ROB DUKES: 'Getting Fired' From EXODUS In 2014 'Was Like A Blessing In Disguise'

In a new interview with Chris Akin of The Classic Metal Show, EXODUS singer Rob Dukes, who rejoined the band in January 2025, spoke about his return to the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal legends after an 11-year absence. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I'd say I was pretty angry for, like, I wanna say about a year [after I was fired from EXODUS in 2014]. And then I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life in resentment and anger. They reached out to me, and then a dialogue started to happen back and forth, like a year after I was fired. And then I went and hung out with them, and it was all good, man. I went on with my life and did my own thing, and it came full circle. And one day they called me and they said, 'Hey, man, what are you doing?' [Laughs] I was, like, 'Living life, man.' And then they were, like, 'Well, hey, man, would you be willing to come back?' And I said, 'Let me call you tomorrow.' And I talked about it with my family and the people I needed to talk to. And I called 'em back the next day and I said, 'Okay, man. I'm in. Let's do it.'"

Asked if there was "any weirdness" about his return to EXODUS after he and the rest of the band spent so much time apart, Rob said: "No, man. Look, man, I lived with these guys for 10 years. We know each other like brothers. And so once I stepped off the plane and showed up, it was like I was there the day before. It's, like, you have those friends where you haven't talked to 'em in six months and you call 'em and then it's just like you talked to 'em yesterday. It was just happiness. I mean, it was just cool. It was fun to be back. And it was a little nerve racking getting behind the microphone, because I wasn't doing it on the regular. I had built a whole another life. And it wasn't in music. I'd become a welder and a fabricator and was building cars and stuff. I was just being a regular guy, so to do it full time again was, 'All right, let's do it. Fuck it.'"

Dukes also talked about his contributions to EXODUS's latest album, "Goliath", which was made available in March via Napalm Records. He said: "They started sending me tracks, and then I went up to the Bay Area and got in and started listening to tracks and working with 'em and sitting down and listening to this stuff over and over again. They gave me a bunch of songs to write lyrics for. So, that was a whole another process of just mind consumption of, like, what was I gonna do? 'What am I gonna sing about? What am I gonna talk about?' But it all worked out, man. It's a fucking really great record, and I think it's the best thing I've ever done."

Dukes, who resides in Arizona, went on to discuss his longtime gig as a mechanic specializing in car restoration. He said: "As soon as I go home [from tour], I go right back into it. I got obsessed with it.

"Getting fired, I've come to realize, was like a blessing in disguise," Rob noted. "'Cause I'd always built cars and had fun and made hot rods and shit. But this was a whole new level, you know what I mean? And I have an enormous amount of money invested in tools and equipment and welders and all sorts of stuff. So, the hobby became [a full-time job], and when I wasn't doing that, I was doing it anyway. I was doing it at night, I was doing it on weekends. And now it's just like a whole another thing I do. So this time off away from EXODUS gave me a whole new purpose in my life. So it's something I would've been doing anyway. I just was somehow able to take a few welding classes, go to a few classes, work with people that were better than me and showed me stuff, and then it just kind of snowballed into, 'Shit, I'm building really cool stuff and doing cool things.' So it's an added bonus to my life that I was able to harness those skills at the same time. And then to come back and be on stage again and do this at this level."

Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 as the replacement for Steve "Zetro" Souza 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's classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

In November 2015, Dukes claimed in an interview that he was "unhappy" before he was fired from EXODUS, due in part to the fact that his then-bandmates were writing music that was "regurgitated shit" with "no life to it."

Prior to his exit from EXODUS, Dukes laid down the lead vocals on the music that eventually became the band's "Blood In Blood Out" album (with Souza's vocal tracks),released in October 2014 to great critical acclaim.

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5, 2025 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.