 In Montreal, Canada the man all right the chief. He's there. How you doing man? Good to be back We're also recording for for later We're just gonna do a little bit of a little snippet here live just to promote this for Canada because you got some Canadian dates coming up Yes, tonight in Montreal after that. Do you remember? I think it's Ontario tomorrow and then I know we go back into the US for two shows And then we come back up for I believe another four shows So it's well overdue for Canada. We've haven't been here for that many shows in quite a few years So it's good to be back here, you know, I'm happy you're back in today Just I want to do a shout out because today is the Canadian National reconciliation with the indigenous people that's September 30th, and I'll just give you a little quick brief in 10 seconds the Back in 1880. I think it's about 1880 The assimilated indigenous kids they took them away from their their parents They told them you're not allowed to have your culture. You have to learn our culture our religion they were beaten mentally and physically and Yes, the government maybe 10 years ago the Canadian government did apologize But I just want to give your thoughts because you are indigenous Maybe not on the Canadian side, but one of the other side but still what are your thoughts on this? Well, I think it's great that they recognize it because I know indigenous people have always struggled to be heard from having their land taken away their rights taken away and They seem to be overlooked a lot. So it's great that they're recognizing what happened and actually Making an apology is a big thing to do for them. So that's awesome and tonight I'm definitely gonna speak about it tonight live You know because we are playing native blood tonight for the indigenous people So it makes sense and you know, that's what it's about awareness, right? And exactly that's why I told you today Because I awesome. I know you're not Canadian, but it's something Canadian that you should still indigenous is indigenous people that Have voices that don't get a chance to let them be heard and for at least today They're gonna get a chance to be heard at least on my stage tonight You know the sad passing of probably one of your your best friends, I guess or closest friends of John's Azula and Marsha's Azula Yes, you know, I Know there's a Metallica tribute concert coming up in Florida as well and Raven's gonna be part of it But just give me briefly What is the legacy that Johnny and Marsha left behind? I know you're so close to them You know, yeah, I'm gonna be at that show as well. I'm gonna go down there Me and Johnny, you know, I owe my life because he signed the band and gave us a chance to be recognized as a band first of all and Even after the first two records on mega force records We went he had a handful of bands that went to Atlantic Records and we were one of them but still we kept in contact a long time over the years and then I'd say maybe it was Eight years ago we started a management company together So I got to speak to Johnny and Marsha all the time every day And then we just crossed over for being my wife spent a lot of vacation time with them either Bahamas or Mexico or they would come stay at our house so we really had a close bond and the thing about Johnny was up to the Last few days of his life. He's always was a guy thinking of some something You should try this. Hey, this is an idea till the end. He was an idea He is he well if he thought of something he made it happen, you know I had a interview with Ed trunk last week and Ed turn does the metal show and he would we were talking about Johnny and he's like Johnny was that guy he said Hey, I got this band from California named Metallica if I get them to sign I'm gonna hire you and we're gonna start a label and sure enough he did it He got him brought him out signed him started the label Megaforce was born and of course we got to reap that benefit of being non-megaforce with Johnny a True legend a soundtrack to our lives, you know, and you guys were part of it and Johnny was You know, I you know it I knew Johnny in the latter Years What a guy, I mean, you know and his eyes his brain never stopped working for a second and Marsha to Marsha to by the way Yeah, and Marsha was there actually the one behind it Johnny would have the idea and she would say Johnny you're crazy or yeah Let's do it. That's pretty much. So Marsha was really she was the boss, you know, I'll give that to Marsha Love them both. I miss them both, you know because you know the connection we had and talking to him every day I miss that, you know, and so He'll be most so but Metallica is doing a great thing in Florida doing this show with Raven. I'll be there Be supporting their on stage if they asked me to but I'm there they're in spirit for Johnny and Marsha All right, so this ends the live segment All right, so the shows are coming up This ends a live segment. We're gonna slip slip to video. So everybody they're they're coming down to your town They're hitting the west coast Canadian dates and US dates the Bay strikes back with that angel exodus don't miss it because this will be the last run with this package and All bands are on fire that angel exodus are bringing it so it's testament, but