SLAYER/EXODUS Guitarist GARY HOLT: 'I'm Living The Dream'

Sam Dunn of Banger TV recently conducted an interview with SLAYER and EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On what he brings to SLAYER:

Gary: "That's a good question. You know, I try to bring energy, and I try to keep everybody smiling. I think I'm a good bridge between all the guys and keep everybody happy, 'cause I'm always in a good mood; it's rare for these guys to ever see me pissed off about anything. 'Cause I'm living the dream, I'm playing guitar. I have fire onstage, all right? You know, it's, like, when I was a kid, at 17 I started playing guitar, we dreamed about blowing everything up, setting fire to everything onstage, and I actually get to do it. So I'm super happy. I'm happy EXODUS is doing so well. And I think when you're an eternal optimist, like I tend to be, even though there's so much to be pessimistic about in this world, I just wanna keep everybody smiling."

On what keeps him motivated to play this kind of music at age 51:

Gary: "The fact that I love doing it; that hasn't gone. I'm over a half a century old — I'm almost an antique — but I still love doing it, and I go really hard live, because I refuse to let a guy half my age best me at that. The difference is, after their show, they hop on their skateboard and they go floating around and they go drinking all night and they're fine and me, I'm looking for a bathtub and I'm gobbling 1600 milligrams of Ibuprofen and dealing with the age. But during the show I don't ever wanna look old and slow and tired. You know, we get gray in the hair and gray in the beard and shit, but I still love doing it — I love headbanging. I love headbanging hard. I don't wanna be a shadow of my former self. I am committed to this shit and I'm not mailing it in. And I'm not a guy that they say, 'Wow! I remember back in the day when he was so on fire on stage, and now he looks like he's just here for a paycheck.' I'm here because I love doing it."

EXODUS drummer Tom Hunting recently told Spark TV that the band will begin work on the follow-up to 2014's "Blood In Blood Out" album in January 2017.

SLAYER's seven-week North American tour with ANTHRAX and DEATH ANGEL will kick off in Cleveland on September 9 and will hit both major and secondary markets across the continent.