Interview With Gary Holt of Exodus
Interview, Intro & Pics By Luxi
Transcription by JP
When the news about Exodus´s possible gig at Wacken 2002 festival hit me, I didn´t
hesitate a second with my thoughts by marking that important weekend on my calendar with a
yellow felt marker. For some obvious reasons - mostly due to my location, I have never
managed to capture one of my favorite Thrash Metal bands Exodus in a live situation. I
just knew this was it: my ultimate opportunity to finally see Exodus live, after waiting
for this golden opportunity for almost more than an eternity.
And so I did. They were just beyond any superlatives in a positive sense, and much
more. It was simply great to see them performing onstage, but at the same time thinking
kind of sadly how much I have missed in the past. What can you do if you're a poor bastard
like me, who lives your life far up in the North in Finland?! You do miss a lot of things
as far as metal tours, festivals and such things are concerned.
After the show I headed to the backstage area and met up with the guys from Exodus. I
shared a couple of words - mainly with Rick Hunolt and Stewen Warner, (the manager of
Exodus) before the actual press conference with the band got started. The whole press
conference ended up being quite a ´so-so´ thing. I went straight to Stewen and suggested
him whether there was any chance to interview the guys via email after they had got back
home after their successful appearance at Wacken.
A few anxious and frustrating days of waiting, and finally something worth of my
attention arrived in my mail. It was what I had anxiously waited for days: a tape having
an interview with Gary Holt on it! Gary spoke loud and clear about what he thought of the
band´s catastrophic deal with Century Media, Exodus´ performance at Wacken, the death of
ex- frontman and close friend Paul Baloff, today´s Bay Area scene, and the past, present
and the future of Exodus.
Exodus are back for a serious Thrash attack, and in the meantime while waiting for
their new album, let´s raise a toast of honor for them and scream from the top of our
lungs at the very same time: Great to see you guys around again!! Now thrash ´til
fuckin´ death!!
First off, thanks for your raging performance at Wacken festival! I personally was
actually running huge expectations towards your show at Wacken - and got what I ordered
indeed. I enjoyed every minute of your gig, filled up with some nostalgic moments when
hearing songs off the classic BONDED BY BLOOD album. Overall, getting some positive
shivers running down my spine when seeing and hearing you there onstage and trying to make
my very best to headbang along with some younger metal fans amongst the crowd. How did it
feel playing there anyway? What kind of expectations did you have about the crowd there?
The crowd seemed to enormously enjoy your set - some of these people going totally crazy
while you were playing. Did you notice you guys were knocking your audience dead with your
very nostalgic set of songs, all straight from the "True Metal" stage?
We were quite confident that it was going to be a really good show, it went better than
we thought! We just wanted to play a really fast old-school set. We actually had to
discuss on stage - we had a little meeting about what other song we were gonna put in
because we had extra time, which is rare because we usually noodle and fuck around so much
that we ended up costing ourselves, but it was a blast. I’d do it again!
Overall, how did you like the whole venue at Wacken? And what can you say about how
the whole festival was organized, such as the time tables, caterings in the backstage
area?
Nah, I had no concerns. Those things always run extremely well. That evening when I
went for a little solo walk out into the front, I just walked around to get a little look
at things before we left and that was the first I had seen it, and it was just piss and
stench everywhere - It was exactly what I hoped it would be! It stunk like hell and they
just did not care, and it stunk worse near the food court, because they put the shitters
(toilets) right near the food - that was smart. It was great. The food was killer.
It seems like the Bay Area thing is really making a strong comeback to the metal
scene again - much to thanks all the guys in these ol´ legendary Thrash Metal bands like
Exodus, Forbidden, Death Angel, Vio-lence, Heathen. And much thanks to all the other guys
behind the “Thrash of the Titans” festival, for keeping the flame burning hot
and the great old spirit alive. Especially for believing in the fact that the Bay Area is
why Thrash Metal is such a popular genre in Heavy Metal. What´s your own personal view
about the Bay Area scene these days? Feel like you still are the same ol´ big happy
family as you were in the mid ´80s?
