Steve “Zetro” Souza, former vocalist for Exodus, is preparing for a return to live performances, including a solo tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Exodus‘s 2004 album Tempo of the Damned. Souza discussed his upcoming plans on his Zetro’s Toxic Vault YouTube series, joined by co-host Walter Morgan.
Souza revealed an initial one-off festival appearance. “I was approached by this young man, and he asked me if I was interested in doing kind of a festival in Iowa in October. I should know the name of it, but I don’t.” After hearing the backing band, Souza said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Yeah, okay. One show, one-off…”
He clarified his touring preferences: “Again, I don’t wanna tour. I don’t wanna get on a tour bus, but I’m not opposed to going out and playing songs from [the various projects] that I’ve done. I’ve played in many, many bands, so there’ve been so many things I can do. So I agreed to do that. All of this stuff, if it materializes, I’ll be great with it.”
The conversation then shifted to potential South American dates. Souza stated: “So then he got ahold of me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this guy in South America that wants to bring you down there.'” He described a verbal agreement: “it was something that I was, like, ‘Yeah, if we could do that, I’m cool with it. I’ll go down there.’ And he wanted to do it in August and September.” However, Souza was surprised when a poster for the tour surfaced: “Now, before I could even approve anything, Cody, my son, the next day sends me a message and says, ‘Hey, dad, did you see this?’ He shows me a poster, and it’s got the Tempo of the Damned album cover, it says ‘ZETRODUS‘, it’s got Exodus’s logo and Testament‘s logo and Hatriot‘s logo on there. And I went, ‘Whoa.’ I go, ‘I said I agreed to do this, but I didn’t see this. I didn’t approve this.'” Despite this, he wasn’t upset: “But I was not p*ssed off, like, ‘Goddamn it, why did they…?’ ‘Cause if we go, we go, kind of a thing.”
Souza emphasized that the South American tour is not fully confirmed. “I just wanna be honest with you guys up front,” he explained. “South America has a lot of moving parts, especially you guys in South America. I didn’t see any dates. All I’ve seen is a poster, and it says I’m coming. I haven’t seen any dates. So I’ll believe this when I see it.” He repeated his willingness: “Again, I am not opposed to doing it — five or six or seven dates in South America. I love going to South America. You guys are the greatest crowds. You know that. That’s why everybody does live videos from Santiago, Chile or Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo, because they’re so crazy. Or Bogota, you know? And so I’m cool with that. But, again, there’s a lot of things involved to get it going. Again, there’s a lot of moving parts too, South America.”
Regarding his future schedule, Souza added: “So, am I gonna do this? Probably, ’cause it fits my schedule. I can do it at my own discretion. I mean, if we’re doing more than five or six dates, [it’s] too long, I mean, I’ll go to the East Coast and hit up five or six dates. I’ll go to Florida and do that.” He reaffirmed his stance on touring: “I’m not jumping in a tour bus again unless the tour bus, it’s just me, my wife and my pugs, and I just don’t think that the type of music that I make is gonna be able to afford me to take my own tour bus out on that. And I don’t wanna do that anymore.”
Souza also revealed plans to reactivate Tenet, his project featuring Jed Simon (Strapping Young Lad, Zimmers Hole), Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad, Death, Testament, Dark Angel), Glen Alvelais (Forbidden, Testament), and Byron Stroud (Fear Factory). “I’ve been been speaking to Jed and Glenn Alvelais,” Souza said. “And he was talking to Byron Stroud. For those of you guys who don’t know, in 2009 I did an album with three of the four Strapping Young Lad guys. It didn’t have Devin Townsend in it. It was Gene Hoglan, Byron Stroud, Jed Simon and Glenn Alvelais, who played on [Forbidden’s] Forbidden Evil record and also did a couple records with Testament, and some tours. So we did this record. The band is called Tenet. And the album’s called Sovereign. It came out in 2009. We’ve never played have that a show for that band ever. And so now, talking to the guys, we were, like, ‘Well, we should resurrect this.’ ‘Cause those guys are in the same mentality I am. I don’t necessarily wanna hit this at hundred yards. I’ll do a couple shows here or there. I’ll do Milwaukee Metal Fest.” He expressed some reservations about touring Europe with the project: “I don’t know if I wanna take it to Europe because that’s more moving parts over there, depending. But we’ll see, and then see what happens with it.”
In addition to these projects, Souza will continue with his AC/DC cover band, AC/DZ. “And then again, I’ll continue to do [my AC/DC cover band] AC/DZ. I love AC/DZ. I love singing those songs. I get to be Bon Scott for an hour and 20 minutes, or 16, 17 songs, however we do it.”
Details for Souza’s solo tour, featuring classic songs from Exodus, Testament (from his time as vocalist for Legacy, an early incarnation of Testament), Hatriot, and Bon Scott-era AC/DC, are currently being booked for late summer and throughout the year. The backing musicians for his “ZETRO” shows will include Zakk Frye (Slikk Wikked) on rhythm guitar and backup vocals, Kyle Smith (Slikk Wikked) on lead guitar, Paul “MX” Marsciano (Nasty Trast, Joey Belladonna) on drums, and Donny “Death” Weissinger (Nasty Trast, Hate Grenade) on bass.
