Rochester, N.Y. is home to a lot of big industry, not to mention some pretty accomplished people. One of those people happens to be a New York City native who’s considered a legend of the “underground." The music underground, that is.

The man behind the Steinway grand piano is, in some circles, a musical legend.

“Classical music I grew up with, in the house when I was a kid,” said Dan Lilker. “And it had a big influence on a lot of stuff I wrote, arrangement-wise.”

Lilker is not a classical musician. He is, however, responsible for some classics of another genre. Lilker helped create an entire music scene. A founding member of the metal band Anthrax, he had his own early inspirations. 

“One of the first songs that inspired me to play bass went like this,” explained Lilker as he played the opening riff to the Black Sabbath classic N.I.B. on his bass guitar. “I heard that and said wow, and just compared to everything else I heard this was so much heavier and more intense and darker.”

Musically, that changed everything for the Queens native. When Lilker and guitarist Scott Ian co-founded Anthrax, that changed everything, and helped create a new genre of heavy music.  

“It was really exciting,” he recalled of those times in the early 1980s. “Because you could tell that we were just kind of like forging, and as we went along, there was really no blueprint.”  

Lilker’s many bands, including Nuclear Assault, S.O.D and Brutal Truth, were kings of the metal underground.

“People play music for various reasons,” he said. “But I was driven, and I just had to follow exactly what I wanted to do."

For decades he toured the world. For the past 21 years, he’s called Rochester home. Lilker met wife Heather at, of all places — a metal festival.

“I said oh, who's that pretty girl,” he said. “Since we had a mutual friend, yeah, we met and we hit it off.” 

Between gigs with his national touring bands, Lilker played in a number of Rochester area bands, including Crucifies, Nokturnal Hellstorm and Blurring. He and his wife recently purchased a house in the suburb of Gates. Lilker now considers himself semi-retired from music.

There will be no more tours. He says there is little chance of his previous bands reforming.

“I realized I’ve been touring for 40 years,” he said. “I’m going to be 60 soon. I'm kind of transitioning into a more mellow and serene existence.”

Lilker still jams once in a while, standing in for a song or two when friends come to town. Most recently, he joined Canadian thrash legends Exciter onstage during the band’s show at the Bug Jar in Rochester. And he willingly answers the call when a documentarian needs some musical perspective, like in the Ronnie James Die documentary “Dreamers Never Die.” 

“As far as touring the world and going to airports, it's kind of been there, done that, you know,” he said of the grueling nature of life on the road.

Nowadays, Lilker works for a precision optics company, Gates-based Sydor Optics. The daily grind has replaced the grindcore music he used to play. He got the job, in part, thanks to some local metalheads who work there, who recognized Lilker at a local pub.

“I’m at a part of my life where I like a little stability,” he said. “And I live five minutes, 10 minutes from here. I work with a bunch of cool dudes, and do rewarding work.”

Lilker is content with this life, and with his legacy. 

“I am well aware that I've played on a lot of records that have inspired a lot of people,” he said. “And I'm certainly proud of having written recorded and played on these records.”

They are classics in their own right – made of metal.

“Metalheads are probably some of the most well-adjusted people out there, because they have an outlet for all their aggression,” he said. “You know, we may look like creeps, but we hold the door for old ladies at the bank just like everybody.”