Former Anthrax Singer Arrested For Beating 74 Year Old Man

Former Anthrax frontman Dan Nelson was busted Wednesday for thrashing a 74-year-old man inside a Queens hotel last month, according to cops.

Nelson — who helmed the NYC-born, thrash-metal outfit between 2007 and 2009 — got heated when the elderly man asked him a question at the Aloft New York LaGuardia Airport hotel in East Elmhurst around 11 p.m. on Aug. 30, police said.

The 43-year-old vocalist allegedly pummeled the oldster and then scrammed. He turned himself over to police at the 115th Precinct at 8 a.m. Wednesday, where he was charged with assault and harassment, cops said.

Around 11 p.m. that night, police responded to an assault in which the victim was treated for minor injuries. The attacker took off after the assault on foot, police said.

A family member of one of the men with the victim told Patch the 74-year-old is an artist himself and got himself into trouble when he asked Nelson a question. The person asked that they not be named out of fear of retaliation. The victim stands about 5-foot-3 and has a heart condition, the person said. When one of them said something to Nelson, he reacted, the person said.

“He just goes bananas,” the person said. “He knocked the old guy down.”

The victim had been at the hotel to watch a friend who was playing the drums that night, the person said. Nelson appeared off that night, taking a long time even to tune his guitar, the person said.

Nelson, of Levittown, LI, was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday night.

He could not be reached for comment.

Nelson, who had credits on Anthrax’s 2011 album “Worship Music” actually departed the band in 2009.

He sued his former bandmates for defamation to the tune of $2.65 million when they said publicly he left because of health reasons. They settled for an undisclosed amount in 2012.