Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and his wife Sandra have become the proud parents of a daughter. Mia Charley Benante was born at Friday January 19, 2006 at 5 am. According to the drummer: \"she weighed in at 5 pounds and 9 ounces of Pure Joy\".
\"My journey started at 8:53 a.m. yesterday morning [Jan. 18] when my wife woke me up out of my [tour bus] bunk. I woke up to the words \'CHARLIE, MY WATER BROKE!\' BAM!! It was as if someone just dumped a Gatorade cooler on me. I think I actually flew out of my bunk and to the front lounge of the bus. We were on our way to Colorado, and I told Bob, our bus driver, \'GET ME TO AN AIRPORT. He looked at me and said, \'It\'s time?\' and \'YES!!!,\' I said. By now everyone started to wake up and start helping me to get what I need to get home. Chris, our tour manager, and Scott [Ian, guitar] started calling travel agents and getting me a flight. Thank God we were 15 miles from the Denver airport. Andrea (our travel agent) got me on the 10:35 a.m. to Chicago and I was on my way.... I was praying that Sandra [Charlie\'s wife] didn\'t have the baby while I was in the air. This was all like a scene in a movie... American Airlines were so FUCKING COOL! They bumped me up to first class and made sure I was the first one off the plane. I landed in Chicago and I was on my way once again. Got to the hospital and the baby decided to wait for me, WHEW! I made it! (...)Okay, I\'ve been up 27 hours. Daddy needs to sleep.\"
As previously mentioned on Drummerszone, Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner was asked to fill in as Benante has to skip the last couple of shows of Antrax\' current US tour.
The entire Drummerszone team congratulate the new parents with their beautiful baby girl.
