The Jon and Marsha Zazula Private Collection Auction 2022

August 27, 2022

Backstage Auctions, Inc. is honored to present The Jon & Marsha Zazula Private Collection memorabilia auction. The Zazulas, who are inducted in the Hall of Heavy Metal History, founded Megaforce Records and cemented their position as the de-facto music label in America for heavy metal. From their humble beginnings at the Indoor Market along Route 18 in East Brunswick, New Jersey to their global recognition, awards and various inductions, the "Z's" were trailblazers in the metal arena.  This auction is a celebration of the life and careers of Jon and Marsha Zazula.

Auction Dates: September 2 - 11, 2022 / A special VIP Preview of the entire auction catalog will begin on August 27th. Register today for your VIP All Access Pass. 

Lauded with accolades, the Zazulas left the world with an indelible imprint of fierce independence and the introduction of genre-defining music. They believed in a little band from San Francisco by the name of Metallica and helped them become the biggest Heavy-Metal band in the world.

They opened the doors for Thrash-Metal and delivered Anthrax, Overkill, Anvil, and Testament. They introduced the American market to the New Wave of British Heavy-Metal by means of Venom and Raven. And if that wasn't monumental enough, they established a flourishing record company – Megaforce Worldwide – and a strong management operation – Crazed Management.

The Zazulas were at the forefront of crossover genres, blending metal with industrial sounds (Ministry), funk (King's X / Mind Funk), punk (M.O.D. / S.O.D.) and grunge (Nudeswirl). They worked with established artists on the next chapter in their careers, such as Ace Frehley and Blue Cheer, ventured out with up-and-coming talent such as Warren Haynes and Bif Naked. Through it all, they remained "The Z's", passionate, dedicated, loyal and above all, approachable.

The Zazula estate has made available a selection of mementos from the private collection of Jon and Marsha. Included are rare photos, concert posters and handbills, promotional items, t-shirts and jackets, record awards, backstage passes and personal mementos from the likes of Metallica, Anthrax, Ace Frehley, Venom, Raven, Ministry, Anvil and more. Further are collectibles from Jon and Marsha’s famous record store "Rockn' Roll Heaven", Megaforce Records and even the Old Bridge Militia. Being kids from the sixties, the auction also features Grateful Dead memorabilia and vintage concert posters, as well as an impressive collection from the animated dark fantasy musical "Nightmare Before Christmas".

Among the many highlights are the following "not to be missed" pieces of music history; the original Anthrax 'Not Man' head, early-day Metallica concert tickets and flyers, the key to Metallica's stolen truck (!), Mercyful Fate's Melissa master reels, Jonny Z's bass used to record Ministry's "Psalm 69" album, original Nudeswirl album cover painting, metal sculptures of Jack Skellington and Sally Seamstress, and a selection of guitars and amps owned and used by Jon Zazula.

Anthrax on the verge

Changing singers on the fly in hopes of 'Spreading The Disease'
By Peter Lindblad

Anthrax's "Spreading The Disease"

Neil Turbin's days with thrash-metal titans Anthrax were tumultuous to say the least.

Tensions between the band and its lead singer in the early- to mid-'80s were always simmering and threatening to boil over. In late summer 1984, the divorce was finalized, leading to a search for a new vocalist.

For a brief time, Anthrax hitched its wagon to former Skid Row singer Matt Fallon. Carl Canedy knew the shotgun marriage wasn't going to work.

"After a week of working with him, he just wasn’t cutting it," said Canedy, drummer for '80s metal hellions The Rods and an executive producer on Anthrax's Armed and Dangerous EP, as well as their classic Spreading The Disease album. "He wasn’t the right fit for the band. And I told the band to get to this next level, this isn’t the guy who’s going to take you there."

Most recently, Canedy was involved in overseeing an archival release of material from his overlooked, pre-Rods band Kelakos called "Uncorked: Rare Tracks From a Vintage '70s Band." An East Coast '70s act whose classic-rock sound had more in common with Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Santana and the Allman Brothers than the Judas Priests and Black Sabbaths of the world, Kelakos wouldn't survive long, their music perhaps too diverse for a major label to stomach.

In the mid-'80s, Canedy was part of a team trying to shepherd Anthrax into major-label stardom. He believed it was only a matter of time before they broke it big.

