Exodus guitarist Gary Holt recently shared one of the most bizarre moments from his touring career in an interview with Metal Pilgrim.
When asked to describe a particularly crazy story from the road, Holt said (as transcribed by Metal Addicts): “I played Norway a million years ago and some fan showed up at hotel and brought me a dead cat. He found it on the road, he didn’t killed it, he thought I’d like it. My response was not good.”
The interviewer asked why anyone would think Holt would appreciate such a gift, and the Exodus guitarist explained his reaction in detail: “Maybe Exodus, hell, bloodthirsty, blah blah blah, but I was a little bit angry, and I say a little bit angry ‘cuz I’m being polite, I was f**king furious. Like that was not, f**king, I love cats, alright? I don’t care that he didn’t kill it, ‘cuz he didn’t, he found it on the road, but I was f**king almost violently angry.”
When prompted about the fan’s state at the time, Holt added: “He was kind of f**ked up, kind of wasted.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Holt talked about maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the demanding heavy music industry. The interviewer pointed out that Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recently marked his own 40th anniversary of being clean, and asked if pioneering figures like him and Alice Cooper served as personal inspirations.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Holt said. “And, you know, I mean, I’m honored that like I’m like people like Halford reached out to like encourage me, you know, when I did it, you know, and and other friends in the in the business who’ve like gone through the same struggles, you know, like, you know, were really awesome with their like encouragement and advice, you know.”
Reflecting on his past lifestyle choices, the guitarist explained that putting down the bottle was actually the final, and perhaps least difficult, step in a long process of eliminating unhealthy habits.
“And I mean, it’s not like I don’t know what Jagermeister tastes like. I’ve been there, done that enough times. I quit doing dr*gs long ago. I quit smoking long ago. Quitting drinking was like, was the easier of all three of those for sure.”
Addressing the old cliché that playing heavy metal requires a constant partying lifestyle, the musician joked about how drastically his backstage routine has changed over the decades. He also admitted that cutting out alcohol led to a brand new craving on the road.
“No, no, it’s like it’s it’s f**king sleep, a sandwich in rock and roll now, you know. Actually, you know, the downside of quitting drinking is you like you eat more desserts, you know, like, you know, there’s a lot of sugar in beer and you don’t get that anymore. So now I eat way too many cookies.”
While that story may be shocking, Exodus has been keeping busy with music. The band released their latest album, Goliath, on March 20 via Napalm Records.