Yeah, the scene is killer. There are all kinds of young bands and there are actually
clubs to play again but there was a while there wasn’t. You’ve got all kinds of
great new bands coming up - you’ve got Skinlab and Dopesick and Drugpig, all these
smashing new bands coming up. Drugpig, are like the baddest, they are gonna be the next
big thing.
What kind of things have changed in the Bay Area scene? Does it compare to those
times when people were talking about the Bay Area - like it was the only scene worth
talking about?
Well, things have changed because there were a million top-notch clubs to play, there
were 20 million bands, you could go to a different club every night of the week and not
see the same band twice. It was new then, and everybody knew we were onto something
special. It was like “the only scene” with everyone gathered around the common
goal of "kill posers" and drink, and make people drink pee out of beer bottles,
whenever possible.
Many people nowadays think that your “second coming” came in the form of
your excellent live album titled “Another Lesson in Violence” in 1997. I bet
many of your fans even expected to get a new studio album from you soon after the live
albums release. But something obviously happened between both the Exodus camp and Century
Media Records. What happened, exactly?
The deal with them is that I DON’T deal with them.
That live recording was taken from your show in San Francisco, California in March
1997. Was it the only venue available at that time where you could have recorded it or did
you have some other alternative venues in your minds for that live recording? What kind of
memories do you still have about that particular show, as I assume you were received well
by both old and new fans?
I’m sure there were plenty of other places we could have done it, but the
Trocadaro was the perfect place. There was never any consideration of wanting to do it
somewhere else. The perfect size; the place was plenty big enough, without being too big
where it room acoustics start interfering with recorded sound. Nah, there was never an
alternate place, we picked the place and that was that. As far as that night, it was a
non-stop high school reunion, person after person I hadn’t seen in years and years.
My only regret was that I did not have enough time to talk to all of them the way I wanted
to. I’d see one person I had not seen in ten years and them I’d see another
person I hadn’t seen in ten years and I’d get pulled in a million different
directions. Usually the one direction with the “?” (Ed note: unable to hear the
word, sounded like waitress!) was the one I was being pulled in!
That live recording unfortunately remained as the very last recording of one of the
most respected and admired names in the whole Bay Area scene: Paul Baloff. He died of a
severe stroke at the age of 41 in February this year. Do you think your set at Wacken
would have been a bit different if he still had been there with you? [thrashing his guts
out equally like everyone else in the band, cause I bet he also had his own favorite
Exodus songs that he always kinda wanted pull through during your shows.]
Nah, that set would probably been what Paul would have wanted to do. God Bless him. I
love the guy. I miss him, but if he had one flaw as a singer, that had nothing to do with
singing ability, it had to do with his ability to sit his ass down, put down the vodka and
learn lyrics. Maybe Paul forgot songs, lyrics from Bonded By Blood or he would make them
up for “Impaler”. We had done “Last Act of Defiance” and “Only
Death” with Paul a few times and he was starting to get the lyrics enough to pull
them off, he would have wanted this way. He would have wanted a fast set and we gave him
one. That was for Paul, motherfucker!
I´m not sure whether I missed a thing or two while you were playing at Wacken, but
did you actually dedicate that particular gig at Wacken to Paul Baloff? I remember someone
coming and saying to me that you actually did dedicate the show to him, even if I
personally missed that part of the show.
Yeah, we dedicated “Bonded By Blood” to Paul, so that whole show as a blast.
Everyone was going crazy, but that moment there - I almost got a little emotional, then I
just had to focus. ”Kill people, kill people…kill” You get upset and sad,
and it inspired violence. That’s the way Paul would have wanted it. He lived by it.
Fun at others expense! ha! ha!
You played two new songs, with one´s working title called “Throwing
Down.” What is the other song called?
