Ex-TESTAMENT Bassist GREG CHRISTIAN Says That He Was 'Treated Like Less Than Human' By His Former Bandmates

Former TESTAMENT bassist Greg Christian says that he was "treated like less than human" during his tenure with the band and considers his time with the group "a huge waste" of his life.

Christian — whose acrimonious January 2014 exit from TESTAMENT was well publicized on these pages — made his latest comments while reflecting on his career trajectory in a Thanksgiving message on his personal Facebook page.

In a post that was made public, Christian wrote: "I'm thankful for being blessed with the opportunity to see so much of the world, meeting people / making friends from all over the place while touring and performing with TESTAMENT for 20+ years.

"A while back I said I regretted ever doing it and considered it a waste of my life. I'm going to address that: That's not exactly true. I have wonderful memories of amazing life experiences — but I also have regrets.

"People can think whatever they want but the truth of the matter is I worked for it and what I brought to the stage contributed to the band's success. Especially during my second tenure.

"I always held myself to the highest standards. If I missed a note one night — you could bet your ass I wouldn't miss it the next. My bass on 'Dark Roots Of Thrash' [DVD/2CD release documenting TESTAMENT's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York in February 2013] was ALL 100% live. Not a single overdub. None. I put that kind of effort, attention to detail, and heart into every show, out of love, respect and appreciation for the fans. Invested my time, life and myself in that enterprise and was treated like less than human for my troubles. Reality was far worse than I can describe or that anyone outside of it would ever believe and their recent responses in interviews are simply not true.

"Let's all show tax returns for '11-'13 .. but .. LMAO .. that'll never happen 'cause the disparity would be sickening. With snakes, there is no brotherhood.

"So yes, I regret ever working with Chuck Billy [TESTAMENT singer] and Eric Peterson [TESTAMENT guitarist] and do consider that part of it a huge waste of my life. I'm good enough of a musician and performer that if I wasn't with them, I would've been in another band. But I have always loved performing and touring. Even once it was all bad with them, when I hit the stage, it was still 'real' to me, so I have a lot of mixed feelings and internal conflicts. Something that really should have been all good… wasn't."

Billy recently told Metal Forces that Christian wanted to be an "equal partner" in TESTAMENT after rejoining the band following a nine-year break. Billy said: "Me and Eric own the band. Greg doesn't own the band. Greg left the band for nine years and wanted to come back in the band and be an equal partner, and that's not what the deal was. Greg came back as a reunion bass player, and that turned into seven years of doing a reunion. There were never talks about 'Hey, come on back and let's be equal partners like we were when we started this band.' That's not what was gonna happen. I think he expected that, and we agreed to disagree."

The singer continued: "While they were off doing whatever they did in life, me and Eric held down the fort for all of those years, and they were tough years. Those were in the '90s, when it was very tough for heavy metal. We weren't making any money. Yeah, we felt strong that, 'No. If it was you, Greg, or if it was Steve [DiGiorgio, bass], or if it was any other bass player, here's what we're gonna pay you to play bass in TESTAMENT. You can do whatever you wanna do.' Like Gene [Hoglan, drums], Steve and Alex [Skolnick, guitar]; whenever they're not in TESTAMENT, they're doing other projects. We don't hold them up; we don't say, 'You're in TESTAMENT. You can't do anything else.' Greg felt what he felt and decided he didn't wanna do it, so he left. I think maybe he regrets it, and he's talking out because of that. That's all I can think. [Laughs] He got to travel and play music around the world, and didn't have to get a job. I thought it was pretty good. [Laughs]"

TESTAMENT's twelfth album, "Brotherhood Of The Snake", was released on October 28 via Nuclear Blast.