ALEX SKOLNICK Talks Future With TESTAMENT: 'I'm Not Sure I Want To Be An Aging Metal Guy'

Alex Skolnick says that he doesn't know how much longer he will continue playing with TESTAMENT because he doesn't want to be "an aging metal guy" who "keeps going forever."

Alex, who joined TESTAMENT (then known as LEGACY) when he was 16, quickly began to wonder if there was more out there for him as a musician, causing him to quit the band in 1992 and move to New York to study at the New School's Jazz Performance program, where he got his BFA in 2001. Back with TESTAMENT for more than a decade now, he still records and tours with his jazz trio, simply dubbed the ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO, whose 2011 album, "Veritas", reached the Top Ten of the iTunes jazz chart.

Asked by Metal Shock Finland in a new interview how long he will continue playing with TESTAMENT, Skolnick laughed and responded (see video below): "I have to be careful how I answer this. There are certain web sites that I'm not gonna name, but they… instead of reporting on my tour or, you know, something really newsworthy, it's, like, 'Okay, let's find something he says in an interview and try to make it controversial.' It's so silly."

He continued: "I'll just say I didn't expect to be here this long. When I came back to the band in 2005, honestly, at that time I didn't even know we were even gonna do a record, but we did 'The Formation Of Damnation' record, and the next thing I know, we're touring with MOTÖRHEAD and HEAVEN & HELL and JUDAS PRIEST. That was an amazing tour — the 'Metal Masters' tour. [And then we toured with] SLAYER and MEGADETH… Basically, that reunion kind of relaunched the band. And I've been here now longer than I was the first time around. And, you know, it's going really well."

Skolnick added: "Here's where it gets to be a slippery slope: I'm not sure I want to be an aging metal guy. I'm still in a decade which is… I'm not in my fifties — I'm in my forties — which is longer than I thought I'd be playing this music, 'cause it's such 'youth' music. So you can't say never, but I just feel like I don't wanna be one of these guys that are going forever in between taking Geritol. But, you know, who knows? Right now it's working."

TESTAMENT's latest album, "Brotherhood Of The Snake", was released last October via Nuclear Blast. The cover was once again created by renowned artist Eliran Kantor, who also handled the art for the TESTAMENT's previous album, 2012's "Dark Roots Of Earth", and also worked with bands like HATEBREED, SOULFLY and KATAKLYSM in the past.