Chuck Billy now understands why Alex Skolnick left Testament after 1992’s ‘The Ritual.’
In a new conversation with Nikki Black from 107.7 The Bone, the frontman talked about how the departure of the guitarist felt to them at the time:
“He’s been in the band longer now than he was then and of course, when he left, we were upset, disappointed, and felt let down a little bit but we didn’t understand it as well as we do now because he was a teenager, made a record and then took off. We did a record four years in a row and just kept touring. He didn’t really have a teenage life.”
Testament Wanted To Give Alex Space
He shared how they approached Skolnick after he rejoined later:
“He grew up playing metal and music and doing that. So, looking back, I get it now. He wanted to reach out and do his jazz and do things like that and then once we got back together, we knew that we didn’t want to put him in that same spot. So we always said, ‘Alex, when we’re done touring, do your jazz, write your records, do whatever. We’ll just all work around each other’s time and schedule to make this work.’”
Other Testament members have also been busy with other works:
“And that’s what we’ve done and I think he’s been everybody’s been happy. [Steve] Di Giorgio, he does recordings for everybody and does things. So everybody has their thing. Gene [Hoglan], at the time, was doing other projects and recordings. So everybody got to kind of do what they need to do but then regroup together when we want to do Testament.”
Skolnick’s Statements On Leaving Testament
During a 2020 appearance on Poisoned Rock, Skolnick opened up about leaving Testament and continuing his career as a jazz musician:
“After Testament – I didn’t want to be stuck just being the ex-guitarist of Testament. I was very proud of my work, but I know people try to put you in a category, and they say that’s all you are. But I’ve always been very open as a musician, I don’t need to just play thrash metal – I don’t need to just play with thrash metal musicians.”
He added:
“So I moved far away. I moved away from the whole scene, I moved to the East Coast, New York, and I met many different musicians. I studied music – I got a degree in music. I just really wanted to experience music at that level, which I might have done had I not joined the band. I always thought I might go on to study music at a university, so I did that.”
Skolnick briefly rejoined Testament to re-record old songs for their album ‘First Strike Still Deadly’ and played at Thrash of the Titans in 2001. He officially returned in 2005 for a European tour.
You can watch the rest of Billy’s interview below.