Source: Bravewords.com

Thomas S. Orwat Jr. of RockMusicStar.com recently interviewed TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy; an excerpt follows:

Testament is about to hit the road, headlining a major tour, The Dark Roots Of Thrash tour. This tour also features thrash metal legends OVERKILL and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, with a new upcoming thrash band, 4ARM. Do you find this time, leading up to a tour, stressful and exciting? What is your mindset right now?

Chuck Billy

Chuck: “Yeah, I’m a little of both, actually. We have a new show, with new songs that we are going to perform. We had previously played three legs of a tour with ANTHRAX, so we are trying to put in some new songs for this one, do a new show. We also plan on filming a DVD on this tour. We did a couple live DVDs/CDs, and we want to do some songs that are not on those, and to create something new.”

Do you believe that Testament has another five or more releases left? Do you think that band will last that long?

Chuck: “I really hope so. We made it this far, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t, as long as we are all healthy. Eric (Peterson, guitarist) and I would love to do it; hopefully the other members feel the same. But I think they do. And as long as we have all that, Testament will continue to write music and keep this going together as long as we can. There have been many different line-ups in this band, with some incredible musicians, but there really is a very special sound and magic with this line-up.”

Have you ever considered writing an autobiography? I think it would be an extremely interesting read. You have been though a lot in your career and overcame quite a bit of adversity.

Chuck: “Yes, I have thought about that over the last couple of years. It’s funny because the guy that I’ve wrote music with over the last twenty years, Del James, has written a couple of books. He actually worked with GUNS N’ ROSES, he helped write ‘November Rain’ and a few of their songs. But he and I have actually spoken about him helping me write my book. But he knows our history and he’s been with me for twenty plus years now. It’s probably something that we are going to start looking into this year.”

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

Confirmed Dark Roots Of Thrash dates, headlined by Testament, are as follows:

January
31 – House of Blues – Anaheim, CA

February
1 – The Marquee – Tempe, AZ
2 – House of Blues – Hollywood, CA
4 – Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM
5 – Emo’s – Austin, TX
6 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
7 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX
9 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
10 – The Filmore – Charlotte, NC
12 – The Filmore – Silver Spring, MO
13 – Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA
14 – Best Buy Theatre – New York, NY
15 – The Paramount – Huntington, NY
16 – The Palladium – Worcester, MA
17 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
18 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON
20 – Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH
21 – The Intersection – Grand Rapids, MI
22 – The Rave – Milwaukee, WI
23 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
25 – The Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
26 – In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT
27 – Knitting Factory – Reno, NV
28 – Ace Of Spades – Sacramento, CA