Metal might be a pretty accepting place now, but back in the '80s it was a musical warzone. For evidence of that, look no further than Exodus and their then-vocalist Paul Baloff's arm. In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt revealed that the band would cut strips off people's Ratt shirts if they showed up to the show wearing one, and then tie the scraps around Baloff's wrist.
"I mean, in the [Paul] Baloff era in Exodus, if someone showed up with a Ratt shirt, we'd pull out the pocket knife and cut strips of the shirt off. 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!"
"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 George Lynch."
"But at the same time, the segregation between the two genres — we were like mutual enemies. We needed one another. We both died out together, it seems, at the end of the '80s. Mutual beneficial enemies, y'know?"
Baloff originally fronted Exodus between 1981 and 1986, and then briefly between 1997 and 1998. Baloff was briefly involved in Exodus' 2001 reunion, but died in 2002 shortly after having a stroke.
The good news here is that Exodus doesn't do that anymore… or at least they're keeping it really quiet if they did. You can catch Exodus ripping through their debut album Bonded By Blood (alongside Dismember playing Like An Ever Flowing Stream and a buncha other great bands) at Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly 2025. Get all that info here.
