This past weekend, Exodus revealed they had not only parted ways with singer Rob Dukes, but were also reuniting with Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza. Guitarist Gary Holt described the decision as a “very difficult choice” for the whole band to make, but now we’ve heard from Dukes himself.
Dukes decided to speak up to Blabbermouth, explaining how despite being disappointed about parting ways with Exodus, he is both grateful for the time he spent in the band and is looking forward to the future. Here’s Duke’s statement about the split in its entirety:
“I’m grateful for the last nine years. I’ve had the experience of touring the world playing music. I was just a regular guy, a fan, and I got the chance to front a legendary band while (having had) no prior experience of being a singer. I had no idea what I was doing and made it up as I was going along. I had the experience of making records. It was a great chapter of my life.
I’m bummed it ended with (Exodus), but I have another band, Generation Kill. So I will concentrate on that right now and continue to build hotrods and build a car to race in the Baja 1000. I will be riding my motorcycle all over this beautiful country every chance I get. That’s the next chapter of my life.”
While he doesn’t go into much details regarding what exactly lead to his split, Dukes makes it rather clear it wasn’t entirely his call. And considering he’s spent nine years fronting Exodus, he has every right be to bummed about it. Given the circumstances though, Dukes does a great job taking the high road in his comments about the split. And now fans can look forward to more new things from Dukes’ Generation Kill, as well as Exodus’ first album with Zetro in roughly ten years (which he’ll supposedly begin laying down vocals for this week).
