Dukes explains contact
In an interview on the Talking Metal podcast, the former Exodus vocalist spoke about his upcoming reunion with his old band this weekend. Dukes will be performing in San Francisco with Exodus on the 8th, despite having been fired from the band in June 2014 in a less than amicable manner.
Now, Dukes has explained his relationship with Exodus, saying he didn't want to hold onto negative feelings towards his former bandmates:
“About eight or nine months ago Gary [Holt] and I spoke. We talked for the first time in years. And it was cool, it was weird. We hung up the phone kind of regretting not having spoken sooner. Actually, a mutual friend made the connection, he convinced us to leave the bad things behind and move on.”
Dukes said he was inspired by Sammy Hagar, who has been trying to rekindle his relationship with Eddie Van Halen: “I read a story, I don’t remember when, but Sammy Hagar tweeted Eddie Van Halen saying, ‘Happy birthday, man. I hope everything’s alright.’ And then they asked him why he did that and he said, ‘I don’t want to die with this. I don’t want to spend my life holding grudges and resentment.’ Because when things end, they never end well. It’s rarely something like, ‘This is great, but let’s break up.’ That’s very rare. Usually, things aren’t good, and that’s how it happened. I was at fault, they were at fault. I think we all agree that everyone has a part to blame, and that’s true. I was too. But it took me a while to see that. In the beginning, it was just anger and resentment. Man, I was losing five friends, my job, my security, the life I had gotten used to. It was all those factors.”
“Since I spoke with Gary, we’ve kept in touch. And the thing is, we didn’t talk about music, we never talked about Exodus, we didn’t dwell on the past. We both just said, ‘Look, I’m sorry for my part in this story.’ And that was good.”