The lyrics are dumb. I don’t think we are going to run. I don’t think the
title is going to last on the album. Right now, they like to call it “An-Gary”,
that’s my alter-ego. When things tend to go wrong I become An-Gary . It started as a
joke. Right now I am Hun-Gary!
How did you feel playing those two new cuts of yours at Wacken? Were you sort of
excited how the audience would eventually take them? Basically knowing at the same time
that there´s many so-called ol´ school, die-hard Exodus fans amongst the crowd who
consider your debut album BONDED BY BLOOD some sort of a "metal bible." They
probably expected your new songs to be the same way musically, or at least sharing the
same magical spirit of the old songs one way or another anyway.
Wow! That was complex! No, I was excited to play them. Hell yeah…Fuckin’ waay
hyped to play them. You know, they went over extremely well. Anytime time you play
something new and the crowd doesn’t know it, you still look down and you see halfway
through the song someone has kinda found a groove and they are singing along. If you
don’t know the song you tend to want to stand and listen, instead of listening to the
sound of your elbows into someones spine! Anything that the band writes is going to be
Exodus material. It is just the way we write. People ask if we are going to write an album
like Bonded By Blood and I couldn’t write that again because it is not the same, I
would have to try and I would be ripping myself off! I wrote that shit when I was a young
kid, smoking a whole lotta weed, and not thinking about it. If I thought about it, in the
attempt to write something like it, I would be cloning myself. I just turn the amp up and
start riffing and what comes out, comes out. It would be no different than another band
stealing our riffs, if I was trying to write shit like I did then. One of many multiple
personalities would be guilty of plagiarism and I’d have to kill me!
When you were actually planning your set for the Wacken festival, did you try to
cover all your albums for the audience? Like taking some songs off from some certain album
and some other songs off some other album in order to cover a bit of Exodus´ history?
I wanted to, but we have a lot of songs. We only had 40 minutes and there was only so
much we could do. You just can’t play them all, and just trying to get one more song
off of one of those albums, what do you chop? We had already chosen quite a number of
classics and as such we had to admit an equal number of classics. On that end it is a
no-win situation. Somebody is not gonna hear something they wanna hear and that is always
going to be the case unless we play for fuckin’ two hours!
Did you have any time to watch other bands performing at Wacken this year? What
bands were your favorites out of the ones you managed to see? Kreator? Immortal?
Unleashed?
I got to see part of Heathen and that was it! I got stranded at the hotel, which was an
hour form the concert festival site and so the first day, I didn’t even make it
there! The second day, we left at 12:30, and it took over an hour. Traffic, road closures,
then straight to the rock garden for the meet and greet, and then we had to start getting
things organized and ready to play the show. The closest I came to seeing or hearing one
of the bands (other than Heathen) was listening to Immortal's set, because they were on
the Black Metal Stage right next to us. I saw them recently in San Francisco, where I met
them. Those dudes are awesome. I love that band. Fuck, they are the best. We need to tour
with those guys. Very cool.
How do you feel about Finnish thrashers Demigod’s new CD titled, Shadow
Mechanic?
To be honest I have not heard it. As of the last five, six months I’m getting my
re-education of Gary. I have been partial to listening to the stuff I always have and I
finally have started to hear some of these bands. I was so far out of touch I had probably
never heard of most of them. I’m working on it. I’m listening to a lot of it
especially the Black Metal stuff out there. I love Gloomy Grim’s cover of
“Piranah”. It rules! And Six Feet Under!
Where will your next gigs take place right after Wacken? I noticed from your
homepage that you will be touring in Europe this December, but you only have about 8 gigs
scheduled so far. When will the relentless Exodus troops conquer Scandinavia; early in the
next year (beg… beg… beg…) ?!
It is kinda hard to conquer countries when they won’t even let me take a nail file
on a plane! I’m working on it. Right now I am enlisting the aid of some yo-yo
smugglers.Spain’s stuff is still being worked on, and the shows in December, you
know, it is not a full tour. We are just doing a few shows on our own and some with
Tankard and I forgot who else. We are doing a few festivals that I’m really looking
forward to like Six Feet Under, Marduk, Impaled Nazarene. All awesome bands - it’s
gonna be huge. I think it is gonna be one of the most serious festivals I’ve ever
been a part of. There’s no Blind Guardian here! We can see just fine!
