Louder AAA
With nearly 50 years of violence to their name, thrash pioneers Exodus have come back with another face-stomper, Goliath. It’s the first since 2010’s Exhibit B: The Human Condition to feature vocalist Rob Dukes, who split from the band in 2014. We talked to him about taking over from Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza in 2004, making his album debut the following year with Shovel Headed Kill Machine, and how he taught himself everything he knows about both kinds of metal: high-octane thrashy snarls and welding sheets of the stuff together.
MUSIC IS THERAPY
“My childhood was tough; my parents got divorced when I was very young. I bounced around family members and it was hard to be grounded. My life was chaotic and I didn’t make friends easily in school. But when I got home, I’d put on music, and it seemed to all go away. Solace. My grandmother would come in at night, and because I’d fall asleep with headphones on, she’d take them off so I didn’t choke myself. Music was always there.”
THERE’S MEANING IN METAL
“I’m in the very low percentage of people that listen to music specifically for the lyrics. I’d go to a thrash show, and then go home and put on Circumstances by Rush. If the lyrics are really good, they lead you to investigate and figure out what they’re about. I read books because of Metallica!”
ALWAYS MEET YOUR HEROES
“I was living in LA and got hired to work as a guitar tech for Exodus. When I got on the tour bus, everyone was really fucking cool. I told them I went to see Exodus when a riot broke out. The barrier had collapsed and broke somebody’s leg, so the show got stopped. People were just tearing shit apart; cars burned in the parking lot and the cops came to stop it. When I told them, the camaraderie was immediate, like guys I’d known my whole life.”
SAYING YES CAN BE LIFE-CHANGING
“On tour, Zetro quit on really bad terms. He didn’t show up and turned his phone off. [Skinlab frontman] Steev Esquivel filled in. Gary Holt said to me, ‘You should sing a song.’ So I jumped up and sang a song. They were on tour with Megadeth so it was full of fucking thousands of people.
"I don’t remember it, it was so surreal. Later in New York, I was getting a tattoo and I got a phone call I’ll never forget. Gary and Tom [Hunting, drums] said they wanted me to come out and audition. I said, ‘I’ll be there in a couple weeks.’ I hung up the phone and said to the tattoo artist, ‘I’m gonna be the new singer of Exodus!’”
NEVER STOP LEARNING
“My first show standing in, I was terrible. I couldn’t remember the lyrics or hear the timing. I had never really sung before. There are a couple of pictures and all I see is me looking at the lyrics going, ‘Where the fuck am I supposed to sing?!’ We didn’t rehearse. Gary and Tom were taking such a risk – they were so insane to take someone who had never done this before, with such high-level music, you know? This isn’t a bar band. I’m just a guy. But I learned how to do it. I did fucking 200 shows the first year, 250 the next year. As shows went on, I started to learn more and more.”
KEEP YOUR INSPIRATION CLOSE
“I literally had [original vocalist] Paul Baloff’s ashes on the mic stand when I sang Shovel Headed Kill Machine in the studio. When the band tells me stories about Baloff, they talk about him with such love and reverence. Gary had his ashes in a vial, and he brought them in for me. Baloff sang with aggression and he meant it, he felt the lyrics. That’s how I felt about Shovel Head. I felt the anger, the darkness, embraced it and sang in a little room, with the lights down low. It was a focal point, I just wanted to be as angry and as aggressive as possible.”
BREATHE!
“I blew my voice out the very first day in the studio. I knew nothing about singing. I didn’t understand that if you don’t breathe properly, you’re going to damage your throat. I was screaming at the top of my lungs over and over. By the end of each song I’d been singing for an hour and a half at full volume, every inch of my body was screaming.
"I don’t know if you’ve ever screamed at the top of your lungs, but it takes your entire body to do it. I’ve learned to control my breathing, which is what keeps you from losing your voice. Sound guys tell me I sing louder than any other singer they’ve worked with – a lot of singers sing very low. I used to write it on my setlist: breathe, breathe, breathe, because I would forget!”
LET THE PEOPLE MOSH
“One of my best shows is on video – Wacken 2008 was intense. We were just a fucking machine, man. It was the culmination of three years touring constantly, and catching us at the right moment. It was awesome, just perfect. There was another show in Chicago that was pure mayhem, people fighting with the bouncers. They were throwing out stage divers, and we stopped playing until they brought them back in. It was just chaos.”
BEWARE AIRPORT BARS
“We were leaving to tour Europe for a month but our flight got delayed. Everybody got fucking hammered at the TGI Friday’s at the airport. Our next flight isn’t for six hours, so everyone got wrecked. We get on the plane, everyone was so drunk that this lady started freaking out. The captain threw us off and they called the police. When the police showed up the cop was like: ‘Oh, you guys are in Exodus? I love that band!’ He took a picture and left – we got on a flight six hours later and only missed one show. I remember all of it because I was sober. I was the voice of reason!”
KEEP ON KEEPING ON…
“When I got fired from Exodus in 2014 I didn’t see it coming. I felt betrayed, angry and resentful. I was fucking scared: my livelihood was gone. Fear caused me to lash out. I hadn’t done anything in 10 years other than sing, so what the fuck was I gonna do? I was in no man’s land.”
AND FIND NEW OPPORTUNITIES
“I sucked it up and said, ‘I’m gonna get a job’. The only thing I knew I could make a living from was working on cars. I found a place in Arizona through Roger [Miret] from Agnostic Front. I got hired and the next thing you know I’m a full-time mechanic restoring old 50s and 60s Volkswagens – I became the restoration guy. I gained a whole new life. I learned things by reading books and watching YouTube. I’m like a fucking master welder now! I love fabricating stuff, I just love making stuff out of metal.”
LET GO OF THE FEAR
“Sometimes you’re not a part of the plan. That’s the darker side of this thing. You’d like it to be all for one, one for all. But it’s not. There’s money on the table. I started dealing with the resentment and the anger. I just took care of my side, ‘Do you really want to live a life of anger and resentment, or do you want to be free of it?’ That’s what I kept telling myself, I’m going to be fine. I was right. Because I gained a whole new life.”
TALK IT OUT
“I was just starting to piece my life back together. Exodus was a thing of the past, something on my resume. Generation Kill was more important to me. I got a call from Gary saying come to San Francisco, we all want to talk to you. I’m like, ‘Okay, but I’m still a little bitter.’ I sit down with them and I forgave them right then and there. In my head, I just said, ‘You know what? They’re just dudes doing their thing.’ And it was all good. After that, I talked to them on a regular basis, never about Exodus. That resentment was no longer there.”
THERE’S LIFE AFTER SOBRIETY
“I’m the hope that you can live on a tour bus and be in a drug and alcohol-fuelled workplace and succeed. I’m coming up on 33 years sober. I didn’t handle alcohol well, my friend said I was like David Lee Roth mixed with Hulk Hogan. I kept going to jail, I loved to get in fights and fucking pure drunken insanity. I was just an idiot. I watched my grandparents die from alcoholism. They were really good people. Since I quit drinking, I figured out who I am. I’m much better for it. For the hopeless drunks out there, if they’re listening: there is hope. Just quit, I promise you, life will get better.”
Goliath is out now via Nuclear Blast
