In a new interview with Oran O’Beirne of Fistful Of Metal magazine, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt opened up about his own mortality and the inevitable day when the thrash metal pioneers will finally have to call it quits.
While speaking about the possibility of the band eventually wrapping up their career in a similar fashion to Megadeth, who recently announced their own farewell tour, Gary Holt admitted that he has zero intention of pushing himself to the literal breaking point.
“Well, I don’t wanna die on stage. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my own mortality, but I need at least another twenty-five years with my children and grandchildren. I’m doing everything I can to get to that point, as I’ve been sober for the last five years, and if Exodus gets to that point where we know it’s time, then we may take the route that our friends have and are taking, or perhaps we’ll just end it. Who knows?” he said (according to Blabbermouth).
Holt is no stranger to witnessing the emotional weight of a legendary band bowing out. He spent nearly a decade and a half performing with Slayer, initially stepping in to fill in for Jeff Hanneman during their 2011 live shows before officially becoming the band’s full-time co-guitarist in 2013. Reflecting on that monumental final performance, he shared the deep impact it left on him:
“With Slayer, I watched grown men burst into tears at the final show [in November 2019 at the Forum in Los Angeles]. I burst into tears when I was playing the closing moments of my lead break of ‘Angel Of Death‘ on that last big show in L.A.,” he added.
“This is a huge part of our lives. When my day comes and I can’t do this anymore, I have a lot of great memories. I’m sure we’ll celebrate the right way, whenever that day comes, unless it’s something drastic like losing both of my arms in a f**ked up agricultural accident. But for now, Exodus is stronger than ever and this album is proof that we have a lot more gas in the tank,” he concluded.
Despite the band’s ongoing momentum, the physical demands of playing high-speed thrash metal for over four decades are undeniable.
During a separate interview with Germany’s Metal.de last summer, the guitarist was asked if he and his Exodus bandmates were simply too full of energy to consider hanging up their instruments. His response was brutally honest:
“No, I’m not full of energy. I’m f**king tired. But we’re gonna do this as hard as we can, as heavy as we can until we can’t. And that’s why we recorded so much music [for the next Exodus album]. We figured, do it now while we are still able to. Who knows? I’ve had elbow problems, hand problems, shoulder problems now. Maybe in five years age will catch up and the arthritis will get bad and I can’t do it. I don’t know,” he said at the time.
When pressed on what a potential post-touring life might look like if he was ever forced to permanently stop writing and performing with Exodus, Holt offered a characteristically humorous response:
“I have no idea. I don’t know. Turn to a life of crime, maybe. I don’t know. I haven’t found a way to make money being charming, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
The interviewer then noted Holt’s supplementary income from his online store. Holt confirmed its utility, stating: “Yeah, it helps. People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star.’ No. I sell shirts, and I sell them outta my f**king closet. All right. Pack this one up, label it, send it off. But no, that just helps. It doesn’t pay the bills. It helps to keep pay the bills. It helped really a lot in the pandemic.”
He concluded: “Sometimes I daydream about not leaving the house. ‘Cause I hate leaving — I hate getting on the plane to leave — but as soon as I arrive, I have fun.”
Exodus continues to prove their enduring power with their new studio album, Goliath, which was officially released on March 20 via Napalm Records. The bruising new LP was self-produced by Exodus and features mixing and mastering by Mark Lewis, known for his heavy-hitting work alongside modern extreme acts like Whitechapel, Nile, and Undeath.