you can't miss this show It's it's such a package. I know the movie murder in the front row came out This is murder in the front row on tour. So don't miss it. All right So now we could continue the rest of the interview a check. All right. Tell me about what's Titans of creation. There's a new album or a Re-release of that album. Tell me what people can expect when they purchase this sort of re-release Yeah, well, you know, of course we chose to release the record April of 2020 and that's right in the pandemic was starting and We could have held it up and I know a lot of bands chose to wait till things got back together But we thought, you know, people are stranded at home. They're stuck Let's give them something new to sit at home and listen to and we chose to do that And so we never we thought when the pandemic hit first We'll be back out there in four months five months. That was in the case obviously it took a couple years for everybody to kind of get back on tour and Nuclear blast was brilliant to think when we why don't we do a Re-release and we actually thought of it too because when Gene Hogan after COVID he had had some Commitments to some other projects and our schedules were conflicting because we're like, all right. We're ready to go back to work, too So we're kind of conflicting So, you know, Gene chose to you know, continue with what he was going to do and we chose we need to do something as Well, so let's possibly get a replacement for Gene and so We did say okay, so since this is the last time Gene is probably gonna tour with us in the near future Why don't we do a play through of the record and record it video for every single song? So just to be clear the play through you're just playing all the songs all the songs off time songs We so we shot a video we went we were Rent into soundstage in San Francisco gene came up and we just did a play through of the whole record So it's really cool So you can you know put it in your DVD player at home or at a party or the bar and you can watch us perform it which is great and I think because it's a great thing just because You know, we didn't get a lot of promotion for it because of the pandemic and the pandemic actually Hindered a lot of the shelf life of a record. So our record could what couldn't even hit the shelves You had to get it online, you know or download So that downloads of course went up through the roof, but physical product was not there So with this release they did a long box, which is really cool. They used to do those in the 80s Of course, I'm sure I'm sure Johnny had something to do at that the long box So we did the long box and they decided let's let's do a release with the CD and the DVD and Cool little pin in there and a nice little booklet to read throughout the long box So that's we did and that's kind of what just came out here at the start of this tour And what about okay now the big news is everyone's going crazy David Lombardo is is the drummer, right? Did you have to audition? No, of course not No audition needed, right? No, and we were you know before we made the big announcement We told a few people and some people were sending audition tapes And then once Jean made the announcement and a lot of people started flooding with with videos and stuff But right when Jean made the announcement Dave's wife seeing it online and woke him up that morning said hey Dave Testament's looking for a drummer and at that time, you know Dave was looking for a gig because Four of his projects weren't doing anything at the time So he was like he goes I was calm a manager trying to find me a gig and I go well We got one we got a gig for you. So like he texts me saying Just Lombardo question mark and I'm like whoa Dave's I called him right up and said Dave You know if I knew You know you're wanted to you know help us out dude. I'd have called you first But you're in four bands and we'd be the same problem as gene And that's when he told me like look i'm not doing anything with those bands right now I'm available. I said look we got a b and c two are ready to go if you're ready to do it He says yeah, let's do it. So you know and he came back out. We're having fun It's just like riding a bike because he did the gathering record and tour been 2000 with us And he said you can slip in a slayer track maybe at the end for a double on core or something We talked about it, you know, especially gary hears from exit is play with slayer. So Dave played in slayer with gary. I mean we talked about doing that but just hasn't happened yet Um But it's been it's been really good tours been great. Dave's been kicking ass the fans love them being back playing testament songs Love it. Uh solo album. Where are you with that? Uh, i'm a long way. I've got a lot of tracks from different guitar players that have uh, You know sent me tracks. So but you know There's so much to be done in testament still promoting this record. It's not time That's just something I want to do eventually and hopefully fit it in After because right after this tour we have time off until April And so we're going to go right away and start working on a new testament record. All right So me i'm putting my solo aside. Eric's putting dragon lord aside Alex is putting his jazz aside and we're going to just focus on