See Former EXODUS Singer STEVE 'ZETRO' SOUZA's Entire Solo Concert In Pompano Beach, Florida

Former EXODUS singer Steve "Zetro" Souza played his second solo concert ever this past Saturday night (September 27) at the Piper's in Pompano Beach, Florida. Fan-filmed video of the entire show can be seen below.

As was the case the night before at the Brass Mug in Tampa, Florida, backing Souza on stage at the Pompano Beach gig — billed simply as ZETRO — were the following musicians:

* Zakk Frye (SLIKK WIKKED) - Rythm Guitar/Backup Vocals
* Kyle Smith (SLIKK WIKKED) - Lead Guitar
* Andrew Dewar (VICIOUS INTENT) - Drums
* Donny "Death" Weissinger (NASTY TRAST, HATE GRENADE) – Bass

Souza will next embark on a three-date tour of Australia in early February 2026.

Regarding the setlist for his solo concerts, Zetro said in a video via his Zetro's Toxic Vault channel on YouTube: "I'll be playing a lot of EXODUS, a lot of deep cuts, a lot of songs that I've seen you guys, over the years through social media, chime in about wanting to hear. So that's what you will see. Actually, some of you guys [on social media] are nailing some of the songs, some of them, but some of them I'm going to get to, 'cause I've actually answered on some of them about getting to 'em. So this will be an old-school evening of Bay Area thrash metal. I've even got a couple of very obscure [ones] because I think the LEGACY [pre-]TESTAMENT songs that I'm playing don't necessarily get played all the time anymore. I know one does, but I know the other three don't. And then I would have to say, out of the EXODUS songs that I have chosen, you've probably heard me — and I'm only gonna go on the last 10 years since I was back from 2014 until just six months, seven months ago — I would say there's maybe only three or four that you have heard me sing in the set in the past. Everything else has not been played for a long time. Some songs probably when the albums came out initially. I know one song I can't even remember playing ever. So that's gonna be kind of cool for the fans. But songs that I've seen that you guys have all chimed in on and said, 'Hey, when are you guys gonna play this?' 'When are you gonna play that?', which I think is gonna absolutely differentiate my set from, say, if you go see EXODUS, because I'm not necessarily gonna play the same songs. Am I gonna play 'Toxic Waltz' and 'Blacklist'? Definitely, of course. I'm not going to hold you back. But that's the thing — I'm picking the setlist. Absolutely. And I think you'll like what I've chosen. I think it's 16 or 17 songs total, so it'll be a good evening."

Regarding the possibility of making new music and including fresh material in his setlist, Zetro said: "I'm gonna be honest with you: right now I'm not really into writing or doing a new solo Zetro project with new songs. I feel that there's so much, or so many songs, that have not been played in years or have never been played that I think I'd like to make shows of that first. And maybe in a year or two down the road, if it seems right to do, I'll venture [into writing and recording new music]."

He continued: "You guys don't want to hear [new solo] Zetro songs [at these shows]. You're gonna be yelling out the stuff from EXODUS or the stuff that you know that I performed with LEGACY. And I do [the AC/DC tribute band] AC/DZ, so you might even hear some AC/DC songs. So there's a lot that I can do. There's songs in the EXODUS catalog that have never been played live. 'Architect Of Pain' has never been played live. It's 11 fucking minutes — probably why [it has never been performed live] — but, hey, [IRON] MAIDEN plays 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' and some of those other ones that are, like, 12, 13 minutes, so I'm not opposed to doing it. So, I'm implementing those songs, and I want to play all of those songs. And everybody I've heard forever [asking for] 'Cajun Hell', 'Verbal Razors', 'Chemi-Kill', 'Seeds Of Hate', all these songs that have not been played in years, and I wanna play them. And then obviously the demo songs that I did with LEGACY. I pretty much wrote the whole first [TESTAMENT] record, so I'll bring those songs too. 'Curse Of The Legions Of Death', I wrote that. 'The Haunting', I wrote that."

