibe on the city bus at eight in the morning on the way to school. There would be crappy weed (although at the time what did we know?) and some idiot would always bring cough medicine with codeine or a random pill. I stayed away from this stuff. I later found out that the pills were Quaaludes. The real Rorer 714 Ludes of legend. I never tried one because the guys that were taking pills were already known as the “burn-outs.” 14-15 year-olds sleepwalking through junior high listening to the Dead was way to mellow for me man.

The booze usually showed up in a Tupperware container. I would steal my moms Chivas Regal and pour it into a plastic salad bowl and put it in my backpack. Drinking straight Scotch at eight in the morning on a bumpy city bus packed with kids from vinegar-scented Tupperware was the perfect way to teach me not to drink. The few times I tried beer, good’ol brands like Rheingold and Schlitz, it tasted like the dank smell of the old-man bars in my neighborhood where the fathers of my friends would drink from their failure mugs until it was time to go home and be dad. And by be dad I mean pass out on the couch in a dirty wife-beater (literally) and don’t make any fucking noise or you’ll catch a serious beating!!! Yay beer! I tasted all that from just a few sips. My palate was very advanced even at such a young age.
On my eighteenth (that was the legal age then) birthday I drank so many Screwdrivers (Popov Vodka and Tropicana) I puked on the girl I was making out with, puked all over my friend Richie’s bathroom and ended up with alcohol poisoning.

“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”
Ernest Hemingway

I spent the rest of the 1980’s sober. So when I say my relationship is an odd one it’s because I started my band Anthrax in 1981 and through all those formative and then insane years, I wasn’t drinking. People think I must have been out of my mind back then when it was the absolute opposite. I wasn’t straight-edge by any means I just didn’t like booze. All of my friends in other bands were maniacal drinkers and I would once in a while have a few drinks, mainly the far superior beers when we were on tour in Europe, but it would always end up with me feeling like ass. I didn’t see the upside.

In the early nineties I drank socially, weak tasteless Vodka drinks that did nothing more than give me a headache and acid reflux. I tried the Martini thing. That ended badly and Gin holds a grudge. Hanging out in NYC clubs that were then the Tao’s, Pure, and Bungalow 8’s of today it was a time filled with superficial experiences of the highest order and I never made any connection to going out and drinking and actually having fun. I just didn’t get booze.
And then the epiphany…

“There can’t be good living where there is not good drinking.”
Ben Franklin

In 1993 we had a tour manager named Michael “Curly” Jobson who was a wine aficionado. He introduced me to the first alcoholic beverage that tasted like I always imagined it should taste. White Burgundy. Pouilly Fuisse to be exact. It tasted exciting, arousing, fresh, timeless, and most importantly, it tasted good. Wine to me was Manischewitz Heavy Malaga. Wine was something to be tolerated at Passover to keep my grandfather happy. Not any more. Curly opened the door for me into a new world and I never looked back.

I dove into wine headfirst. I learned by drinking. Burgundy, Bordeaux, Riesling, expanding my palate I crossed the sea to California and drank my way through Napa and Sonoma, finding a particular affection for Pinot Noir (makes sense considering it was Burgundy that started it). I crossed the ocean again and started an affair with Italian reds that still burns red-hot today. Would it be too much to name my first-born Gaja? I lost my soul to a bottle of 1989 Chateau d ‘Yquem. Sauternes were truly baby angel’s tears gathered by wizards. There’s no other explanation.

From wine I moved into beer, discovering the glory of Guinness which when properly poured is all that is right in the world in a glass.
My next epiphany came in 1997 when Anthrax and Pantera toured together. Pantera were the opposite of what Anthrax was drinking-wise. These guys were notorious drinkers on a level frequented by few and survived by fewer. Their drummer Vinnie Paul had (and still has) a swimming pool in the shape of a Crown Royal bottle. The hot tub is the top and the bottom of the pool is painted exactly like a Crown Royal label except it says “the official drink of Vinnie Paul.” Commitment. Crown was the drink of choice and they created a shot called the Black Tooth Grin. Shot of Crown, splash of Coke. When you were with Pantera you drank. You drank Black Tooth’s. Their guitar player Dimebag Darrell, bless his amazing soul, would pour them ten at a time and had a litany of rules that went along with drinking them, the most important being “drink it or wear it.” I was not a whisky drinker. Nor was I a whisky wearer so it was a bit of a conundrum for me. Spirits were not my thing. I considered myself a wine snob and above the rabble of cheap booze.

Not for long. The first Black Tooth went down so easy and the next 7000 or so on that tour even easier. I came home after two months of Bukowskian excess (without the whores and ponies), dried out for a week and started my courtship with whisky. Crown Royal quickly gave way to the best small-batch Bourbons and single-malt Scotch’s although I still get my pull on a Black Tooth frequently.

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”
Frank Sinatra

As I sit here typing this I’m sipping a Ron Zacapa 23 year-old Rum from Guatemala. It goes down like melted butter with honey and it will fuck you up.

“They talk of my drinking but never my thirst.”
Scottish Proverb

Over the last eleven years my palate has made friends with all booze (except Gin, oh why do you mock me so Gin??) and I’m always on the hunt for something new. I’ve been on a crazy Amaro kick of late. The mysterious Italian digestive that’s like Jager and Absinthe but it tastes nicer and the blackouts add so much excitement!!
Don’t drink and drive my friends.
Cheers,
Scott

Play poker with Scott at Ultimate Bet
www.ultimatebet.com/scott-ian/?ubAffilID=73329

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