Let´s talk about your “third coming” a bit. Some of you said in the press
conference after the show that you have actually been writing some new material. Recording
for your next studio album will start at the beginning of next year, and most likely
having Andy Sneap at the production helm. Andy has already worked with many big names like
Arch Enemy, Machine Head, Nevermore and so on. Do you actually base your decision on the
fact that Andy did really splendid job on your live-CD? Have you decided a studio where
the recording might take place?
Deciding a studio would be getting a little ahead of ourselves. I mean we haven’t
made any solid decisions, but the whole band wants Sneap to do it, and most importantly HE
really wants to do it. When you have someone who is passionate about doing a project,
he’s like lobbying for himself. It’s not just strictly a pay check. The live
album is the heaviest sounding album we ever did and we did it for less than any other
album. Bonded By Blood, I think it cost less than that. We are working on songs, a lot of
it finished, a lot of it in the working stage but we have a whole album worth of material,
either being worked on or finished up. It’s crushing. It us. It’s Exodus.
It’s not Bonded By Blood but that is not a bad thing, but some people just want us to
copy our own album. It’s NOT "nu-metal" so don’t fear and panic. Limp
Bizkit…ha! ha! [laughs] We are hard and erect. We’re not limp. The shit is
crushing, it’s heavy, it’s hellafast shit, it’s Exodus! Bottom Line. I
write for myself so hopefully if I think it’s heavy, so will you!
How many songs will you hopefully try to get recorded for it? If I remember
correctly some of you said in that particular press conference tent that you have got 5
songs completely ready. Does that sound correct? What are these new songs like?
Yeah, that’s about the number that are finished. The new songs are just crushing -
everything from brutal fast 100 mph, classic Exodus to just crushers, you
know…I’ve always tried my hardest to keep song selection varied on every album.
Everyone talks about how fast and deadly Exodus is but for every “Strike of The
Beast” there was always a “No Love” or “Deliver us to Evil” or
“And Then There Were None”. We were never just about one tempo. It’s just
heavy. It’s not Linkin Park. It’s not Blink 182. It’s fucking Exodus!
Have you personally noticed that your song writing could have changed a bit over the
years somehow, and reached a "next level" as far as your song structures go?
Absolutely. You advance, you get better as a song writer. You think things through more
thoroughly. Some people have a problem with that. They want it one way and one way only. I
love bonded By Blood. It is a classic album. We have been criticized for working more on
song structure and if you look at a number of songs on Bonded By Blood, one flaw we had
never realized back in our songwriting back then, in many of the songs there are verses
and choruses and at the end of the final chorus there is another seven minutes of music
and we never come back to the any vocals. In “And Then There Were None,” there
is probably six and a half minutes of music and it’s a bad song arrangement because
it gives the singer nothing to do. It gives him no moment to jump back in and pounce on
the song. He is kinda done for the rest of the song, kinda like getting out of school
early, or something. That is the only criticism of my song structure I have on that but
you know, songs are what matter first. It’s gotta be heavy it’s gotta be a song.
Anybody could blast out this savage tone and sit there and go, “Go! Go! Go!”,
all day. It’s hard to hum “Go! Go! Go!” [Hums a few notes] See? It sucks
doesn’t it?
Are you still writing most of the songs, like in the past, or would you rather like
to say that the whole band needs to be credited for writing? Do you think that coming up
with a completely satisfying Exodus song could have probably become harder to make from
start to finish? A general opinion of metalheads somehow wishes that you might be able to
reach the same magical, golden moments with your new stuff that were captured on your
first two albums, BONDED BY BLOOD and PLEASURES OF THE FLESH. Not putting down any of your
later released albums by any means, but this fact still puts you under some sort of
pressure, doesn´t it?
