DAN AND HIS WIFE CANDI HAVE TWIN SONS WITH AUTISM WHO ARE THE SUBJECT OF A DOCUMENTARY FOR SHEKNOWS.COM
Dan Spitz, founder and former guitar player for Anthrax and current creator of Red Lamb, and his wife Candi as well as their twin four-year-old boys are raising awareness of the life-changing effects of Autism by participating in this Sunday’s Walk Now for Autism Speaks at City Commons in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“Autism is what makes our children special, we do not see it as a disability. They are beautiful, intelligent, silly and we love that they see the world differently,” explains Candi Spitz, who is also on the committee for Autism Speaks. The couple’s four-year-old twin songs Autism diagnosis has given the Spitz family a mission to do all they can for not only their children but the 1 in 110 U.S. children currently diagnosed with the disease.
The entire Spitz family will be walking at the Mar. 4 Walk Now For Autism Speaks event and will film portions of a documentary on their sons at the event. The currently untitled documentary is being produced by SheKnows.com, a prominent parenting website that won both a 2010 and 2011 OMMA Award for Excellence.
Dan Spitz formed Red Lamb in 2010 and recently released a self-titled debut album co-produced with Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). Spitz and Mustaine also co-wrote the song “Puzzle Box” for the release; a video for the track is in the works with footage from Sunday’s event being included. Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) oversaw all programming for the album. Vrenna and Spitz are also working on a side project with more details to be announced shortly. The first video from Red Lamb is for the song “The Cage,” which can be seen here:
INTERVIEW, QUESTIONS, AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA
TRANSCRIPTION BY JARNO HUOVILA
It’s been over a decade since Dan Spitz last visited Finland with Anthrax. The band had just released their highly praised album SOUND OF WHITE NOISE and they were doing their first tour with new singer John Bush. Less than two years later, Dan decided to quit, not only Anthrax, but the whole music business. He started to study new occupation in Switzerland. After years of of hard work he became a master clockmaker and he started his own successful business in the USA. In the spring of 2005, the classic line-up of Anthrax (Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna and Dan) announced that they will be doing a reunion and since then the band have been constantly touring across the globe.
Anthrax did two sold out shows in Finland last April and right before the Tampere show Dan sat down with us and we talked about the reunion, religion, early days, departures, watch making, and other interesting things. Read no further unless you’re prepared for the truth as told to us by Anthrax’s lead guitarist Dan Spitz. The purpose of this interview is to set the record straight, to answer questions that many fans, ourselves included, have been wondering about. By no means is anything in this interview to be taken out of context or used to stir up bullshit.
If on the other hand you would, for once, like to read some straight and honest answers, or just learn some interesting and fun facts about the history of the legendary thrash pioneers that are Anthrax, then read on. You can’t make up stuff like this. As a live band, Anthrax, as it exists right now, is a force to be reckoned with. The camaraderie inside the band seems genuine. Our hats are off for the whole band also for their exemplary treatment of their fans.
