ANTHRAX and PANTERA drummer Charlie Benante and his longtime girlfriend, Carla Harvey from BUTCHER BABIES, are officially engaged.
The 61-year-old Benante broke the news in a social media post earlier today (Sunday, January 28). He shared a couple of photos of him and Carla, 47, at a U2 concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas, as well as a short clip of U2‘s performance, and he included the following message: “We went to see @u2 and this happened @carlaharvey,” adding an engagement ring emoji. “they played ‘all I want is you’…”
Carla shared the same photos on her Instagram and commented: “it wasn’t a dream, I woke up in Vegas as the future Mrs. Benante. I love you @charbenante”.
Among the fellow musicians congratulating the couple in the comments below Charlie‘s post was NICKELBACK bassist Mike Kroeger, who wrote: “Congratulations you two”. Carla‘s BUTCHER BABIES bandmate Henry Flury wrote: “Wow congrats you guys!!!!” VIXEN‘s Lorraine Lewis added: “Wow congrats!!! Yay!!” Former EXODUS/TESTAMENT and current THE CULT drummer John Tempesta wrote: “Congratulations!! Love you both”.
In a 2021 interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, Benante was asked how he met Harvey. He responded: “Actually, we met at… Well, she says we met earlier, but I don’t remember it. She says she interviewed me at the [Revolver] Golden Gods Awards, but I don’t remember it, but she does have a picture of it, so I know I was there. And then we played a festival in San Bernardino [California] together. I think it was — it could have been Knotfest. And then afterwards, our manager said, ‘Oh, the BUTCHER BABIES, they covered one of your songs for this, blah, blah, blah,’ and I’m, like, ‘Oh, cool.’ And then, that’s how I ended up meeting her, at that show. And we were both kind of interested in the same type of things — like, goofy, nerdy shit. But at the time, we were both kind of involved in marriages and stuff, and that was it. We would e-mail here and there, ‘Hey, did you check out this book?’ or, ‘Did you see that?’ And then that was it. I didn’t talk to her for a bit. And then one day, I was in L.A. making a record, and I hit her up, and I said, ‘You wanna meet around here, go get a coffee or something?’ And, she turned me down. And then I hit her back up a little bit later, and she’s, like, ‘Okay, I’ve to gotta go to the art store in that area. Do you wanna come with me? And we ended up going to an art store. And that was it.”
Later that same year, Carla spoke to Shows I Go To about what it was like to spend a couple of years with Charlie at home in Illinois during the early days of the pandemic. She said: “It was so awesome to be able to create art together [with Charlie] during the pandemic. We created art and music. It brings your relationship to a different level of intimacy. I think when you can create things together or just be in a shared space together and create art side by side together. It’s a really beautiful thing. And I’m glad that we had the pandemic to give us that opportunity. It was an awful time for many people. And yes, we lost our main source of income. But we also found out what it’s meant to just kind of have our family life back. Neither of us have been home that much during the course of our relationship, and to be settled in a place together for a couple of years now — it has been such a gift.”
Benante and Harvey first went public with their relationship in March 2019 after dating for at least three years.
Back in 2015, Charlie named BUTCHER BABIES‘ sophomore album, “Take It Like A Man”, one of his favorite releases of the year.
Before starting a relationship with Charlie, Carla was married to Gregory Coates since 2012.
Benante was previously married to Sandra, with whom he has a 17-year-old daughter, Mia Charley Benante.
Harvey made a guest appearance on Benante‘s covers album, “Silver Linings”, which was released in May 2021 via Megaforce Records. The 14-track effort featured an all-star cast of “who’s who” in the thrash, metal, and rock worlds, with all cuts culled from Benante‘s acclaimed “quarantine jam” video series.