No, not at all. Maybe once upon a time it might, but I’m under no pressure. Either
people like it or they don’t. The minute I write start writing stuff hoping people
will like it , is when I start applying pressure, because what if they don’t?
I’m just going to do it and have fun and as long as I’m grinning ear to
ear…in my opinion FABULOUS DISASTER is by far our best album. I think PLEASURES OF
THE FLESH has great songs but the album is just flawed, heavily due to the many problems
we had - the producer situation in the studio, the sound of the album is just… People
talk about it like it is a brilliant thrash masterpiece and I love the album but the
production is the smallest, least heavy thing we ever recorded! It is hard to judge what
people are going to like anyway. We are just going to make the album of our lives, and
it’s going to be crushing and as far as capturing the past magic - history shows you
can’t. You can only do something for the first time once. It’s not the first
time anymore. Van Halen a can only put out VAN HALEN I, one time. Drug Pig can only put
out RX one time. There can’t be a second. Sex Pistols…Guns ‘n’
Roses… you probably hate them…well…I don’t know if you like them but I
think that APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION is one of the greatest rock albums ever written! Can
they do that again? No! I usually comes down to one simple thing. People have bands and
they might be playing the clubs for eight or nine years and they have eight or nine years
to write that first album. And then they do the album and they tour and all of a sudden
you have six months or maybe a year to write the second album, you have a little
disparity, in the length of time allotted to do the stuff. How are you going to equal that
in a time frame, and a time frame in which you ARE under pressure because there is a limit
when it has to be done. The other one, you just added them to your set as you wrote them,
years before they come out. Not to mention if you are doing something like we did which is
new and had not been done before, you know, second time it HAS been done before, by
yourself. You were the first, but the second one is the second. "Times they are a
changin." That is a quote right there from from Drugpig. He is my personal mentor and
my sensai and my tantrum teacher!
Does your album have any working title yet?
I have virtually every song title and the album title all worked out. And I’m not
going to divulge them because people spread them around and some titles are so good I
could sell them for money and I could actually make a decent living. I don’t want to
give them out right now. Too early. Then for the next five weeks I would constantly be
talking about titles. And when you do go with one of your alternate titles, I would be
answering questions for the rest of my life, “Why did you change the title?”
It’s not set until it’s printed and even then you might whine and bitch and hope
and dream to get your way. They just lead us on and kick us out the door and tell us what
we want to hear, you know those management types.
Talking about side projects, I read that your drummer Tom Hunting has quite a few
side projects of his own, with no other than Jason Newsted. At least three of those are
with him alone (IR8, Sexoturica and Quarteto de Pinga). Have you personally had any
chances to hear these bands? How are they like musically?
Number one, they are not side-projects - they are jam sessions. These bands are a
collection of fools from other band making some shit and having fun. As a matter of fact,
I was a member of Sexoturica except from day two with their jam and drinking party
session. I was unavailable because I had prior commitments with my children so I got axed
out of the mix. It was me, Andreas from Sepultura, Tom and Jason. Quarteta de Pinga is
Tom, Jason and Devin Townsend from Strapping Young Lad and IR8 was Tom’s band, before
me and Tom started our prior band Wardance, before we got Exodus back together. That band
has been disbanded probably seven or eight years ago. The other two weren’t bands,
they weren’t side-projects, which they were meant to be. Jason own’s a studio,
he owns gear, and he just likes to play. He’s happiest when he has a bunch of people
on the spot, improvising and recording it. These aren’t going to be out on any label
anytime soon. (Ed’s note. Newstead recently announced that the IR8 sessions are being
released on disc) Yes, I’ve heard them. “We are also the road crew” was
quite brilliant as done by Sexoturica.
Do any of you have any other projects going on at the moment except Tom?