Souza's previously announced 10-date solo tour of Latin America, which was scheduled to take place in September 2025, was canceled by the promoter. The trek was slated to kick off on September 4 in San José, Costa Rica and end on September 14 in São Paulo, Brazil. At all the shows, Souza was expected to perform classic songs from his former bands EXODUS, TESTAMENT (Zetro was the lead vocalist for LEGACY, an early incarnation of TESTAMENT) and HATRIOT, as well as the Bon Scott era of AC/DC.

Eight months ago, it was announced that EXODUS had parted ways with Souza and had welcomed back Rob Dukes.

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

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

Dukes previously 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's classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

Souza discussed his most recent split with EXODUS during a previous episode of Zetro's Toxic Vault. Addressing the reasons for his departure, Zetro said in part: "I've been doing this since 1986 —1986, in June, I joined EXODUS for the very first time. I was 22 years old. I'm now 61. So to have kind of a rollercoaster ride in music has actually been kind of exciting,. It kept my life going. Certain things happen and certain things go on, and you kind of have to deal with them as they happen, like anything."

Clarifying that he "did not quit" EXODUS and "was let go", Souza continued: "I don't read much of what goes on the Internet. With no disrespect to anybody, I don't give a fuck what anybody thinks about me or what you say… But I was made privy by my son of something Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist and main songwriter] had responded to me saying that I didn't quit; I was let go. And I have to agree with his analogy. Being in a band is like a marriage — it truly is — and the marriage was over. And it was. Now, I was never gonna quit, meaning maybe I guess I would never leave the marriage, for whatever reason. But I truly think that it was probably the right thing for me especially, and I hope it's the right thing for them as well."

Regarding his mindset after his latest departure from EXODUS, Souza said: "People were calling me — my friends and my family — asking me if I was okay. And I was fine. I was, like, 'I'm great.' I'm really, really happy and more content. And again, we're in April now, and this went down in January. And actually, I knew in December — I knew before anybody knew, before it was announced. And I was cool with it."

Speaking directly to the EXODUS fans, Zetro said: "I'm gonna miss you guys. I really am. But for me, my life has changed a lot. What I liked when I was younger in my twenties and my thirties are not necessarily what I'm into anymore. I love my family. I mean, I came home and got married to Vickie, who I've been with for 17 years, and she is the love of my life. And you know how hard it is to go away from the love of my life at this point, at 61 years old for five weeks, six weeks at a time? It wasn't easy for me, even though it may not have shown on stage, and it definitely didn't show when I was with you guys, with you fans, and anybody that approached me because I would never want anyone to have an awful experience with me. But I think it was time, honestly.

"I had told Gary, and I told them that I would like to do this till I was 70 and probably not much more than that, but I think in the back of my mind I think I was kind of already done with the rigorous life of touring, 'cause it's very demanding," Souza admitted. "And the business doesn't care about what you have going on. [I'll] give you an example — in 2016, my mother died and I was in El Salvador on tour. I should have been at her bedside, but I wasn't, because I had to do this. I've had dogs pass. I've missed graduations from my children. Any musician that has been in my position can absolutely relate with this, because it is part of it. And a lot of times people don't necessarily think of that. And then there's the guys, there's the musicians that really like to do this, and they'll go out and they'll hit it hard. They'll go from one thing to another."