"Having worked with a lot of bands, and having gone through the process of wanting to be signed to a major label and what it takes and how focused you have to be, I saw that in spades with them," said Canedy. "Those guys were laser focused and super talented. I remember telling (drummer) Charlie (Benante), 'You’re going to be a Modern Drummer guy. People are going to fall in love with your playing."

Anthrax had a lot going for them, especially with manager Jon Zazula, aka Jonny Z, in their corner. The founder of Megaforce Records, Zazula was consulted about the issue with the lead vocalist. Quickly and decisively, a decision was made.

"I told the band, and they said, 'Get Johnny on the phone,' and I called Johnny Z, their manager and record label [guy], and I told Johnny what was up, and he said, 'Put the band on the phone,'" recalls Canedy. "And they went into the conference room, and five minutes later, they put me back on the phone with Johnny, and he said, 'He’s over.' He said, 'I’m putting him on the bus.' And that was it, and they made that decision. They were doing their third record, and there was no singer. It was incredible … it was as brave a move as I’ve ever seen, but they knew. They understood what I was saying, and they did it."

Through friends, Canedy was able to help Anthrax find Joey Belladonna, and the rest was history. "And he came in and it was just a great fit," said Canedy. "I mean, we knew right away he was the guy."

Anthrax - Armed and Dangerous

Still, the Anthrax camp didn't want to throw Belladonna into the deep end right away, according to Canedy. "Well, Armed and Dangerous was really an EP, and it was done rather quickly and for product for them," remembers Canedy. "And so it was kind of a transition record with Joey in the band. It was them trying to gel. It kind of got them a sense of who they were with Joey, so they could make the album, Spreading the Disease."

To Canedy, the die was cast. Anthrax was well on its way to becoming part of thrash's so-called Big Four, and Spreading The Disease put them over the top. Canedy could feel it was Anthrax's time to go to the next level.

"Absolutely. Yeah, we were seeing things happen," said Canedy. "Major labels were paying attention. Jonny had, by that time, Metallica, who was doing very well. Anthrax had already done very well. And then, it was just clear that this was the album that was going to get them to a major label. And we knew that. We were focused on that. We were focused on making sure we were going to get them to that major label."

Mission accomplished, as Spreading The Disease was released on Oct. 30, 1985, through Megaforce Worldwide/Island Records, and the unhinged single "Madhouse" was unleashed. Belladonna wasn't the only newcomer, as Anthrax also brought bassist Frank Bello onboard to replace Dan Lilker. Anthrax's classic lineup was born, and soon they'd break free of the thrash-metal underground.

Metal Evolution - "Thrash"

Metal Evolution: "Thrash" - Episode 106 
Sam Dunn
VH1 Classic

All Access Review:  A-

Squaring off against everything that ‘80s glam metal represented, the soldiers of thrash – glam’s uglier, angrier cousin – wanted to eradicate every trace of makeup, lipstick and hairspray from heavy metal’s dark underworld. Or, as Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine puts it in the “Thrash” installment of Sam Dunn’s “Metal Evolution” documentary series, the androgynous purveyors of glam metal, many of whom looked almost as pretty as the girls they were bedding, were “fleas on the balls of a camel” and thrash “was a flea bomb.”

The strongest of pesticides, thrash almost killed glam metal dead. Grunge would finish the job in the ‘90s. Obviously a fan of one of metal’s most extreme sub-genres, Dunn, author of the acclaimed “Metal A Headbanger’s Journey” documentary, explores the fiery origins and virus-like developments of thrash metal in the latest chapter of “Metal Evolution,” which appeared over New Year’s Eve weekend on VH-1 Classic. Up to this point, Dunn has done a fine job detailing with great care the genealogy of heavy metal. Every piece is rife with riveting interview material, classic live footage and historical fact. With the exuberant enthusiasm of a fan and the intellectual curiosity of an anthropologist, which is what he is, Dunn has dissected the body of and probed into every nook and cranny of that most reviled of all musical forms.

