EXODUS Guitarist Slams Internet 'Sh*t-Talkers', Proves Naysayers Wrong

Alexi Front of the FourteenG e-zine recently conducted an interview with EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

FourteenG: How have people accepted the new album?

Gary Holt: "They love it! The reviews have been off the hook. People are saying it is better than 'Tempo of the Damned'. Of course you have the few naysayers, but they are usually people who aren't fans anyways. Every other review I have read, the people have been blown away. With 'Tempo of the Damned', it is a great album, but it was held by low expectations. People expected EXODUS to get back together and make a mediocre album and just be another band well passed their prime making an album of rehashed Eighties thrash and then going out and tour, playing only two songs from it and living off their past successes. I am not about that. I am about making killer new albums and not living off past albums. This album here, with all the problems, people didn't expect it to be this good, especially with all the problems. You should never doubt me because I will shut you up. Because I am that kind of guy, I work better when people question your abilities."

FourteenG: I think that especially the label has put you as the face of EXODUS and how do you feel when someone criticizes something so personal to you?

Gary Holt: "I don't care. I don't expect people to love me. People don't have to love my band to be my friend, that's not the type of person I am. I don't give a fuck, love me or hate me. There was a time when we were metal darlings, but now with the Internet, people love me and people hate me. I really can't care whether someone likes me or not. I am doing what I want to do, and every last one of them would cut off their testicle to do what I do. These little kids sitting behind their computers talking shit, it is like dude, I have forgotten sex with more women than these kids will ever have. I have had more fun and visited more countries than they will ever have the luxury to and I get paid to do it. So I tell them, fuck you, I don't care if you like me. So long as there are people who do like what I do and support what I do I will keep doing it because I am having fun. If you don't like it, that's fine. I don't expect a fan of STRATOVARIUS to like EXODUS, and I don't expect and EXODUS fan to like STRATOVARIUS. When we were starting out, people supported all the forms of heavy music and now it is so alienated. I love black metal and I love death metal, but now kids are closed-minded."

FourteenG: The Internet is creating a dichotomy. People are closed-minded because they are exposed to so much of one thing, say power metal. At the same time, there are opportunities to expand into so much stuff.

Gary Holt: "There is good and bad to it. The Internet also allows cowards to talk all the shit they want. People who would never say these things to my face, because they will get hurt. I am not by nature a violent man… yes, I am [laughter]. I am cool. A good example of Internet. I have read reviews, say on Blabbermouth, they are talking, some dude says the album is great and another guy says he met me and that I was an asshole. I am completely nice to everyone and I am the most open person to my fans. I am more active on my own message board than most people in any band. But you get some guy who was wasted out of his brain, obnoxious, bad breath, drunk, and drooling, and I don't want to talk to him. All he remembers is that I didn't want to talk to him. But he doesn't remember he was fuckin' idiot. Whatever, it doesn't matter that much to me. I want to have fun, and I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't having fun, that is why I quit in 1993."

Read the entire interview at FourteenG.net.