ROB DUKES Clarifies His EXODUS Comments: 'I Thought These Guys Were My Brothers'

Former EXODUS and current GENERATION KILL frontman Rob Dukes was interviewed by Mark Strigl for the latest episode of the "Talking Metal" podcast (web site). You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his recent appearance on the "Opie And Jim Norton" talk show where he said that he didn’t like the music EXODUS was writing prior to his departure, explaining that it was "just regurgitated shit that we had just done and done over and over again":

"They did ask me some EXODUS questions, and I think I told the truth… I was completely honest. And it was funny that Blabbermouth took it out of context and didn't actually put what I said on there. They took pieces of it and took out the in-between pieces that made it make sense and just put the shitty stuff.

"I didn't get personal. I'm not gonna get personal about it. I'm not gonna talk shit about the band personally.

"The situation and how it ended was really shitty, and my friendships with all of them ended really shitty, when it was basically business. You know what I mean? I get it. But the fans don't see it that way; they're too attached to it. They love it."

On the BLABBERMOUTH.NET response to the comments he made during his appearance on the "Opie And Jim Norton" talk show:

"I didn't read any of the comments [on Blabbermouth]. My friend [told me], 'Dude, you're getting fucking trashed.' I'm, like, 'I don't give a fuck.' He was, like, 'Don't even [read it].' And I [went], 'I'm never gonna read it. I don't give a shit.' But he was, like, 'Yeah, they took it completely out of context.' Honestly, I just stopped going [on Blabbermouth]. I don't even go there anymore. I'm not in metal anymore. I'm just being a guy, you know what I mean? I have a regular job now. I work, like, sixty hours a fucking week. I don't fucking go and sit at a computer on a tour bus anymore; I just… I don't do it. I'm not that guy anymore. So I don't care… I don't owe those people anything. They don't owe me anything. They don't give me anything, and I don't expect anything from them. They're not a part of my existence. I don't do what I do for them; I do it for myself. And if anything comes other than that, then I'm cool with that. But if it doesn't, I'm cool with that too. You know?"

On why he is so angry about the way his stint with EXODUS ended:

"Look, everything ends bad. When things end, they end bad. You know what I mean? Nobody gets a divorce 'cause they're fucking happy. Divorces are… they're all bad, and I get that. But I think, basically, what left me so sour is that… You know, I was in this situation where I thought these guys were my brothers, my friends, and they were family. I'd eaten at their homes and I'd met their parents and we were all very close. To have it end the way it did just left me really angry. And just the fact that they're gone just makes me mad. It makes me mad that you couldn't just… 'Hey, man…' You know… Anger is always the reaction, but it's, really, that inside you're hurt. So it's shitty, you know what I mean? And it sucks. I miss my friendships that I had, and I've lost a lot of friendships along the way because of it. Because people…. A lot of people are hanger-ons; that's what bands call these people. They're called hanger-ons because they're only friends with you for what you can give them. And when I was no longer the singer of EXODUS, a lot of people fucking tipped away. Because now they're, like, 'Well, if I stay friends with Rob, Gary Holt's [EXODUS and SLAYER guitarist] not gonna let me into the SLAYER show.' You know what I mean? So there's a divide of the children and divide of the family and the friends. So that's the honesty of it. It's nothing personal. I know that this was a business decision; this wasn't because I was there. And the people that are making comments [on the Internet], they weren't there. They were never a part of this situation. They're commenting on something that they're only getting… It would be like making a complete decision, but you only have a third of the facts. And then you're gonna base all your decisions based on that. But you don't have all the information. You only have a third of it. You know what I mean? So there are a lot of factors.

"Look, I'm not the fucking easiest guy in the world to get along with. But at least I'm honest about it. At least I'm a dick for the right reasons. I never rolled over. If I didn't like something, I fucking said it. Like when we were on tour with TESTAMENT, and TESTAMENT was gonna give us two feet of stage room. And I fucking walked in and I tapped on the bus and then TESTAMENT wouldn't answer the door. 'Cause I'm, like, 'Fuck you! You are fucking moving your drums. You are not putting us in this fucking situation.' And I went in and I fucking… Me and the drum tech got in this big fucking argument. I'm, like, 'Fuck you, man! Move those fucking drums.' And then the fucking tour manager for MEGADETH came out and said, 'Yeah, what the fuck are you doing? Move the fucking drums! You're not gonna treat EXODUS like this. You're the fucking middle band. You're not the fucking headliner.' And I walked back on the [EXODUS] bus, and everyone… Gary and Tom [Hunting, EXODUS drummer] [were, like], 'Dude, you're the best!' And I'm like, 'No, dude. I'm just…. This is what we deserve.' You know what I mean? And I fucking knew what the fuck… who I was. So the opinion of somebody on Blabbermouth is not gonna deter me from being me; it's not gonna change the way I am."

On the music EXODUS was writing for what ended up being last year's "Blood In Blood Out" album:

"I think they thought that they could get that era from the '80s… They wanted to do this retro album and they thought that they could get that glory days from the '80s back if they… Because that was the idea, and I couldn't do that. I mean, how can you tell me that the song 'The Sun Is My Destroyer'… You're gonna tell me that… Okay, 'The Sun Is My Destroyer' is, I think, one of the best songs I ever did with EXODUS; it's a vicious fucking song. But that's the watermark for trying to do something better, not for doing something that's mediocre or less than — which I thought was… that's everything that was written after that. I think the whole new album was just slapped together and mediocre and they didn't really give a fuck. You know, it was, like, 'Hurry up and get it done.' And it wasn't passionate at all.

"Like I said, this isn't personal. This was my point of view. I was just trying to be better. You know what I mean? Challenge me. Let's do something better than 'The Sun Is My Destroyer' — not write something that's just, 'Eh.' And that's how I felt about it. Now, if other people think I'm wrong, that's okay — that's their opinion. This is my opinion of how I saw things."

Dukes joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005),"The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007),"Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS' classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

Dukes has released two studio albums with his GENERATION KILL project, 2011's "Red White And Blood" and 2013's "We're All Gonna Die".