Exodus' Gary Holt Reveals the Biggest Myth About Paul Baloff

The stories surrounding late Exodus frontman Paul Baloff are the stuff of legend, but Gary Holt recently shared one myth about his onetime bandmate that he discovered to be false after the musician's passing.

In speaking with Full Metal Jackie for her weekend radio show, Holt recalled, "The biggest myth, and you could do a whole season of Myth Busters all on Paul Baloff, but it was the one he told us that he had immigrated out of Russia on horseback with his family. His dad was a rocket scientist, and his mother and father, him and his sister escaped from Russia. Then after he passed away, we get the birth certificate and everything, and he was born in Highland Hospital in Oakland."

Holt adds, "I only met his sister once, and that was after his passing, and his parents were already gone, so there was no one around to verify or debunk Paul's myths, so we just accepted it as fact."

Within the chat, Holt also discusses his new memoir, A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden the Hard Way, recalls some of his most memorable concerts and shares an update on the progress of new Exodus music with the return of Rob Dukes to the lineup.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie, and it is always a pleasure to welcome back to the show Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt. In addition to working on a new Exodus record and playing dates with the band and with Slayer this year, Gary's got his new memoir, A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden the Hard Way that he's now promoting. Gary, how much of a gift has it been to take this time in your life for reflection?

It is a gift. I'm super fortunate. I'm lucky to be alive. I'm lucky to have a career still. I threw it all away at one point and to have the ultimate bounce back, I never take it for granted,

I'm super honored that people still care, and I'm super fortunate that I'm able to do it. I have my health and I've got my friends and family and bandmates. It's totally cool. I'm thrilled to still be doing this.

We're talking about Gary's new memoir, A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden the Hard Way. I know this year there's a big Slayer stadium show as well. You've got a pretty good memory for this stuff. I was wondering if there are certain shows or venues that stick with you as milestone moments in your career. What were those experiences like for you? And can you speak to why they stood out as being special?

There's so many of them. It's hard to pick a single one or two. But at the top of my head, with Slayer, I'd have to say headlining Oakland Coliseum. It's a place where I'd seen so many shows as a kid, I actually was hoping they booked the show at the dirty old dump, The Cow Palace, because that's where I saw, like, probably 80 percent of my shows as a kid. It would have been just the biggest honor to finally play there. I never have.

And for Exodus, the 40th anniversary of Bonded by Blood on Paul Bailoff's birthday. We booked it at the UC Theater, and a lot of people tell me, "Oh, you just played there." Even though our previous show had sold out, a lot of people said, "Oh, it's too soon" and "You want to do it at a bigger venue." Well, we sold the UC Theater out in three weeks.

With three months to go to the show, I think it was pretty obvious that we could have probably picked our venues, but in the large theater realm of things everybody told me it couldn't be done.

And I said, "This is the Bay Area. This is a special thing" Trust me, Anaheim was the same way. They didn't think we could do it sold out way in advance. So take that. It's a special album. People are going to understand. I said, "40th anniversary only comes once." And I pushed really hard for it because I didn't want to be like, "All right, let's try to do the 41st anniversary, 42nd. Even four decades. Do it now or never."

Da Capo

One person that will always be special with Exodus fans is the late Paul Baloff. You've spoken some on this promotional cycle about the lore surrounding him, some of it legit, some perhaps not. What is the craziest thing you've ever heard about Paul that wasn't true? And what's the craziest thing you know about Paul to absolutely be true?

Well, as far as the craziest thing about him that's true, that's everything. He was a maniac. And he lived for metal more than anybody I've ever met. I've met a lot of people in metal.

The biggest myth, and you could do a whole season of Myth Busters all on Paul Baloff, but it was the one he told us that he had immigrated out of Russia on horseback with his family. His dad was a rocket scientist, and his mother and father, him and his sister escaped from Russia. Then after he passed away, we get the birth certificate and everything, and he was born in Highland Hospital in Oakland. He was born right where we all are and we never saw that information.

I only met his sister once, and that was after his passing, and his parents were already gone, so there was no one around to verify or debunk Paul's myths, so we just accepted it as fact.

That's amazing to me.

He's always that kid on a horseback. On horseback escaping the Soviet Union.

That's a better story. Much better.

