Rob Dukes shares more about his ups and downs with Exodus

Rob Dukes, the singer of Generation Kills, was fired from Exodus in 2014 after leading the group for nine years. Naturally, he returned last year, taking Steve “Zetro” Souza’s place, as per Loudwire. In a recent interview, Dukes described his dismissal from Exodus as a “blessing in disguise.” In summary, guitarist Gary Holt succinctly stated at the time that Dukes was fired from Exodus because the other members of the band “thought a change was necessary.” It’s interesting to note that it took place while they were recording “Blood In, Blood Out” in 2014, which eventually featured Souza singing. In a recent interview with That Classic Metal Show, which was posted on April 3, Dukes talked about how he felt “pretty angry” for “about a year” after being fired.

I didn’t wanna spend the rest of my life in resentment and anger, so I kinda, you know – they reached out to me, and then a dialogue started to happen back and forth, like a year after I was fired. Then, I went and hung out with them, and it was all good, man. I just – I went on with my life and did my own thing, you know, and then it came full circle. One day, they called me and they said, “Hey, man. What are you doing?” [laughs]. I was, like, “Living life, man.” And then they were, like, “Well, hey, man, would you be willing to come back?” I said, “Let me call you tomorrow,” and I talked about it with my family and the people I needed to talk to. I called ‘em back the next day and I said, “Okay, man. I’m in. Let’s do it.

Chris Akin, the host, then questioned Dukes about if “there was any weirdness . . . [during their] first rehearsal” or whether it felt “it did back then.”

It’s, like, you have those friends where you haven’t talked to ’em in six months and you call ’em and then it’s just like you talked to ’em yesterday. It was just happiness. I mean, it was just cool. It was fun to be back, you know? It was a little nerve-racking getting behind the microphone because I wasn’t doing it on the regular. I had built a whole ‘nother life, and it wasn’t in music. I’d become a welder and a fabricator and was building cars and stuff. So, I was just being a regular guy, so, you know, to do it full time again was – “All right, let’s do it. Fuck it.”

They started sending me tracks and then I went up to the Bay Area and got in and started listening to tracks and working with ’em and sitting down and listening to this stuff over and over again. They gave me a bunch of songs to write lyrics for. That was a whole another process of just mind-consumption of, like, “What was I gonna do? ‘What am I gonna sing about? What am I gonna talk about?” But it all worked out, man. It’s a fucking really great record, and I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Lastly, Akin questioned Dukes on how “hard” it is to “go back to music” after putting his passion for auto repair “on hiatus.”

No, man. As soon as I go home [from touring], I go right back into it. I got obsessed with it. Getting fired [from Exodus], I’ve come to realize, was like a blessing in disguise. I’d always built cars and had fun and made hot rods and shit. But, this was a whole new level, you know what I mean? I have an enormous amount of money invested in tools and equipment and welders and all sorts of stuff. . . . When I wasn’t doing that, I was doing it anyway. I was doing it at night [or] I was doing it on weekends. Now, it’s just like a whole another thing I do. So, this time off [and] away from Exodus gave me a whole new purpose in my life. It’s something I would’ve been doing anyway; I just was somehow able to take a few welding classes, go to a few classes, work with people that were better than me and showed me stuff, and then it just kind of snowballed into “Shit, I’m building really cool stuff and doing cool things.” So, it’s an added bonus to my life that I was able to harness those skills at the same time and then to come back and be on stage again and do this at this level.