The Band T-Shirt Charlie Benante’s Mom Made Him Return as a Kid

When Anthrax take the stage at Black Sabbath’s reunion concert this summer, it will serve as a full-circle moment for drummer Charlie Benante, whose mother once banished the band’s merchandise from their home when he was a kid.

The star-studded “Back to the Beginning” show will take place on July 5 in Black Sabbath’s hometown of Birmingham, England. It will double as Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert and feature rock and metal royalty including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Rival Sons and more.

Anthrax last shared a bill with Black Sabbath at the 2005 Download Festival, and the band members expressed their personal and professional admiration for the metal godfathers in a new joint statement.

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Why Was Charlie Benante Forbidden to Have a Black Sabbath Shirt?

“I’m a huge Black Sabbath fan,” Benante explained, “and Black Sabbath was so, so instrumental in the sound of Anthrax back in the day. Back in ’86, when we were working on our third album, we wanted to do a B-side of a Black Sabbath song. ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ was the song that we chose. We did it as a B-side, we played it live, and it became a big thing for us.”

Benante didn’t always find himself in an environment that was receptive to the metal giants. “Growing up Catholic, in a Catholic household, my mom did not appreciate Black Sabbath,” he continued. “One day when I came home, my sister took me to the record store and I got one of those iron-on Black Sabbath t-shirts, it was the cover of ‘Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath.’ I got it home, my mother saw it, she made my sister take me back to the store and return it. She would not have it in the house because it had the ‘666’ on it. I was still a Black Sabbath fan so I had to kind of keep it hidden from my mom.”

READ MORE: The 20 Ozzy Osbourne-Era black Sabbath Songs Never Played Live

Other Anthrax Members Share Love for Black Sabbath

The other members of Anthrax were equally excited to join the “Back to the Beginning” lineup. Guitarist Scott Ian fondly recalled discovering the band’s self-titled debut when he was 8 years old, thanks to his teenage uncle.

“Everyone knows how that record starts, with the sound effects and the rain and the bell, and then the band kicks in … there’s nothing like it,” Ian raved. “At that point in time, [it was] the scariest, heaviest thing I’d ever heard in my life. Maybe still to this day, when that song ‘Black Sabbath’ kicks in, there’s just nothing like it. I started playing guitar when I was about 10, and Tony [Iommi] was definitely an influence, so I’d try and figure out how to play ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Paranoid.’ Just listening to the records, Tony Iommi was essentially my guitar teacher.”

Frontman Joey Belladonna also looked back on Anthrax’s early days sharing the stage with Black Sabbath. “We toured with Sabbath on the ’86 tour, and it was so electric,” he said. “That was a huge tour for us, and we were just overwhelmed to be part of it. That Anthrax was asked to be part of Sabbath’s ‘Back to the Beginning’ concert is quite a big honor.”

Hear Anthrax’s Cover of ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’