When Slayer returned to the stage last year for two reunion performances – September 22 at Chicago’s Riot Fest and October 10 at Sacramento’s Aftershock festival – fans were stunned. And so, it seems, was guitarist Gary Holt.
During a conversation on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Holt, who also holds long-standing membership in Exodus, reflected on how the shows came together: “Well, it had been years, but we rehearsed really hard for those shows. We put in the effort. I never stopped. I was on tour [with Exodus] a month after the final Slayer show. Only the pandemic slowed me down. So, my chops were up. So, it was just refamiliarizing yourself with the material a little bit.”
Did the decision to bring Slayer back to life catch him off guard?
“Absolutely. People say, ‘Oh, this and that. You planned this all along.’ I’m like, look, I knew a little while before everybody else, but I didn’t know forever. I knew early enough to sit down at home and start studying the songs, ’cause I wanted to be really prepared. But, yeah, I was surprised.”
According to Holt, reunion offers had likely been floating around for some time. “I’m sure there were offers for the band forever, but they felt like it was time, and I’m more than happy to do it. And at least as of now, the current method, which has been [for Slayer to play] a brief, minor, small little couple of shows [every year], that’s fine because I’m fully committed to Exodus. And so it allows me to do that and then go out [with Slayer] and play with fire, which, that shit’s expensive. Exodus does not get pyro.”
For Holt, the preparation this time around felt different than in the past. He told Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong last October: “It was surreal. It was awesome. We rehearsed really hard for it, like a full production rehearsal. In the past, when I did rehearse, Slayer rehearsed in this tiny little music studio room with little half stacks. This was cool ’cause I got to play with the entire rig – three amps, six cabs all on. I got to redesign the rig based on my Exodus rig. So it was the exact same identical thing tone-wise, just three times as large, which was awesome.”
But even seasoned veterans get the jitters.
“We were nervous,” Holt admitted. “Tom [Araya, Slayer bassist/vocalist] was nervous, and he sounded amazing. Sometimes you’ve just gotta forget about the time and how long it’s been and just let muscle memory kick in and just do it. I mean, I only played one song I’d never played, and that was ‘213’. And ‘Reborn’ I’d only played, I think, once, so that was almost a new song, once or twice. Everything else was just refreshers.”
Preparation began long before the festivals.
“I started working on the songs a long, long time ago, when the shows were first announced: ‘All right, I’d better make sure I know how to play this shit still.’ And I literally had to like dive into Internet tab on songs I’d played a hundred times. But then I’d [go], ‘Man, I’m playing it wrong.’ Then I just forget about it and just play, and then all right, my hands remember where the notes are.”
One scheduled show at Louder Than Life had to be scrapped due to severe weather – something that left both band and fans disappointed.
“But it was spectacular,” Holt said. “Losing the second show [at the Louder Than Life festival] due to the weather, the tail end of the hurricane, was a real, real bummer, especially for all the fans who flew in. I met people at the airport who flew in from England for it. And they had the best attitude about it. Obviously, it wasn’t our fault. We tried everything we could. You can’t control 50-mile-an-hour gusts. The crew had to evacuate, like, three times that afternoon. We never left the hotel.”
Despite that setback, the moments they did share onstage were unforgettable.
“But it was amazing. It was surreal. It was like this moment. The crowd was just very happy. And we were happy, and everything was good.”
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