Chuck Billy – Testament – Bloodstock Open Air 2012 Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Jim Rowland
Friday, 07 September 2012 04:00
One of the highlights of this year’s Bloodstock Festival was a thrash-tastic barnstormer of a set from US thrash legends Testament. One of the leading lights of the original thrash metal movement. Testament have had their ups and downs over the years, none more so than vocalist Chuck Billy’s fight against cancer in the early 2000’s. It was a fight that Billy won and since then Testament have pretty much been on the up and up. With a highly acclaimed new album out right now in the shape of ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’, it’s widely acknowledged that Testament are back to the very top of their game at present. I caught up with Chuck a couple of hours before their performance at Bloodstock to get the low down on Testament 2012…
Chuck, welcome back to Bloodstock! You’ve been here before so what’s brought you back? Is it the smell or something?
CB: Ha! We heard how much it’s grown since we played last. When we played it was just a field. It must have been four or five years ago or so. It was just like in a field, there wasn’t much happening. I think there was only a couple of thousand people at that festival, so it’s really grown.
Do you like coming to the UK?
Of course, yeah. We don’t get to come here enough actually. We haven’t done a proper UK tour since that Anthrax run in ’87, like a proper tour, so we’re well overdue!
Now you’ve got a fantastic new album out with ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’, and also the previous album, ‘Formation Of Damnation’ was a great album. It seems like there’s a real renaissance for Testament going on at the moment. What do you put that down to?
Thank you. Well when we were up to the point when Alex and the others left in ’94, up to when I got sick in ’01, we had so many member changes, it was getting kind of really old you know. Teaching new guys the songs over and over and over – we were at that point that we decided we were not going to be a full on touring band, we were just going to put out some records and tour a bit. And once I got sick, I didn’t think I was going to come back to playing music after I got sick. I didn’t recognise the person in the mirror, and I listened to the Testament stuff and got fired up again. I called my friend Andre who does the Dynamo festival and he told me “I’ve got the original Anthrax, what do you think about getting the original Testament?” I go “sounds good, I can ask”, so I called everybody and asked them and they were all down for it, so we had the reunion then right after that and we’ve been together ever since. That’s kind of sparked the new life, we’re all together again, so let’s go full on touring mode again, and go for it and do it proper, so what kind of started it off again was just the reunion of everybody.
So there’s a chemistry there that makes for better songs?
Totally. When they left, that was the 90’s where there was all the grunge music about and people weren’t playing a lot of solos really at the time. With our music especially it was built more around rhythms, and we weren’t focused on the leads. So when Alex got back into the group, it was all of a sudden back to the old formula with the lead breaks and the dual guitars and it really got back to thinking like the way we did in the past when it came to writing and structuring songs.
I noticed on the new album, there are a couple of writing credits for Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, tell us about that. You are still obviously close to him.
Yeah, well Zet was the one that got me this job, so I’m forever indebted to him. We’re good friends and we’ve always kept in touch. We did a couple of records with Dublin Death Patrol, and our writing together seemed to click, so when the Testament thing came up it’s like “have you got some time to write some Testament songs?” He was down for it and we work really fast and well together, and we came out with some of the stronger songs on that record I think.
Also on that record, on some of the bonus tracks, there’s some pretty interesting covers on there. I was amazed and pleased to see you do ‘Animal Magnetism’ by Scorpions, a great track, and also ‘Dragon Attack’ by Queen. Are they two bands that you’re really into?
Well, yeah. I’m really into all that old school like Thin Lizzy and stuff, but they didn’t want to play some Thin Lizzy or UFO or something like that. We wanted to choose some songs that were just kind of outside the box a little bit. We all sent an email around to try to think of some songs that are kind of not typical, and we all came back with some wild ideas. With ‘Dragon Attack’, Eric didn’t get it and nobody got it. I really pushed it and I just said, “What would Ministry do with this song?” He was like, “oh, OK I get it” so we knocked that one out, and he popped in ‘Animal Magnetism’ and the Maiden tune (‘Powerslave’). I didn’t even know what was recorded, I was just like “whatever, as long as you do ‘Dragon Attack’ I’m down with it.”
And you did a great version of that, it’s a great riff
It’s the bass. We turned it around and made it into a guitar riff, but it’s fun because I kind of figured that song would feature all the members. Everybody has a little part in the song.
Talking of that, who were your influences in the early days?
Well I was always UFO and Thin Lizzy, April Wine, stuff like that, Pat Travers. More melodic stuff, I think when I got in the band I was coming from a more melodic background vocally. That what I brought to them, because when I first joined the band I was kind of new to thrash so I was bringing my melodic style into the thrash style, putting it together and trying to figure it out. I think by ‘The New Order’ record, the second record, I really got it and understood it, what we were trying to do. And from thereon, I picked it up after that point.
Tell us what the Bay Area thrash scene was like in those early days
Well it was so fresh and new. Back then it was much different to now, there were a lot of venues then. You could go out four or five days a week and see a good show. Catch a band early and go across the bridge or across the street and catch a late night show. A lot of the people, the fanbase, were at all the shows, we were this little family, and everybody supported each other really. That’s what it was all about, and we had Metallica, the early stuff, and Exodus was the first kind of new flavour that came into the Bay, because the Bay area before that was glam metal and punk rock. When we had that we were all like “yeah, that’s cool, that’s what we wanna do”. But it’s funny that all the Bay Area bands all had their own sound, they all didn’t try to copy Metallica. Death Angel, Forbidden, Exodus, Vio-lence, Heathen – everybody had their own identity which was kind of unusual.
Well thanks for taking the time to speak to Uber Rock Chuck, and I’m really looking forward to the show.
Sweet, I appreciate it man.
Less than two hours later Chuck took to the Bloodstock stage to deliver a masterclass in thrash metal, as Testament played one of the highlight sets of the weekend. Whether you’re an old school thrasher who remembers Testament from the early days, or if you’re a next generation thrasher looking at the older bands that built the movement, be sure to check out the new album ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’. You will not be disappointed.
http://www.testamentlegions.com/
To visit the Testament store on Amazon.co.uk – CLICK HERE
