Former EXODUS guitarist Rick Hunolt was interviewed by “Reckless” Rexx Ruger for a new episode of the Pod Scum podcast. After Ruger noted that the guitar duo of Hunolt and EXODUS’s Gary Holt is every bit as iconic as METALLICA’s guitar team of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett and SLAYER’s Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, Hunolt said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Thank you, man. Well, we were there in the beginning, and honestly, I’m not afraid to say that we probably — we inspired those guys very much, all the guys you just named. But we were all from the same exact amoeba. The DNA was pretty much the same over here on the West Coast with this little, small group of guitar players.”Playing in a band for 30, 35 years with Gary was incredible,” Rick continued. “We respected each other — we still do to this day — very, very much. And we love each other very, very much. And we’ll be brothers forever. Absolutely. He is a busy guy. And I agree — Gary Holt’s a phenomenal riff writer, dude. Phenomenal.”Asked which part of his time in EXODUS was “the pinnacle” of his career in terms of his guitar playing, Hunolt said: “If I had to stack all the albums right there in front of me and look at the performances on every album… If you’re talking lead guitar… I’ll tell you something. I’m gonna have to pick [2004’s] ‘Tempo Of The Damned’, as far as lead guitar and rhythm guitar playing. Because I was a really sick human being during that recording session. I could feel that my time with EXODUS was coming to an end. And it was devastating, dude. And when I go back and I listen to those solos, dude, it’s just, like, ‘Holy shit, man.’ I could feel the pain. In my soul, dude, I could feel it. And some of the solos are just, in my opinion, some of the best stuff I’ve ever recorded. And so I’ll say ‘Tempo Of The Damned’. I mean, commercially, I’d have to say [1989’s] ‘Fabulous Disaster’, as far as commercial success with ‘Toxic Waltz’ and the ‘Headbangers Ball’ tour. And then as far as groundbreaking, I’d have to say [1985’s] ‘Bonded By Blood’. There’s different categories in with the way I look at the catalog and go, ‘Wow.'”Hunolt is currently a member of NEFARIOUS, a new California-based thrash metal band also featuring Katon W. De Pena (HIRAX) on vocals, Doug Piercy (HEATHEN, ANVIL CHORUS) on guitar, Tom Gears (BLIND ILLUSION, ANCIENT MARINER) on bass and Will Carroll (DEATH ANGEL) on drums.NEFARIOUS’s debut album, “Addicted To Power”, will be released on July 18, 2025 via Relentless “Metal” Records, with the collector vinyl available through Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records.Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned “Bonded By Blood” LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.In 2013, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine spoke to Radio.com about which band should have been included if the “Big Four” were expanded and considered the “Big Five”. He said: “You know, people will say there’s a whole another generation, like the ‘Medium Four’ [laughs], and I think there’s a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him.”In 2014, Hammett was asked by U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine if it’s strange to him how much METALLICA has eclipsed the other “Big Four” bands in terms of commercial popularity. “I try not to spend too much time thinking about stuff like that because whatever I think of is still not going to be a satisfying enough explanation,” he replied. “It’s just the way things are and how the chips fell.”EXODUS in the ’80s had some bona fide problems, but I think their first album [‘Bonded By Blood’] is just as good as [METALLICA’s debut] ‘Kill ‘Em All’,” he explained. “We were just playing the music we wanted to hear because no one else was playing it and it wasn’t being played on the radio. It was only a small group of people who knew about it and it was almost elitist in that ‘No posers allowed!’ thing.”Hunolt — the other half of the famed EXODUS “H-Team” who is on every studio recording from 1985 through 2004 and co-wrote some of the band’s best-known songs such as “A Lesson In Violence” and “Deliver Us To Evil” — left EXODUS after the band’s highly acclaimed 2004 reunion album, “Tempo Of The Damned”. Following his departure, Hunolt was replaced by HEATHEN guitarist Lee Altus.Rick discussed his exit from EXODUS during a November 2021 appearance on “Put Up Your Dukes”, the podcast hosted by EXODUS singer Rob Dukes. He said at the time: “During the recording of ‘Tempo’, Gary had just gotten clean a little while prior to that, and I was still using. But I’ve gotta say, Gary Holt — my hat’s off to the man for… He never sweated me. Not once did Gary say, ‘Dude, you’re a piece of shit. I’m gonna fire you from the band if you don’t get your shit together.’ He never said nothing. He let it take its course, you know what I mean?”I was a mess,” Rick continued. “We all were, but everybody got better, and I didn’t. I fell down the rabbit hole even worse, I think, because I was just so depressed. I couldn’t stop. I don’t know what was up… To the point where I was gonna lose my position in the band I’d been in for over 20 years — my best friends, my life. Yeah, it was dark as fuck.”One day, after spending my life, giving everything that I had and the whole world to EXODUS, one day I woke up and I wasn’t in EXODUS anymore,” Hunolt added. “And that morning was, like… Dude, I can’t even describe the emotions that I [was feeling]. I woke up and I wasn’t in EXODUS anymore, dude. It damn near took me out, bro.”Rick revealed that he went through a particularly difficult period after splitting with EXODUS. “I had to reinvent myself at 40-plus years old, [with] two little kids,” he said. “I ended up moving out of Oakland. I had to get the fuck out of there, ’cause we were living at the studio; it was bad. And then we moved in with my wife’s mom and I got a job at the [discount chain] Dollar Tree and I ended up working there for, like, two or three years. I mean, I can go on and on and on. But long story short, I met a guy who knew who I was and offered me a job on his ranch. And the rest is history. He taught me how to live my life and make money.”Hunolt makes a guest appearance on EXODUS’s latest studio album, “Persona Non Grata”, which was released in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.The original lineup of EXODUS consisted of guitarists Hammett and Tim Agnello, drummer Tom Hunting and vocalist Keith Stewart. Holt joined the band in 1981, while Kirk left two years before “Bonded By Blood” saw the light of day and joined METALLICA in time for the recording of “Kill ‘Em All”.[embedded content]