get another testament record Are there any directions musically you want to go that you haven't tackled anymore like still within the realm of Testament but a little bit out of the box Um, I'm not sure because I think tines of creation to me was outside of the box because The way we've always worked and I've wrote music with Eric for 35 plus years Um, we usually he'll submit me some music and I'll listen to it and I'll either I always challenge him I'm like, well, he'd go. Well, here's the verse. Here's the chorus and here's the bridge And I'm like, no, I hear this being the verse and this being this I always I always change things to what I'm thinking. I want to sing over And this last record titans. I didn't do that. I just said, you know what? Just give me the music and I'm going to do my best And so there were some songs when I first heard I'm thinking, okay I'm not going to challenge him. I would but I'm not gonna and it really pushed me out of my comfort zone So it really made me as a vocalist coming up with some new Melodies and there's like a song called city of angels on here, which It was to me when I first heard it. It was really soft and I'm like, you know, this doesn't fit on the record And I didn't hear it me vocally singing it But in the writing process when I was writing lyrics um, I work with del james and he's really close with the guns and roses camp and um He he came up with these lyrics and they fit perfectly to the the song ericard wrote So I went back home That following day after we he gave me the lyrics and I sang the song And and I never practiced it or did I just got the lyrics said this would fit in the melody tempos of that this tune So I got home and I ended up singing that song And I started using some other voice textures that I haven't used yet And and the song came out great. So I was like going wow, you know what? 35 years later I'm writing songs and I'm trying something new And I'm being pushed out of my comfort zone and and making me do something that I at the end of the day just came out great I thought the record came out great one of your best albums It is but and all those songs are so different but still testament And that was the beauty of just me trying to figure out and be out of my comfort zone And I think that made for a better record. All right 2023 you suspect that that's kind of like the timeline of a new album. That's the goal Yeah, I mean like say october 15th the last show of this tour. So We'll work right up before to christmas and then right after new years. We'll get right back at it And I know eric and alex have been working and jamming together and I hear there's an epic song in in That's been created. I haven't heard it yet, but I hear it's epic. That's all they say it's epic I'm like, okay. I don't know but they say it's epic So that's all that's the word they throw at me. So but we'll see. I mean I think testament will always stay in the vein of testament and not Not follow trends or follow what's hip today. We're gonna even though there's a lot of great new bands I love and I go man, that's great. I really love it. But we wouldn't we we can't Change we want to kind of stay testament because I think I hear it from fans when you talk to them They always say thank you for being who you are for so long. So we just have to continue that On the last note flipping houses just 10 seconds on 10 seconds 30 seconds on flipping houses Yeah, I've been I've been doing that during the pandemic. I could see you in a reality show. Yeah No, I got I got the better name already. It's uh banging heads banging hammers So but no but I I've been doing that all my life with like my personal house I'd get a house need somewhere fix up sell it and I kept doing I really love doing that part of it Taking something stripping it down and putting it back together and seeing the reaction of someone who buys it like wow This is beautiful. You're like, yeah, it is isn't it? So during the pandemic. I really started a company with two partners and we flipped about Eight houses over this last pandemic and we have four going right now two in Atlanta and One in Tahoe and one in Berkeley, California And um, I work from the road and communicate with the contractor and my other partners You know are working close as well. So it's something fun to do and it all started because I was like What am I going to do after testament? And so I started something that I enjoyed doing that now I can do it both from the road At the same time so as your wife come in and say well, we got to move this here and that here She's opinionated. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, for sure. All right on that note, uh, I wish you all the luck everybody catch them on tour They're they're whipping through the west coast into the usa To the u.s. And the base strikes back you got to see that because like I said earlier This this is a tour that we've spoke about doing for a long time And never can make it happen and finally we made the agents do it We got to go to europe and tour it and then the pandemic hit it So we picked it up this april Right now all the bands are on fire It's a great package. This will probably be the last run in america. You won't see it again So you can't miss it All right on that note Thanks. See ya