Testament is a band that truly needs no introduction. Since the mid-1980s, the Bay Area quintet has 
been the unyielding flag-bearer for highly-skilled, innovative and monstrously heavy thrash metal. With a catalogue featuring ten studio albums (including the 2001 collection of re-recordings, First Strike, Still Deadly), five live albums, a string of DVDs and a host of “best of” collections, it is impossible to deny the legacy of the band.
In early 2010, Testament is hitting the road with metal titans Megadeth and Slayer for what has been dubbed The American Carnage Tour. Before heading out, we managed to score some time with Testament’s imposing front man, the charismatic Chuck Billy. Read on, as we discuss the excitement of the tour, the importance of loyalty, and the value of family.
I know in interviews you did over the summer, you mentioned that you were planning to enter the studio in October for five months to work on and complete the new album. Does this tour with Megadeth and Slayer put a speed-bump into those plans, or do you see it as a good thing?
Well, it’s a good thing, for sure. But when we said we were going to take five months off, that tour wasn’t even announced yet anyway. And of course, when you get offered a tour like that (which doesn’t come around very often), we had to accept it, because we couldn’t pass it up.
But we’re still working on the album, too. On one of the buses, we’re setting up a recording studio. So, the whole time we’re on the road, we’ll be writing and getting ideas down on tape. Since we’re the opener, we’re going to have a lot of time on our hands, so we might as well write a record out there!
So how did your name come into the equation to be a part of the package? Originally, it was just Megadeth and Slayer, right?
Yeah, well, I know they were looking to put together some kind of nostalgia-like event, and that was the talk at first. And then they threw our hat into the ring, and things happened really quickly. It was a Thursday when our name was suggested and by Monday, they had announced the tour.
Do you have any reservations about opening for your peers, as that is what they essentially are?
No, not at all. You don’t get to tour with some of your favorite bands very often, so when you get that opportunity, you definitely have to seize it and take advantage to the fullest. What better platform is there for a metal band than to play with two of the biggest metal bands around? And I think, for that time of year, there’s really not a lot going on, so it is perfect timing to do it. It’s not competing with the summer tours, and it really stands on its own, you know?
I was wondering what your mindset was for this tour, because traditionally, Testament is known for a very intense and energetic headline live show.
We have such a wide variety of songs that they make a 2-hour headline show go pretty quick. When you have a show like this, we’ve got 40 minutes. That means there are eight songs we have to choose. So at that point, we have to decide how we’re going to play this. Are we going to try to do the “best of” and try to give everybody everything, or do I look at it like, “I’m going on tour with Slayer and Megadeth! I’ve got to have a brutal assault for 40 minutes to keep up with everybody!”
So right now, we’re just practicing everything under the sun and see what happens. We’re just about a month away, and I’m pretty confident that within the next week or two, we’ll have our set dialed in.
Are you going to stick with a basic presentation set list, or are you planning to shake things up. In 
the past, Testament has been known for throwing a couple curve balls into the set along the tour trail.
Oh, we’ll be prepared. We’re planning to have 20 songs ready to go, so at any time we can swap out a song here and there along the tour. Like, if we’re going to play two shows very close to each other that will have identical fans, we’ll switch two or three songs to keep it interesting.
Metal, more than any genre, is known for its diehard fanbases and consisting of bands that can endure anything and ultimately thrive. I think this tour is a grand testimony to that sentiment. What are your feelings on the cyclical nature of the scene?
Metal fans are definitely the most loyal people. They live through their hearts; they speak their minds, and they really back up their favorite bands. And I think they can really see through bands. Over time, there were bands that would try to do the pop thing, and fans get really pissed off at that, because they want you to stay true to what they love.
For us, we’ve pretty much stuck straight with what we’ve done since the beginning. And our fans always tell us that they’re really happy that we’ve stuck to our guns and stuck to our style of music. We’ve been around so long, we could very easily try to make a buck and do what is popular, but I know the fans would shoot it down, no matter how good it would be. The fans wouldn’t like it, because we’d be straying away from who we are.
What is the secret to Testament’s resilience anyway? Even Megadeth tinkered with adopting an alternative sound, and Slayer released a punk album, but you guys have stayed the course and have come out the other end still smelling like roses.
I think, for us, after the band broke up following The Ritual (1992), we went through that point with the major labels and the record executives telling us to write commercial songs, ballads for videos, and all that stuff. And I think, once we broke out of that shell and out of that label, Eric and I said, “You know what, this is our chance now to turn it around, do what we do, get heavier and just go for it!” So we came out with the Low record (1994) and Demonic (1997), which was just over-the-top death metal, and we hooked back on to where we were. And we’ve stuck with that to where we are today.
And you were one of the very few old school thrash metal bands to successfully incorporate the
“death growl” into your music. Do you think that aspect contributed to the band’s survival?
I don’t know. That’s something we’ve had since the first album, but I only ever did it live; we had never done it on a record. It was originally a way to express that live feeling. And over time, I started incorporating it into the vocals. At the same time, there were a lot of death metal bands out there beginning to make names for themselves, and the email response I got to the performances was pretty good.
Some of our longtime fans hated it and couldn’t stand it, but some of our younger, newer fans said things like, “I’m glad to you put that in there. Could you do more of it? We love it!” And since you can’t please one group, you have to try to please them both, and that’s when I decided that I would do both – sing and growl, and try to make them work together. And it’s actually worked well for me.
