Exodus are 'basically travelling t-shirt salesmen'

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Exodus drummer Tom Hunting says touring and selling merch is how the thrash heroes earn a living in the era of falling record sales

A picture of Tom Hunting
Tom Hunting (Image credit: Getty)

Exodus drummer Tom Hunting says the band are “basically travelling t-shirt salesmen” as record sales no longer pay the bills.

Hunting says that like most bands, Exodus don’t sell enough physical records to make a decent living and that they will always have to tour extensively.

Hunting tells From Hero To Zero: “A lot of bands, aside from Metallica or Beyonce or people who come out of the gate selling 800,000 copies the first day, we have to tour.

“We’re kind of, basically, travelling t-shirt salesmen. And it’s okay, because it takes us to amazing places in the world and we love seeing other cultures and having other foods and seeing how the rest of the world lives.

“I think it’s the best education you can get in your life, for sure. It takes away any illusions or ignorances about the way the rest of the world gets on and lives. So it’s fine.”

Exodus released their latest album Blood In Blood Out in 2014 and frontman Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza recently said the follow-up could arrive next year.

He said: “Say it was towards the end of 2017 – that would be three years since my return to the band and three years since Blood In Blood Out came out. So I think that’s fair to say you should be able to put a record out in that amount of time.

“We’ve always been able to come home and concentrate on writing an album, and within five or six months, we have it written and done – even less time than that. We know what we’re doing.”

Exodus' Zetro and Holt tighter than ever

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.