“People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star.’ No. I sell shirts outta my f**king closet”: Gary Holt on the reality of being a metal guitarist in 2025
With the rising cost of touring and infamously low streaming revenue, even rockstars can struggle to make ends meet. In fact, Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt has spoken out about how he even sends out his own merch to earn more money.
In a recent chat with German outlet Medal.de, Holt explains that everything on his Holt Awaits webstore is packaged and delivered by him. “People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star’… No!” he admits. “I sell shirts, and I sell them outta my fucking closet. Pack this one up, label it, send it off.”
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While it doesn’t cover all of his living costs, selling merch is something that “helps” Holt get by. “It doesn’t pay the bills,” he says. “[But] it helps… It helped a lot in the pandemic.”
Considering his work in thrash metal hasn’t set him up for life, Holt jokes that his retirement plans might have to centre around some illegal activity. “[I might] turn to a life of crime, maybe,” he says. “I don’t know. I haven’t found a way to make money being charming, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
If Holt doesn’t fall into a life of crime, he thinks he’ll stick within the realms of metal. “If I honestly retired, I’d probably do more producing,” he muses. “I’d stay in music. But sometimes I daydream about not leaving the house.”
Of course, a full retirement is still a few years away. Slayer pulled off a killer performance at Black Sabbath’s final farewell show, and Exodus just rounded off a European Summer tour, with a pair of shows set for September. “I’m not full of energy – I’m fucking tired,” Holt notes. “But we’re gonna do this as hard as we can, as heavy as we can until we can’t.”
“That’s why we recorded so much music [for Exodus’ next record]. We figured, do it now while we are still able to. Who knows? I’ve had elbow problems, hand problems, and shoulder problems now. Maybe in five years, age will catch up, and the arthritis will get bad, and I can’t do it. I don’t know.”
In a recent chat with Serbian journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić, Holt also discussed Exodus’s follow up to 2021’s Persona Non Grata. “It’s going to be released as two totally separate records,” he revealed. “We had so much material that we just [thought], let’s work extra hard.”
“I wish we had 20 songs done instead of 18, because then we would have the next album done! Then I could go on vacation or something. I’ve never had one.”
The post “People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star.’ No. I sell shirts outta my f**king closet”: Gary Holt on the reality of being a metal guitarist in 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
