This interview was conducted by Philip A. Wickstrand with guitarist Gary Holt prior to their show at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR on August 5, 2011.

If you call yourself a fan of Metal and you don’t know who EXODUS are, you should hit youself in the head with a large blunt object.

Phil: First, tell us a bit about the tour with SLAYER.

Gary: It’s awesome. I’ve been filling in for Jeff while he’s recovering since February, but now on this run I’ve got my own boys, EXODUS out here, so I’m pulling double duty. I guess I’m either insane or I’m the hardest working guy in Thrash Metal. [laughs] Sometimes I wonder which one it is. But it’s been going really, really well; it’s been awesome, everybody’s completely having a great time and everybody’s just awesome people to be around.

Phil: How much has it physically taken out of you to pull double duty every night?

Gary: If you add up the set times, it only equals what we were doing headlining with SLAYER or when EXODUS goes out headlining and plays. The hard part is finishing one set and maintaining  your adrenaline level with a couple hour break in between for ZOMBIE’s show and keeping yourself up for the next one - that’s more work than actually playing them.

Phil: Do you find that it gets harder to tour as you get older?

Gary: In some ways no because I still love doing it - it’s a super hard job if you hate it, but you know, I’m grateful and thankful that I’m able to still do what I love. Physically it gets a little harder as the aging process grabs you by the nuts; some things get hard on me. Some nights I feel like I’m fucking sixty-five years old ‘cause I’ve got a bad hip. And that’s the hardest part of doing double duty is sometimes if I’m on my feet too much during the course of a day, I really feel it live. So that’s hard, but I’m not going to bitch and complain - I’m lucky. There’s many people who would swap places in a second to be able to go out and play the songs you love and hell, I get to play with my own band and my old friends in SLAYER, so I think that’s pretty sweet.

Phil: What can you tell us about what you have planned for the next EXODUS album?

Gary: Oh God… I’m just now starting to pull some riffs out of my hat and stuff. Before Kerry called me about the SLAYER thing, that was our primary goal this year, was to just do some select shows, a little bit here, a little bit there, no six, eight week grinds and just write, you know. But this came up and since then I’ve been going non-stop. Since Tempo of the Damned in 2003 or whatever, I think everybody wanted a vacation from this; I didn’t get one. [laughs] But after the first of the year we’re going to really get down seriously to writing and stuff.

Phil: What would you say is your favorite era of EXODUS?

Gary: That’s always an impossible question to answer. The Bonded By Blood Years, that’s when we were kids, helping to create this form of music that’s defined my life and the band’s. We’re just insane lunatics out playing Thrash Metal and drinking and destroying everything, you know? And the whole Fabulous Disaster era was when the band was at its successful peak I guess you could say. That was awesome and we did some amazing tours and now everybody’s one-hundred percent dedicated to what we’re doing and we really love the music we’re playing and we’re doing some great tours; we got to play in April with IRON MAIDEN in Santiago, Chile in front of 65,000 and all that kind of stuff, so I feel like I’m pretty lucky.

Phil: Do you think that there will ever be another rarities collection for EXODUS, like B-sides, rare tracks and demos?

Gary: I don’t know. We never did many demos, you know. Like we did the old Whipping Queen demo back when Kirk was still in the band and stuff and then we did the Turk Street demo, which we never even really finished the whole thing, so there’s not a whole lot to put out. People keep asking me if we’re going to record "Death and Domination" and stuff like that. Yeah, I’ll never say never, I mean, when we did the Bonded re-recording, we recorded "Hell’s Breath" for the first time in our lives, so maybe someday maybe some bonus tracks, we might pull up some really, really old backyard party era songs.

Phil: What are your thoughts on the new wave of Thrash bands that are coming out?  Obviously, it was a lot more fresh back in the day because it was so new, but what do you think of the newer bands that are trying to emulate the style?

Gary: I think they’re all awesome. I mean, I’ve gone out of my way to help as many of them as I can, everything from advice to whatever and I’m personal friends with many of those guys; BONDED BY BLOOD, EVILE, WARBRINGER… WARBRINGER just recently played Slaughter by the Water in the Bay Area and they were going to drive back from the show to L.A. at night and I told ‘em all to come up to my house. So I gave them some floors to sleep on and poured some tequila down their throats. These are all my personal friends, you know, and I think it’s great. They play it with the proper energy and enthusiasm that I think the music demands and with each album they also put their own stamp on it a little more which I think you consider these guys ages… you know, with every album they just progress and take it to their own level.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain that particular work.

Gary: 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade. It’s quite a ride. [laughs] It’s the greatest written tale of depravity the world’s ever known and it’s not the easiest read for some people but I enjoy it.

Phil: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Gary: Just thanks for all the support.

Exodus' Gary Holt

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

August 20, 2011

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(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Formed: 1980
San Francisco, California  USA
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Genre: Thrash Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Rob Dukes:  Vocals
Gary Holt:  Guitars
Lee Altus:  Guitars
Jack Gibson:  Bass
Tom Hunting:  Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

Bonded by Blood (1985)
Pleasures of the Flesh (1987)
Fabulous Disaster Full-length (1988)
Objection Overruled EP (1990)
Impact Is Imminent (1990)
A Lesson in Violence Comp. (1991)
Good Friendly Violent Fun (1991)
Lessons in Violence Comp. (1992)
Force of Habit Full-length (1992)
Another Lesson in Violence (1997)
War Is My Shepherd EP (2003)
Tempo of the Damned (2004)
Live at Waldrock Festival (2004)
Live at the DNA 2004 CD/DVD (2005)
Shovel Headed Kill Machine (2005)
The Atrocity Exhibition...
                                          Exhibit A (2007)
Double Live Dynamo DVD (2007)
Let There Be Blood (2008)
Shovel Headed Tour Machine
                                                  DVD (2010)
Exhibit B: The Human Condition (2010)