Rick Hunolt, who played in Exodus, reflects that the band may have made a mistake in firing Paul Baloff

Guitarist Rick Hunolt, who has played in the metal band Exodus on a few occasions, recently gave an interview to Heavy Culture. In the interview, Hunolt discussed, among other things, how Exodus made it into thrash metal’s big four.

 “First of all, we were just kids. We couldn’t even buy alcohol. We were super young and just crazy, full of crazy energy. We recorded the album, ‘Bonded By Blood’, and it took forever and ever and ever and ever for it to come out — it took forever. So that really messed us up in the world. Slayer, Metallica and Exodus — we were all there at the same time, we all had albums ready to be released, and, of course, ours was last one [to come out] because of record company craziness. So, the follow-up [1987’s ‘Pleasures Of The Flesh‘], losing Paul [Baloff, vocals] was super tough”, Hunolt tells.

The guitarist reflects that Baloff’s dismissal was a crucial mistake:

“I think losing Paul was a big deal back then. I think that maybe we made a mistake by firing Paul. And this is just looking back on everything for me; this is just my personal thought. This is the stuff that I think about sometimes. What would have happened if we didn’t fire Paul? I just think that maybe we would have gotten a little bit more traction if we didn’t have that lag in between.

“People love Paul. And Paul was… he’s a legend. He was going through a bad time in his life, and I guess, at the time, we felt that maybe he was holding us back; I think probably that’s what we were thinking. I think that probably we might have thought about getting him better instead of firing him.”

Exodus will release their new album “Persona Non Grata” on 19th of November.