Gary Holt says Exodus used to cut hair metal shirts to threads with knives during concerts.
In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, the guitarist, who plays in Slayer as well, reflects on the thrash metal vs. hair metal rivalry which dominated the California scene in the 1980s. He also claims his band lifted the conflict to new, physical extremes during their time with Paul Baloff on vocals.
After saying that Exodus’ following was “the most violent and most over-the-top” of any fanbase in the Bay Area, he adds, “In the Baloff era in Exodus [1982 to ’86], if someone showed up with a Ratt shirt, we’d pull out the pocket knife and cut strips of the shirt off.”
He continues: “If you look at some of the old photos of Baloff, he’s got all these pieces of cloth, like, for three inches, tied around his wrist. Those are threads of a poser shirt!”
However, Holt admits that he and his bandmates harboured a secret appreciation for Ratt and fellow hair metal stars Dokken. “But, at the same time, us guitar players were secretly coveting every Warren DeMartini riff, like the sickest, greatest guitar player on Earth with the best tone ever, him and Robbin [Crosby]. So, we were like actively sitting there listening to him and [Dokken guitarist] George Lynch.”
Holt is far from the first thrasher to voice the subgenre’s early rivalry with hair metal. In 2013, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield said thrash “probably” wouldn’t exist were it not for its musicians distaste towards Mötley Crüe, Poison and the rest.
“There was a giant hatred for that that fueled a lot of thrash,” he told MK Onderground (per Ultimate Guitar). “Metallica growing up in Los Angeles right in the heart of glam, right at the peak of glam and your Mötley Crües, your Ratts, your Poisons… all that stuff was based in L.A. and we were the hated figure, but they were hated even more. We were thrown out of clubs because they thought we were punk rock.”
Earlier this month, Holt announced his memoir – A Fabulous Disaster: From The Garage To Madison Square Garden, The Hard Way – will come out on April 1, 2025 via Hachette Books. It was co-written by Adam Tempedelen and features a foreword by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, who founded Exodus in 1979.
