Written by Chuck Billy has been at the centre of the thrash metal cyclone for an incredible 40 years, beckoning untold thousands into the pit as the singer for Testament. He was there when heavy metal blew up the Bay Area in the 80s, crawled out of the crater left by grunge in the 90s with his head held high, and was playing air guitar like a maniac during thrash metal’s glorious rebirth in the 00s.
Along the way he has recovered from cancer, flown the flag for his Native American roots and even lent his distinctive voice to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in animated show What If…?. Anything else? Oh, yes, he’s writing a book. Kind of makes you feel bad for not getting off your arse to unload the dishwasher, doesn’t it?
BE IN IT TO WIN IT
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“At school I was the big man in charge – I was probably about six feet tall by sixth grade. I played a lot of sports, so I was always trying to be the star soccer player and score the most goals. I was the pitcher for the baseball team, the fourth batter up. I had the most home runs in the league. I was that guy that was in the paper.
Getting into high school, things changed once I shifted out of my sports life into my music career and really put 100% into that. I don’t think I’m the best singer, but I had the drive and the will to do it. Then there’s the competitive side: you want to be the headliner. You want to sell the most t-shirts. You want to sell records. You want to get the TV spot on The Tonight Show or whatever.”
BE PROUD OF WHERE YOU COME FROM
“My Native American roots are wrapped up with my memories of the reservation, my family and my father, who’s gone now. The older I get, the wiser, I guess. I’m more proud of it and able to talk about it, whereas maybe I didn’t think that it fit into ‘metal’ as a younger person.”
YOU’RE NOT ALWAYS AWARE OF THE HISTORY YOU’RE MAKING
“We were too young and dumb and drunk to analyse what was going on, but, as you look back and reflect on it, there was a beauty about the early Bay Area thrash scene. San Francisco in the early 80s was known for punk rock and hair metal, and, before Metallica and Exodus, punk rock was the closest thing we had in terms of attitude, aggression and going against the grain.
The beauty of it was that we – along with bands like Vio-Lence, Forbidden and Death Angel – were able to create our own sounds and styles without mimicking each other. I don’t know what you want to call it, that X-factor, but in that breeding ground everybody took what they found and created something new. Those years were just great: a lot of metal bands popping up and supporting each other.”
FIGURING OUT WHO YOU ARE IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL
“A lot comes down to creating your own identity, sticking with it and fine-tuning it. As Testament, we can play a lot of different styles, but they wouldn’t necessarily be accepted by our fans. So how do you draw that line, to be heavy but still be Testament? How can you be modern, but still hold onto Testament’s classic sound? That was a challenge for [our new album] Para Bellum, where I think, musically it’s way modern, but vocally, I’m being a lot more laid-back and melodic. There was a lot of opportunity to go against the grain.”
DEAL WITH SHIT
“When I first received the cancer diagnosis [of germ cell seminoma in 2001] it kind of went in one ear, out the other. It’s when I said, ‘I have cancer’ out loud that it floored me. I spent one day of sadness and the next I was ready to face it head-on and do whatever I had to do. I started chemo and got in touch with my Native American roots, meeting some healers. It was surreal, almost unbelievable at times, but it really got me through. Coming through the other side of it made me… not religious, but I’m a spiritual guy now.”
DON’T DWELL ON THE BAD TIMES
“The healing process you have to take one day at a time. I’ve been cancer-free for 25 years, so, while I hope I’m good now, I don’t think about it. If I look back at that part of my life, it was an interesting crossroads. There was this big benefit show [2001’s Thrash Of The Titans] in the Bay Area with Vio-Lence, Exodus, Death Angel, Forbidden, they all got together [to raise funds for Chuck and also Death’s Chuck Schuldiner, who had cancer too]. Even Testament – we were broken up and we got back together and did a tour right after. It opened doors and mended a lot of things.”
FIND YOUR FREEDOM
“After Low came out in 1994 we were done with Atlantic and had no record label. Times were changing, and a lot of metal bands were getting dropped by major labels [in favour of grunge]. When you don’t have that big machine behind you, and you are on your own, you have to ask yourself, ‘How do I fight?’ We didn’t want to fade away, so we started our own label, Burnt Offerings Inc. We were angry, but free: there was no one else to have an opinion or tell us to make something we don’t want to make.”
BE PISSED OFF WITH PURPOSE
“Demonic [1997] came out heavy – the songs were really angry, tuned down and aggressive. I really tried to do my melodic thing and it just didn’t work, so it was like, ‘Alright, I’m angry and I want to be angry, so let’s be angry!’ Then I just wrote everything heavy and over the top, but that’s where my head was at.”
YOUR VOICE CAN TAKE YOU TO SOME VERY UNEXPECTED PLACES
“The director for Marvel’s What If…? was a Testament fan. He would go, ‘OK, so here we want that Practice What You Preach voice. Now you’re demonic, so can you do the death metal voice here?’ I’ve actually just signed off to do another animated movie, which is cool. No, I won’t tell you which one.”
KEEP IT CIVIL, AND PEOPLE WILL COME BACK
“We’ve never had a bad break-up. I mean, Greg [Christian], our original bass player, he has his issues, but we still love him. Every other musician that’s been with us, it’s always been an open door. It’s never been, ‘Hey, you’re fired!’ So we’ve been very lucky that if somebody can’t make it, we’ve probably got somebody who can fill in.”
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE HOW YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE
“I’m a controlling guy, I think, and in the past I just wanted to have my foot in the door. But with Titans Of Creation [2020] and Para Bellum [2025] I didn’t complain or rearrange anything, I just said, ‘Just give me what you got and I’m going to do my best.’ I was like, ‘Quit being such a fucking dickhead and just fucking write the lyrics!’ It challenged me, and I actually think I did my best work on those last two albums.”
IT’S GOOD TO GET IT ALL OUT
“I’ve been writing a book and it’s almost like going to a shrink, because you spill everything out. It’s been weird to do, because I’m a private guy – I hate writing emails and responding to texts, I’m short on that. So to write a whole book… it’s a challenge. But my book isn’t about Testament.
I’ve had 40 years in Testament, so who was Chuck Billy for those other 23 years? There’ll be some Testament stuff in there, of course, but it’s not really about that. It’ll explain who I was as a kid, and how that played a part in my Testament career. I’m putting two pieces together: there’s an old Chuck and new Chuck.”
IT’S MAN VS MACHINE
“AI is everywhere in our lives. In San Francisco, there are taxis with no drivers now and it’s starting to happen in New York. I was in Miami last week, and there’s little carts driving down the sidewalk delivering food. Everything’s just getting robotic and controlled and computerised.
I thought it was an interesting topic, especially for artists, given all the criticism around creating music, lyrics or cover art with AI. Originally we wanted to call the record ‘Infanticide AI’, but ultimately we felt Para Bellum – ‘prepare for war’ – was more suited to the times.”
THE WORLD IS STILL MESSED UP
“We were writing songs back in ’86 and ’87 about World War III, global warming and the Earth getting worse, and now it’s happening right in front of us. Those songs actually make a little more sense to me now that we’re living through it. I try to be older and wiser and not as hair-trigger in my responses to headlines, but it seems like we’ve never been in a more precarious time.”
Para Bellum is out now via Nuclear Blast. Testament play Bloodstock in August.
