Testament recall bar room brawl

Testament frontman Chuck Billy has recalled the night the band and their crew were involved in a bar room brawl on Bourbon Street, New Orleans.

He says the incident happened when the group had a night off on tour in 200001. And although he and his bandmates managed to get safely away, the road crew were arrested following the fracas.

Billy tells Digital Tour Bus: “It was us and the whole crew and we were having a good time. The people next to us I guess weren’t because they wanted some trouble and they ended up starting some problems with our lighting guy.

“They knocked his beer over and said he was sitting in their seat. We said, ‘You owe that guy a beer, that ain’t cool.’ The guy just gave us the bird and told us where to go and at that point it was on.”

He continues: “It was literally like a bar room brawl. We had pool cues and we were tomahawking people, breaking chairs over people’s heads – it was like a movie. It got really ugly and we ended up surviving and getting out of it. The crew stayed and the cops came and arrested them.”

Billy says police later told them that the venue had a reputation for fighting and that they were lucky to walk away unharmed. He adds: “We all felt pretty good about it. ‘Yeah, we went to New Orleans and kicked ass and had a great time.’”

Testament are on a European tour and will play Download on June 13. They’re currently writing material for the follow-up to 2012’s Dark Roots Of Earth.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.