During a new chat with Alive & Streaming, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt looks back on the 9 years along with Slayer.
Here are some parts of the interview:
You being in Slayer for 9 years, I was going to ask this question, do you think your time in Slayer has influenced some of the new Exodus material?
“I don’t think so. I think when you hear the new Exodus, anybody who says, ‘I bet it sounds like Slayer‘ – it’s not like that. It sounds like Exodus.
“But I learned a lot. When you go from one band, and then you go to another band, and you’re playing arenas and sh*t, you learn a lot about behind-the-scene elements and all that kind of s*it.
“And it was really good for my chops, that’s for sure, playing that kind of high-speed sh*t soloing-wise. As I said, I was making sh*t up half the time.”
They never told you, ‘You got to learn Jeff’s [Hanneman] stuff,’ they let you do it freeform?
“No. I mean, if they wanted someone to play just like Jeff, which is one of a kind style, you would’ve been way better off going out and getting some guy from those Slayer tribute bands, who’s spend every waking moment learning how to play like Jeff.
“We’re totally two different guitar players that live in the same genre; they just let me go and do my thing and go crazy. You try to mimic the vibe, like, Jeff was playing fast and using whammy bars, I tried to do it too.
“On [1983’s] ‘Show No Mercy’ there’s a lot of melody in the solos, so I tried to mimic some of his key licks and the stuff in the solos.”