Two shows into the end of a North American tour, Anthrax played without their drummer twice, once with a fill in found the same afternoon and once with a second one in Mexico City. Charlie Benante has now said what kept him off both.
Speaking to Robert Cavuoto of Metal Rules, in an account carried by Blabbermouth, he said it started as something minor. He got sick after the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville and heard that plenty of other people there did too, though it never became a full illness. The band played two stadium dates with Iron Maiden in Los Angeles and a club show at The Roxy in between, and by the end of that week he felt bad again.
What arrived in San Antonio was something else. He described waking with the craziest version of vertigo he has known, like being on the worst rocking ship in the ocean, unable to function or even lift his head, let alone pick up a pair of sticks. A doctor came to the room and told him not to board a plane for Mexico City, because the elevation there would make it worse.
So the Alamodome and Estadio GNP Seguros went ahead without him. He called it the worst thing he has ever felt, said he was bummed to lose a Mexico City night in particular, and that he is much better now.