Do you think that, because of your longevity, Testament is largely responsible for the resurrection of the thrash metal scene in America?
I don’t think we’re single-handedly responsible, because we are part of it. I think that Thrash of the Titans gig we did in back in 2001 really gave a kick in the butt to the Bay Area – bands like Exodus, Death Angel, Forbidden, Heathen. There are a lot of bands that were resurrected again after they had called it quits.
And here we are; they’re all out there making good records again, and they’re all back out on the road. It was definitely a renewed vision for the Bay Area thrash metal scene. I’m loving it, because back when we started, there were really only a handful of thrash metal bands around the world. And nowadays, there are thrash bands everywhere in the world.
Why do you think that the thrash sound has become so beloved among metal fans, young and old?
It’s the honesty of the music. It’s a young style of music, and you’re always going to have a teenager who is rebellious, looking for something that is a little different and not on everyday radio that everyone at school is listening to. I know, when I was growing up and at school, I was into things that people didn’t even know about. It felt good playing a record and going, “what, you’ve never heard of The Plasmatics or The Mentors?” It felt really cool to know about bands that nobody else knew. And I think that is what keeps it cool in the younger people’s eyes.
And more than any other genre of music, metal is much more culturally accepting in that people of any race, color, or creed can participate and they will be loved equally. What does this time of year mean to you? What I’m trying to say is, with regards to Thanksgiving and Christmas, what does it mean to be an American and a Pomo Indian?
Well, I’m proud, definitely. I live about two hours away from my reservation. And my family has some property up there. Right now, we’re in the middle of revamping the property, turning the earth over and building some new places out there. But right now, things are pretty good for our tribe. In the past, it was pretty bad, not having much assistance from the government at all – no police force, no water, no nothing. We were definitely on our own.
And about 12 years ago, we built a casino on the reservation, and all of the sudden we were generating jobs and income for the tribe, and people are getting work and houses. The public roads are getting fixed; the public school buses are getting fit to take kids to school; the schools are getting money now. So it was a really good thing.
The tribal members were getting money from the casino, and then all of the sudden, the government wanted to step in with their hand out saying, “I want my cut and my part of your casino.” So now, money is starting to go away from the reservation again. And I’m on a fence right now, because I’m not only pissed off at how the government is treating our tribe, but all tribes. But then, I’m pretty proud of it, because after all is said and done, we’re still living and surviving, and things are looking pretty good.
How do you personally contribute to tribal affairs?
I don’t really go up all the time and attend all the meetings and stuff, but I stay in touch with the people and participate with the newsletter. My father, before he passed away, had retired up there and was on the tribal council and fully involved in the water project, and he did a lot for them.
It’s just really sad sounding, because it really seems like we have a third world country within our own nation.
Yeah, it is. Before the casino, you would drive up to the reservation, and it looked BAD! I mean, your typical reservation and how you perceived it. Every house had about 30 cars junk-piled in front of it – it just wasn’t good looking housing at all. So I’m really glad they got money and they cleaned it up – they got rid of all the garbage and towed away all the cars. There are crews out cutting grass, and they’ve got it looking really nice now. Our reservation in Hopland is only a population of 817 people.
Has the assimilation of American culture actually helped the Pomo to continue and thrive today?
Oh yeah, definitely. I know my father’s parents wanted him off the reservation. They wanted him to go to college, get an education and make something of himself. And a lot of my uncles and aunts moved off, got educations and raised their families off of the reservation.
And now a lot of my cousins are retiring back to the reservation with all of this knowledge, and they are involved with the tribal council and getting involved with the government up there. My dad did the same thing; he got off got educated and retired there. I can see myself doing the same thing, retiring up there, because it’s beautiful country.
Do you think Testament’s steadfastness and being true to yourselves at least partially stems from your cultural upbringing?
I don’t know about that. I am who I am, and I’m proud of it. Testament is just five guys who that found each other. Eric and Alex have a unique something that just clicks when they play together. I’m fortunate to have found them, and all of us do what we do to be Testament. For me, with this lineup, it’s just been the best years. Here we are again, having a blast. We’re just a little bit older and a little bit wiser.
Catch Testament on the road this winter with Megadeth and Slayer on the following dates:
Jan 18 at WaMu Theatre in Seattle, WA .jpg)
Jan 19 at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR
Jan 21 at Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA
Jan 22 at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, CA
Jan 23 at Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, AZ
Jan 25 at Magness Arena in Denver, CO
Jan 26 at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, NM
Jan 27 at El Paso Coliseum in El Paso, TX
Jan 29 at Verizon Wireless Center in Houston, TX
Jan 31 at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN
Feb 1 at Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, GA
Feb 2 at Broadbent Arena in Louisville, KY
Feb 4 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Minneapolis, MN
Feb 5 at UIC Pavilion in Chicago, IL
Feb 6 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI
Feb 9 at Chevrolet Theatre in Wallingford, CT
Feb 11 at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ
Feb 12 at Glen Falls Civic Center in Albany, NY
Feb 13 at Susquehanna Center in Camden, NJ
Feb 14 at Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA
Feb 16 at Pavillon de La Jeunesse in Quebec City, QC, Can.
Feb 18 at John Labatt Centre in London, ON, Can.
Feb 19 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, ON, Can.
Feb 20 at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC, Can.
Feb 22 at Moncton Coliseum in Moncton, NB, Can
Feb 23 at Metro Centre in Halifax, NS, Can.
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