I don’t have a project going on - I have THE project going on. The project so
huge, so phenomenal, and so forbidden. It’s the band that should not be. It is so
brilliant. It may very well endanger my own life, and it might also reduce Exodus to the
side status. The band I’m speaking of? DRUGPIG! Let me say it again, DRUGPIG. Drugpig
is more exciting than a bunch of Orientals riding a gaint log down a sliding mud hill. It
is incredible. We have so many songs. We have “Bubbling Spoonful”, “The
Devil’s Hiss”, our ode to Nitrous Oxide, “Swine of the Times”,
“Dwarfs Make Great Pets”, “OD-do-da-day”, “Mile Higher than
Denver”, “Bet it All On Slowpoke”, and we are going to do a childrens album
- it’s for the kids. It’s called “Mary had a little Gram”.
“Little Town of Methlaham”, “Crosstop Buns”. I had a million of them!
Ya know, “Jack and Pills” but basically the recurring theme in Drugpig
is…drugs! “Too High to Die”, “Swine of the Times”, “This is
Your Brain On Drugs, This Is Your Brain on Drugpigs …gobble gobble…
Do you still remember the very first show you ever played? Some people are claiming
that your first ever show happened November 29th in 1982, with the line-up that consisted
of Paul, Gary, Kirk, Geoff (Andrews) and Tom. This is when you were supporting Metallica
(James, Dave, Ron and Lars). Some other people think your first live performance happened
with Budgie in September in San Francisco. Which one was it out of these two?
Well we never we palyed with Budgie. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of
that. It depends on what your definition of “first” is. Our defintion of what we
consider our first real playing a club-show, not a bar that does bands, was the show with
Metallica, yeah. My own personal, personal first show, this was long before Paul was in
the band, Tom sang, we did mostly covers, it was a News Years Party. We used to rent our
own hauls and have alcohol soaked events. We would sell tickets. It was at the Monterra
Bay Community Center. We would play covers like, Def Leppard's, “Get your Rocks
Off”, Iron Maiden's “Prowler”, “Green Manalishi” and shit like
that. We did other shows before all that stuff. That would be quite a number from the
backyard parties all the way up to some places that were pretty close to clubs. That was
the first show where they were only in the business of live entertainment. It was awesome.
It was killer.
Then moving further on towards the future with the next question: Rumors have been
going around here in Europe that you might play at Dynamo festival next year. Exodus woudl
be sharing the same stage with bands like Vio-lence, Death Angel, Forbidden and probably
Heathen as well; the so-called "Bay Area" era would be reality at Dynamo next
year? Tell me it´s gonna happen, please!
Ha! You seem to know a lot more than I do because that’s first I’ve ever
heard of this. Someone has bold aspirations! If that is the plan of the Dynamo people they
might want to let some of the bands know about it. They didn’t want to let us play
this year. I don’t know. A "Bay Area Stage?" It sounds really cheesy.
Having all those bands play sound really great but I would not want to play if it was
total segregation. I mean we have our “Black Metal Stage” and “this
Stage” like at Wacken, but if you have the “Bay Area Stage” and the
"New York Stage” and the “Chicago Stage” and the fuckin’
“Mudtussle Stage” and the “Bayou Stage”… too many stages man!
I’m a single stage kinda guy!
As far as playing festivals go, have you noticed any differences between both
European and American venues? How are things organized in these two continents by some
local crews? How would you rate the Wacken festival from your own point of view?
For starters they don’t do shows like that here in America. They do them if the
only time they do anything similar to that, if at all…and in many ways it turns out
to be a giant fiasco, like the Woodstock Reunion thing, whereas as Wacken and Dynamo -
people are having a great time. Nothing but positives. At Woodstock, seven or eight women
are raped and stupid shit. That is super, mega-big bands doing that stuff. As far as stuff
like this where a lot of the bands are still primarily underground acts, that does not
happen over here. Clubs are clubs. You run into a lot of shitty ass clubs. In the States
if you get to a large enough level where you are dealing with real promoters, everything
is pro and perfect. You get to a lot of clubs when you are on that level and you deal with
a lot of assholes. You have to deal with a lot of scabbed up knuckles from beating the
crap out of somebody.