Exodus, "Bonded By Blood" (Live in 1985)

Gary, we've spoken a few times about work on the next Exodus record, but one thing has changed since we last spoke, Rob Dukes is now back with the band. And this obviously is not the band's first time working with Rob. Why was now the right time to go back to Rob and when? What have you grown to appreciate about what he brings to the band?

No one foresaw lineup changes. We never foresaw him the first time. But things would just come to a road crossing where we just felt like things were not going the way they needed to be with everybody being on the same page and being happy about things.

As far as Rob coming back, I'm 60 years old. I don't want to meet new people. I don't. Rob's one of my best friends and we talk all the time. I thought for like half a second, maybe we'll get some guy half my age who's got washboard abs and can still jump off a drum riser without his knees going out for a week. But no, I'd rather stick with my friend and his vocals on these new songs. It just gonna blow people's minds. It's insane.

Gary, this life and career is a passion for you. You always seem to be busy with something, but as you get older, there's also more consideration given for the home life. Most of us get what the road life is for musicians, but I'm sure most have different ways of adapting back to being home when not on the road. What is home life for Gary Holt all about? Any hobbies or things that you're passionate about when music is not front and center?

No, home life to me is just spent with my wife and we see my children and grandchildren as much as possible. I live in the country, so it's constant work. Like the trees, they don't clean them after themselves, they fall down sometimes and things like that. But the peace and serenity that comes with living there is just amazing. I'll never go back to the city.

When I was young, I dreamt of living in a work life space in downtown San Francisco. Now I'm three hours north in the woods and couldn't be happier, but I don't have hobbies. I just have the family. That's all I care about.

One of the big things on the calendar this summer is Slayer playing the Back to the Beginning show in the U.K., saluting Ozzy and Black Sabbath's legacy in metal that actually starts with that band. What does it mean being included in that event? And do you have a favorite Ozzy or Sabbath song? And of course I want to ask what your favorite Ozzy story is.

You know, I've never met Ozzy, so I don't have any personal stories. But favorite album is Masters of Reality. I worship that record and I'm thrilled and honored to be a part of this thing.

I was speaking with Kirk Hammett and we both feel the same way. We're just completely blessed to like be able to take part in honoring a band that we wouldn't be here without. So I'm thrilled for it. It's going to be amazing.

Gary, we were just talking about Ozzy and Sabbath continuing down a path of musical heroes. In your history in music, is there any artist that's still on your wish list to either meet or play with one day?

There's a million. Unfortunately he's no longer with us, but the Young brothers. Angus is still here. I'd love to meet Angus someday. Malcolm is not. So that's off the table.

Sometimes you don't want to meet your heroes. My favorite guitar player of all time, Ritchie Blackmore, his reputation precedes him.

Maybe if I met him, I might not feel so hot, I think so highly of him, What if he's in a bad mood, I don't know. I'll just go about my life and listen to Rainbow Rising over and over and Gates of Babylon and everything else and the debut and all the Deep Purple stuff and just be happy with that.

I'd love to meet Ted Nugent. The guy made me want to play guitar.

You're right, though. Sometimes it's better to not.

I'm still just a fan. I don't try to collect celebrity friends or acquaintances and all that. But I'm thrilled occasionally when I meet someone. When I met Brian May, I was pretty much over the moon and blessed and lucky that I was in a position to have a conversation with him. He couldn't have been a nicer human, just the best dude and one of the greatest guitar players of all time. And I got to play the Red Special, which was amazing.

And Gary, before we wrap up, obviously changing singers might have altered your plans a bit. I just wanted to see how things are going with new Exodus music and has Rob's arrival changed anything in terms of direction or approach to your next record?

I write songs for myself, and we all do. Exodus writes for Exodus, and I've never changed approach for anything. When Steve Souza rejoined us for Blood Out, I'd already written those songs. Some people are like, "Oh, they were perfect for him." Well, they were what was written. I'm gonna write them regardless of who's on manning the microphone.

But Rob's coming back certainly energized me, and that's when I was like, "Let's record too." Then I can have that mythical vacation in between albums and not have to go back in the studio until I'm 70.

Who knows if that'll even happen, so that's the way we look at it. Let's record two albums and what happens between now and then? I could get hit by a car and then have a posthumous release to Gary Holt's last performance. You think about that stuff at 60 years old. It's crazy.

Thanks to Gary Holt for the interview. Gary's memoir, A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden the Hard Way, is available now. Stay up to date with Exodus through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.