Elaborating on his reasons for wanting to spend less time on the road, Zetro said: "I've changed over the past few years, even in the last 10 years since I've been back. And I think I'm more interested in what's going on in my house and around what I'm doing here. I like to see my dogs every day. I have three pugs that absolutely love. I have a grandson now. I never get to see them. I wanna see my wife every day. I wanna sleep in my bed every day. It's been something that mentally has gone on and changed. But again, I would've never quit because I'm not a quitter in that type of respect. Everybody's, 'Oh, well, you quit in 2004.' No, I had to leave the band because I had a union job, three little kids and a wife, and I was trying to balance working as a foreman, as a union job, being a father, coaching baseball and soccer, and being a husband and playing in EXODUS, and I couldn't balance all three. The thing that I loved the most was playing in EXODUS, but, unfortunately, it could not take care of my wife and my kids and ballerina signups, baseball signups. The business wasn't paying that much at the time, so I needed to go and take care of my family… So coming back into the band in 2014, kids are grown, I'm set in my job. I was very, very excited. And again, I had a really good time over the last 10 years playing in the band. And it was one of those things that I have to say I'm kind of glad that I've ended up where I'm at right now, I don't like airports anymore. I don't like sleeping on the tour bus anymore… So I'm not saying that this was a decision that I would've made, but I'm saying for myself and to have a few months to look at it, it was definitely the right decision."

Souza went on to say that EXODUS fans should continue to support the band now that Dukes has returned to the group.

"I look at it now as, what about all you guys that are big fans of Rob's era? Just think — now you get to come back and see Rob maybe for the next 10 years and see him continue on," Zetro said. "So if you were fans of his era, like you were fans of my era, or both eras — I know there's some of you [that are] 'I'm [Team] Zetro' or 'I'm [Team] Rob', or whatever, 'I'm cool with whatever EXODUS does,' I get it. And I totally understand that, and I respect every one of you for those things. But now maybe for the last part of the band they get to enjoy Rob and Rob's era of the band. I mean, Gary's gonna continue to write music and record music. And Gary Holt doesn't know how to write a shitty riff. Okay? So you EXODUS fans know what you're gonna get from that, and that's what I have to say."

Souza also addressed the possibility of another reunion with EXODUS down the line, saying: "Will I ever grace the stage with them? No, definitely not. I think it's been done. This was the third time that I had joined the band, so I think it would be a bit redundant to try to do this or do this again. So just so you guys wanna know, I have no desire to do that ever again. It's been done. If you saw my last concert in Los Angeles at the Regent [in December 2024], then you truly saw the last concert that Zetro will ever sing with EXODUS."

Zetro added that he went out on top, both in term of his live performance with EXODUS and his relationship with the band's fans.

"If you saw us on the last tour with HAVOK, then, honestly, I was singing better than I've ever sung through the years," Souza said. "So I don't feel that it was something that, vocally… I did my job — I did my job quite well — and even they'll tell you that. And the fans, you guys know that I bring it. Every time I come, I bring it. And that's just the way it is. And if you walked up to me for a picture or an autograph, I never would say no and I've never pushed you guys away. I would hang out and talk to you about stuff. How many of you fans have spent time after the show talking to me about whatever? Horror, movies, metal sports, whatever. I'll sit out there and talk to you guys 'cause I've never considered myself above anybody."

Asked what specifically he didn't enjoy about the touring lifestyle, Zetro said: "Too much time in the day. Waiting to wait. It's a lot of waiting. Going to an airport, waiting four hours for the flight, getting on the flight for five hours, getting to where you've gotta go. Then you have another six-hour layover before you have another five-hour flight. And line one, line two, security this, security that. I don't have the patience for that anymore. The bus — I know this sounds very pompous. I was very fortunate to get to tour in a bus. I know bands that do not tour in buses… But for me, the bunk started to be very, very uncomfortable. And the only time I could get in there was when I truly had to sleep. But as soon as I woke up, I got up. So there's too much time in a day for you to go to museums or comic bookstores or me to go buy toys and whatever I do on the road. It is just a lot of downtime, and I feel as now 61 years old, I wanna do other things in that downtime. And I don't wanna be doing this, and all of a sudden I end up getting sick or my wife end up getting sick and one of my children, and I have to come home and I've got six months to live, or they've got six months to live and I've missed all of this with them and I missed it all. I don't want to do that anymore. I've missed too much over the years, and it's just kind of where I've been mentally — especially the last few years I've been thinking about that."