In a new conversation with The David Ellefson Show, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt opened up about the early days of Bay Area thrash and his complex, but ultimately supportive, feelings about Kirk Hammett leaving Exodus to join Metallica more than four decades ago.
“Yeah, it’s a whole incestuous relationship, for sure. Kirk’s in Exodus, Kirk joins Metallica,” Holt said (via Blabbermouth). “I’m friends with both, and there’s a lot of sniping and stuff, and a lot of bad blood. But I stayed out of that. But, yeah, it kind of put me in the driver’s seat [when it came to Exodus]. I was starting to write a lot of riffs. When I joined [Exodus], Kirk wrote everything. And at the time when he left, I was happy for him.”
Holt’s reflections underscore the tight-knit, often tangled web of early thrash metal history, where band members were constantly shifting and evolving, sometimes within blocks of one another in the Bay Area. Even with the emotional fallout and professional upheaval that followed Hammett‘s move, Holt kept his focus forward.
When asked whether he would have taken the same leap had Metallica come calling, Holt offered a revealing look at his mindset during those formative years.
“Probably not. ’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,” he admitted. “At the time, [before they recorded] Kill ‘Em All… If you joined, you were joining a great band, but you were joining a band that [was about to] put out an independent album and were playing clubs. You didn’t know they were gonna be [what they eventually became]. If I had been asked and knew now in the future of what they’d become, I would’ve traveled back in time and kicked my own ass to take that job.”
That hindsight doesn’t seem to come with regret, though. Holt appears grounded in how things unfolded. When co-host Joshua Toomey asked if Dave Mustaine, who had just been ousted from Metallica, was ever considered to replace Hammett in Exodus, Holt responded bluntly.
“No, no. It was, like, ‘Congratulations, Kirk. I love you, bro. And thanks for getting me started on this journey and teaching me my first licks and chords. And now it’s my band. Let’s go.’”
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