Panini Blog
Panini Blog
Joey Belladonna rocks. Like, seriously. The dude rocks. For a living. Perhaps best known as the powerfully piped frontman for legendary thrash-metal group Anthrax, Belladonna has spent more than three decades shredding stages with a mic in his hand, passion in his heart and an international legion of fans head-banging and mosh-pitting every steel-toed stomp of the way. Of course, Belladonna’s day job (which usually is more of a night job) tends to mask the fact that the New York native is a diehard sports fan.
His biggest love? The Minnesota Vikings, for whom he’s had the chance to perform the National Anthem. Of course, that’s just the beginning. He’s friends with Buffalo Bills Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, fond of Syracuse athletics and, as a former high-school hockey goalie, has a soft spot in his heart for Philadelphia Flyers legend Bernie Parent. (Speaking of the Vikings and Bills, Belladonna just last Thursday performed the National Anthem before those two teams met in their preseason opener.)
We found out all of those things and more about Belladonna in late April, when the rock royal dropped by Panini America HQ one afternoon before an Anthrax show at the House of Blues in Dallas to visit his nephew, Panini America Brand Manager Wes Elliott. Belladonna’s first order of business that day was to sign autographs for his 2017 Donruss Football Fans of the Game cards, which just released a few weeks ago. Belladonna also signed autographs for 2017 Donruss Optic Football and upcoming Panini America promotional sets.
When he was done with that, Belladonna was gracious enough to sit down for a special episode of Panini Unwrapped starring 2016 Flawless Football. We think you’ll find the resulting video to be . . . rockin’.
Shop for 2017 Donruss Football now at the official online store of Panini America.
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