So far, “Metal Evolution” has taken viewers on a loud, crazed journey through all the mayhem and madness metal has produced over the years. Yes, it’s a history lesson, but the scope of Dunn’s work is wide-ranging, studying the influence of classical and jazz on metal, while also investigating the connection between the gritty, early ‘70s Detroit proto-punk sound of The Stooges and the MC5 and confronting the strained relations between English punk and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. And that’s just a small sampling of Dunn’s exhaustive, but never tedious, testimony.

“Thrash” is another winner. Starting off at its birthplace, Soundwave Studios in California’s Bay Area, where Testament is running through a fiery rehearsal, Dunn, through content-rich talks with Mustaine, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, Testament’s Alex Skolnick and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, finds the merging streams of hardcore punk and NWOBHM flowing electricity into thrash’s roiling sea. Taking the energy and spirit of punk and the melodic aggression of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, thrash’s innovators, like Slayer and Exodus, upped the ante.

As Skolnick relates in “Thrash,” musicians like him loved punk’s songs and its undeniable vitality; however, what was missing was musicianship, and they wanted desperately to create something that would challenge their chops. Thrash was it. Heavy and punishing, the riffs raged, flying at unheard-of speeds. And the guttural vocals screamed and growled, spitting out graphically violent lyrical imagery that occasionally touched on war and social issues but more often told stories of serial killers and gruesome deaths. Using this symbiotic relationship as a jumping-off point, Dunn segues into how thundering, high-velocity double-kick drums became the driving force behind Trash. Ulrich and Testament’s Paul Bostaph give all the credit to Motorhead’s Phil Taylor for bringing the double-kick drums into fashion, and Thrash’s young vanguard of drummers took Taylor’s style and gave it a shot of adrenaline. Taylor is one of the surprising stars of Dunn’s “Thrash,” a metal veteran telling his war stories and explaining his absolutely vital contribution to metal, with Dunn hanging on every word.

When the conversation turns to Metallica, Jon Zazula, founder of Megaforce Records, and his wife reveal how their mom-and-pop metal label served as the launching pad for the band that would become Thrash’s version of The Beatles. Metallica’s tale serves as the lynchpin for “Thrash,” as Dunn follows the band from its lowly beginnings on through the explosion of San Francisco’s underground metal scene and into the controversial, MTV-courting “Black” album, which some in the Thrash community saw a betrayal of its values. Dunn and Lombardo make no bones about how they felt. It was treason, but to Dunn’s credit, he shares his feelings with Ulrich, who offers Metallica’s side of things. Ulrich feels that “betrayal” is such an ugly word and that if Metallica had done a rehashing of … And Justice for All, that would have been Metallica selling out. They needed to do the “Black” album to expand their horizons and grow artistically, as Ulrich explains. His reasoning makes perfect sense.

So does Nunn’s storytelling. In less capable hands, “Thrash” could have been a jumbled mess, but he sticks to the philosophy of “Metal Evolution,” and that is to follow each stage of metal’s growth and development to the wherever the story leads. Slayer’s Reign in Blood is treated with awe and respect, and the story behind landmark show at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City that led to major-label deals for Raven, Metallica and, eventually, Anthrax is told with an insider’s perspective.  By the end of “Thrash,” Nunn has traversed Sweden to investigate Thrash’s unlikely revival in the land of ice, snow and Lutherans – the Gothenburg sound, which, after Thrash’s mid-‘90s swoon, which married melody and harmonies with blinding speed and crushing heaviness in bands like In Flames – and Richmond, Va.’s burgeoning scene, which roared to life because of Lamb of God. Though previous segments of “Metal Evolution” – including a surprisingly sincere look at “Glam,” strategically shown the week before “Thrash,” the juxtaposition probably being no accident – were strong statements of purpose, “Thrash” is the best of the lot. Next week, it’s “Grunge,” as Dunn goes to Seattle to take on the movement that many say destroyed the careers of bands like Warrant and Ratt, among others. Let’s hope Dunn treats the subject matter with just as much care as he does with Thrash.

- Peter Lindblad

Metal Evolution Thrash

View the Full Episode - Right Here, Right Now!

Episode Summary - Arguably metal's most popular and passionate genre, Sam journeys to Northern California to trace the roots of Thrash by interviewing the architects of this hugely popular genre. Sam interviews Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Testament, Exodus, and many more Thrash Metal legends.

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Collectible Heavy Metal Posters:
  
Anthrax
Megadeth
Metallica
Slayer