GARY HOLT Says He Has Only Had 'Maybe Two Hecklers' In Three Years He's Played With SLAYER

In a brand new interview with Metal Assault, guitarist Gary Holt of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal legends EXODUS was asked if he ever felt scared people would react negatively to seeing him onstage with SLAYER as the replacement for that band's late axeman, Jeff Hanneman.

"No, I've been fortunate and very lucky," he said. "In three years now, I've had, like, maybe two hecklers. [laughs]"

He continued: "I can't understand why someone would pay money just to come and flip someone off the whole show, you know. But yeah, I had just two hecklers in countless shows and I had one who had a good spirit about it. We were having fun with it. He wasn't out there saying, 'Fuck you!'. We were just laughing and flipping each other off back and forth, and at the end of the show, he complimented me. So, it is what it is, and I think most people understand my role in the history of this genre. They understand that I'm not some new metal dude who's stuck in this band playing these parts. They understand that I was there at the very beginning, if not the beginning of this whole genre, but that's up to debate. EXODUS in its earliest incarnation goes back to 1979."

Regarding where exactly he had those hecklers, Holt said: "I do remember that one was in Germany. It was one of my early shows with SLAYER. The guy had this really bad skullet. He was super-bald but clinging to the last of the hair he had on the back of his head. And the funny thing was, my guitar tech and Kerry's [King, SLAYER] guitar tech would beat anybody to death and all I had to do was ask them. I thought about it for a second, and they would have just dragged him out and pummeled him. But I decided to leave him alone. But then our production manager got down from the stage on his radio and the dude saw that he was probably going to get thrown out, so he vanished. [laughs]. But I spared him. I could have had him going home bloody that night if I wanted to, if I cared that much."

Speaking to Las Vegas Weekly, King stated about Holt's addition to SLAYER's touring lineup: "There's only one high point to Jeff not being with us for three years: Gary got to be. And when the time came, it wasn't complete culture shock with some new guy trying to take over for someone who just passed away. I mean, I would hate to be in that position, but luckily, Gary's been with us since 2011, so the fans were used to him. I think it was easier. And there are pictures at Jeff's memorial that showed Gary holding Jeff from when we first met, like, 25 years ago and there's some after Gary was playing in SLAYER for Jeff of them two together. It's kind of cool. I mean, if you can find any kind of silver lining it's cool that Jeff was on board with Gary taking his spot, and moving forward, it makes things easier, I guess."

He continued: "Gary's not writing anything on this [next SLAYER] record. I don't think fans would be ready for that. What I'd like him to do is play some leads to just take some of the heat off of me. And then three years down the line, we do another record, [and] if Gary's with us, I would be more than happy for Gary to write some tunes."