GARY HOLT On DAVE MUSTAINE's 'Retirement': 'He's Earned It, And I'm Sure It's Gonna Be Awesome For Him'

On November 16, 2025 at the San Antonio Fear Fest in San Antonio, Texas, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt spoke to Robb Chavez of Robbs MetalWorks about his friendship with fellow thrash metal pioneer Dave Mustaine of MEGADETH. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah. We've done lots of tours with MEGADETH. And Dave's been one of my closest friends, musical friends, since the beginning. We hung out when he was in METALLICA. And I saw him when the last MEGADETH tour went [through]. I hadn't seen him in years. It's always like old friends."

Asked for his opinion on Mustaine's recent announcement that MEGADETH would release its final studio album and complete a farewell tour in support of it, Gary said: "He's earned it. I still love doing what I do, but I'd be lying if I said, man, the idea of retirement, after two or three more years…' 'Cause I'm 61 now. Do I wanna go till I'm 70? I don't know. But I can't retire. I need to keep working. So I'm gonna keep going as long as I can. But he's earned it, and I'm sure it's gonna be fucking awesome for him."

After Chavez noted that former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson recently questioned Mustaine's motives for announcing the MEGADETH farewell, suggesting perhaps that it was a ploy to boost ticket sales for the upcoming tour, Holt said: "I think his ticket sales are fine without it. We're not getting any younger. And [Mustaine] said himself the tour is gonna be two to three years. I think Dave's one year older than me, so [he's] 62 — that's gonna put him to 65 years old. I have three grandkids. I'd love to spend more time at home with 'em. Next year, when the new [EXODUS] album comes out, I'm gonna be on tour more than ever. So, I'm making the sacrifices now, so that maybe by the time I am 65 I can slow down, maybe do a festival here and there. I don't know. We'll see."

Holt was also asked for his opinion about the announcement that the final MEGADETH album, simply titled "Megadeth", would include Mustaine's version of "Ride The Lightning", the title track of METALLICA's 1984 album for which Dave got a co-writing credit following Mustaine's 1983 departure from the band. Gary said: "I haven't heard it yet. [Mustaine] wrote, I guess, probably half the [original] song, so why not? I can't wait to hear it, actually… Let's wait and hear it. I bet he plays it faster. When [EXODUS] did 'Tempo Of The Damned' and stuff and we went out on tour with MEGADETH, [Mustaine] put 'Mechanix' back in the set, 'cause I asked him to. And he played it at the old tempo — super fast."

"Mechanix" was the original version of "The Four Horsemen", the METALLICA song that was co-written by Mustaine and included on METALLICA's debut album, 1983's "Kill 'Em All'. METALLICA wrote new lyrics and renamed the song "The Four Horsemen" after Dave was kicked out of the band. The track "Mechanix" later appeared on MEGADETH's debut album, 1985's "Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good!".

Holt's former bandmate, original EXODUS guitarist Kirk Hammett, was asked to join METALLICA 42 years ago as the replacement for Mustaine.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the band's debut album, 1985's "Bonded By Blood", inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal LPs of all time.

More than a decade ago, Mustaine was asked by Radio.com which band should have been included if the "Big Four" (METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX) were expanded and considered the "Big Five". Mustaine said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him."

EXODUS and ANTHRAX will support MEGADETH on a Canadian tour in February/March 2026.