It goes without saying that the Bay Area thing has of course always been a strong
part of Exodus´ history and really has had a huge impact on metal. What does this
“Bay Area” phenomenon mean to you these days? Have your views and opinions about
it been changing somehow over the years? Do you think that your life changed when Exodus
was buried under the ice for the very first time in the late ´80s?
My life has changed at so many different points. The influence of new musicians, that
is quite a compliment. Especially in the late eighties when bands would openly bestow
gratitude. They had no qualms about telling the world we were a big influence and a lot of
them got success on their own and a lot of them, and it is like they have no longer heard
of. It is like they distance themselves from any debt owed to this band but there are so
many bands, like the Black Metal bands out there that are really into what we accomplished
and hats off. I think it is awesome. And it goes full circle, you know? I listen to them
and a lot of it was music that I didn’t even know existed. Some of that will probably
rub off on me. Life, buried under ice, you know. I’ve never been buried under ice.
I’m just kinda of cave-spelunking. You know, I got married, had two beautiful kids,
daughters, I played music through all of it, but you know, life goes up ,life goes down
and you know I have priorities that I gotta deal with and deal with myself, and I’m a
hard motherfucker to deal with. I mean, I wouldn’t marry me, I’m an asshole!
Opinions? Yeah I gotta few! [Laughs] That’s one thing that won’t ever change.
I’m an opinionated motherfucker. I’ve got opinions on opinions. I’ll give
you my opinion on how opinionated I am someday. You have to really sit down and ya gotta
make sure you’re not going anywhere for a while. Criticisms, I’ve got a few but
I also heap praise where it is due. Drugpig!
Is there actually some nostalgia involved now when you have been doing some gigs
with Exodus this year again? I mean, when you head your way to a stage and start kicking
off those immortal Exodus songs, does that bring some of those successful, past years back
in your mind? Could you re-live some of those moments once again?
Fuck that. Living in the past in for losers and assholes. I play those songs like it
the first time I ever played them and like the last time I’ve ever going to play
them. The minute we start getting nostalgia for it is -we will be overcome with nostalgia.
The next thing you know we will be out on tour, doing these fucking tours. Uhhh. Lynyrd
Skynyrd, Night Ranger, Warrant and Pat Travers Band - bands I worshipped in their day, but
it is all nostalgia. You know - dusting off the classic oldies. Fuck that. I’m going
to hit it, I’m gonna hit it hard, I’m gonna fuck shit up on stage, harder than
any motherfucker half my age. It’s just, as they are done shaking my hand and telling
me that we can still deliver this shit hard, he takes off grinding down a handrail on his
skateboard and I’m looking for Aspirin and a walker. I’m not living in the past.
I play those songs because I love to play them, not because of any sense of misty-eyed
sentimentality, which I think is all crap anyway. I just wanna see people hurt each other.
That’s all. Please, please, give me what I want.
Well, thank you for surviving through all these questions, and I wish you all the
best with Exodus in the future, on behalf of all the staff members of Metal-Rules.com!
Like those Australian veteran thrashers Slaughter Lord once put it so well into words:
“Thrash ´til Death…!!!” May that be some sort of a motto to you guys as
well when coming up with the rest of the material for the forth-coming Exodus studio
album.
Thank you! I’ve got my own mottos as well. There are just two things that matter
and just two things that matter to Paul and that is “Hammer and Life” Get
hammered, smashed with a hammer and live through it all and inspire others to pick up the
hammer of life. Available now at all Overture Hardware Stores! Free mail-order rebate when
purchasing the new Drugpig record, “Trough Full of Pills”. The first little pig
built his meth lab out of sticks. Along came the big bad DEA wolf…ha! ha! ha! Now
that we are done with this Exodus side-project ya have got to hear Drugpig. You just
don’t know what you are in for. Incredible. The Needle in the Spoon, Eight Days a
Week! Drugpig! Look for it 2003, out on Megabuzz Records available at a pharmacy near you.
Official Site: www.edodusband.com