TESTAMENT Frontman: 'The Record Business Is Not What It Used To Be'

Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal of Metal Assault conducted an interview with vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT on March 11 in Los Angeles, California. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Assault: Considering the circumstances today, is constant touring more of a necessity, especially for metal bands?

Chuck: Not more than ever before, but touring is always the most important thing because for most bands, that's how they have to make their money, through touring and selling t-shirts. It is not about the record sales anymore. The record business is not what it used to be. The Internet and all that stuff is involved. It's not as big as it was.

Metal Assault: These days we get tours with a whole variety of bands packaged together. Don't you think we need more tours like this one [with MEGADETH and EXODUS], which is an out-and-out thrash fest?

Chuck: I think we do! It says a lot about this tour for Dave Mustaine and even the guys from SLAYER, who decided, "I don't want to listen to the record company who are telling me to take out a new band on tour that nobody knows." That's the way the record companies' business works. With this tour, it is more like "No, this is the band I want to tour with and I'm just going to do it." It ends up pleasing the fans more than the record company, which is more important.

Metal Assault: Your style of thrash vocals is quite unique, but you got mixed reactions when you first incorporated the "growl"-type sound into it. What did it take to deal with that and eventually being successful with it?

Chuck: I never really thought about it. I just kind of came into my own. Everyone has his or her opinion, that's the thing about the music business or being in the public's eye in general. You can't please everybody. So you can't really let it get to you, you've just got to do it. That's what you can do, to do your best and to give it your 100 percent out there.

Metal Assault: The bands on this tour played together a pretty long while back. Does this tour make you think back to or talk about those years at all?

Chuck: We haven't really discussed it amongst ourselves. It's more about discussing it with the fans, talking about going to the tour back then and now they are bringing their new friends, bringing their children to the show now (laughs). So it is cool. For such fans its like 'I saw this tour back then and now here's my son who is going to see pretty much the same show twenty years later!'

Metal Assault: Jeff Paulick of LAZARUS A.D. [who toured with TESTAMENT in 2009] told me that bands should really learn from TESTAMENT about how to treat opening bands. How important you think it is to do that?

Chuck: Oh, it is as important as anything! All the tours that we've done for twenty-five years with JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, Ronnie James Dio, BLACK SABBATH, all of those guys were total professionals and treated their bands well. They never played games like not letting us put their lights and none of that kind of stuff. They are confident in their own performance and you get to learn that from them. So it is always nice to have that feeling. So whenever I have the opportunity to go out and headline and somebody's supporting us, it makes you think that, yeah, you want to do it right, because that's just the way you do it! (laughs)

Read the entire interview from Metal Assault.