Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has made a passionate and forceful case for the legacy of his friend and predecessor, Kirk Hammett, declaring in a new interview that the Metallica guitarist is “one of the founders of thrash metal” and that it’s “bulls**t” when he is excluded from that conversation.
Speaking on the official podcast The Metallica Report, Holt reflected on the early days of the Bay Area thrash scene and the pivotal moment in 1983 when Hammett left Exodus to join Metallica, an event he described as a “musical passing of the torch.”
“Kirk wrote everything when I joined the band,” Holt explained. “And for all intents and purposes, he is one of the founders of thrash metal. I think people leave Kirk out of that discussion a lot, and I think it’s bulls**t, ’cause he played in two of [the pioneering thrash metal bands]. He deserves double f**king credit.”
Holt described how, after Hammett‘s departure, he took over as the primary songwriter, a role he was already starting to grow into, thanks in part to new musical influences. “My brother Charles — and Kirk admits this too — my brother Charles was a super punk rocker… and he introduced us to tons of stuff that would later be instrumental in my influence [when it comes] to writing in Exodus, especially Discharge above all others,” he said.
“When Kirk left, it was kind of he handed the baton off to me, and myself and my bandmates, especially [then-Exodus vocalist Paul] Baloff, we were able to craft the band in our image, take it where we wanted to,” he continued. “And the first two songs I finished after Kirk left… was ‘No Love‘ and ‘Strike Of The Beast‘.”
In a previous interview, Holt was asked the fan-favorite “what if” question: would he have taken the Metallica gig if he had been asked instead of Hammett?
“Probably not,” he admitted. “‘Cause at that time in my life, change was scary to me. I was always happy where I was comfortable. I would’ve probably said no.”
His immediate reaction to Hammett getting the historic offer was one of support and determination. “It was, like, ‘Congratulations, Kirk. I love you, bro. And thanks for getting me started on this journey… And now it’s my band. Let’s go,'” he recalled.
