Bello's bass hero father figures

Frank Bello says the fact he looked up to his bass playing heroes as father figures meant he was only ever going down one career path.

The Anthrax bassist grew up without a father and instead saw Steve Harris, Geddy Lee and Geezer Butler as surrogate dads. With the Maiden, Rush and Sabbath stars as childhood heroes, Bello says he was never going to be anything else other than a bassist.

He tells Ultimate Guitar: “My heroes were bass players. I guess everybody needs somebody to look up to. I didn’t grow up with a dad so my heroes or father figures, guys to look up to that gave me a goal were my bass player guys.

“Steve Harris, Geddy Lee and Geezer Butler. Those guys made me want to play bass. And as far getting onstage, Kiss made me want to play onstage. So it was all these things. I really am very, very thankful for having music in my life because it’s pretty easy to go a different way.

“I got locked into music early and I’m very thankful for my family. I went that way because they were very supportive.”

Bello’s younger brother Anthony was murdered in New York in 1996 and the crime has never been solved. Frank has an image of his brother tattooed on his arm.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.