In a new interview with The Razor’s Edge, EXODUS frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza talked about his band’s decision to postpone the North American leg of its “The Bay Strikes Back Tour” with TESTAMENT and DEATH ANGEL to 2022.
Speaking about EXODUS‘s plans to play shows in support of its new album, Persona Non Grata, which will be released on November 19 via Nuclear Blast Records, Zetro said: “I think what we’re gonna try to do is do regional stuff. There are areas that in the United States especially that are not necessarily playing by the rules that other places are — the South especially. Florida, Alabama — [I] love you, guys.
“There’s places to go play where the restrictions aren’t as stringent as, say, here in California. In California, you cannot go — in San Francisco [and] Oakland, you cannot go to a movie, you cannot go to a concert, you cannot go to anything without showing proof of vaccinations. Not just proof of a negative test — proof of vaccination. So, there’s a lot of people torn about the Constitution and ‘the government tells us what to do’ — there’s a lot of that going back and forth.
He continued: “For now, we’re playing it by ear. For now, we’re just gonna play it by ear and just hopefully something will pop up. But I think the next actual thing other than… We’re gonna play [at the end of November] here in Oakland with ‘The Bay Strikes Back Tour’; that was the only thing that was safe. And then the next thing will be April 9th with ‘The Bay Strikes Back Tour’, unless we do something in January, February, March — which I’m told we are. Again, we’re playing it by ear. Who knows? It changes every day.”
In a recent interview with Andrew McKaysmith of Australia’s “Scars And Guitars” podcast, Zetro railed against the federal and local vaccine mandates that have been implemented across the U.S. over the past few weeks.
“They’re forcing you to get a vaccine,” he said. “Do we live in a socialist society? What happened to ‘my body, my choice’? I don’t understand it. And it’s not about the vaccine not being effective or whatever; it’s about the choice that you’re telling me to. We’re playing a concert with TESTAMENT and DEATH ANGEL in Oakland, California [at the end of November]. You have to show proof of vaccination to even come in. I think that’s socialist right there. That’s bullsh*t. What about people that have AIDS? What if people have Hep C? How come they don’t have to show [any kind of proof]…? To me, it’s like anything else — why is this all of a sudden [something that] the government can mandate you?”
