Tag Archives: exodus

Steve “Zetro” Souza Part 1

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I hate to have to do this but I am in the middle of mid terms and I would rather post this interview in two parts then wait any longer. This is a great interview I did with Souza. It is always great to discuess things that are still an up hill battle for th ebands of today. Who would have thought that in 2014 we would still run into problems like freedom of speech and one could still get arrested for sharing words from a band. If we thought that the PMRC or the days of Elvis was over we have greatly mistaken. Instead our bands are under more scruitney then ever before.

H.S.- Do you think the incident with your fan on Facebook, how they are calling him a terrorist, do you think that they are overreacting to everything because of what is going on with ISIS and they are just paranoid?

 

Souza- I think that 100%. I have actually talked to him a few times, we have emailed each other and I know the story of what has happened and honestly it is the stupidest thing. Do you know the story of what happened?

 

H.S.- I read part of it in the press release but I did not get the full story.

 

Soua- This is what happened to him. He took one of our lyrics from one of our songs and he posted it on his Facebook page, his daughter went to school that day and they are some how connect on Facebook. One of her teachers got a hold of it and read it and they said “Oh my God this guy is going to come and shot up the school.” So then the police went to his house that night, it was Tuesday, and the cops came and asked “ Hey are you going to shot up the school?” He said “ No no no no that’s a band lyric I posted from a band I like called Exodus. I just posted it up online.” To which the cops replied “ You know this isn't illegal but because of Middleton, Columbine and Virginia Tech and all these things going on we just have to look at this and come check it out.” He said that the police left the house and where all cool. Saturday night comes and he hears sirens and they are getting closer and closer to his house. He said five cars pulled up, kicked down his door and boom a gun to the head telling him he was under arrest. He had wonder what had went on since then. Whoever signed that warrant is going to fry. I have done some radio and television interviews in Kentucky who are covering it and I was talking to the reporter and she told me the American Civil Liberties Union has jumped in and they are going to defend him. Now that police deport in Kentucky are trying to backtrack and say they didn’t know when obviously someone should have researched it a little more and been like hey that is some band lyric. You can't run down everything you see. I appreciate the effort but it is way off. The man had to go to court this week and he sent me an email saying he was scared to go to court. I sent him an email back saying “ Don't worry bro we all have your back. The Constitution has your back. Don't worry about it.” It is like you said it is out of paranoia.

 

H.S.- How offended are you that they took something that was written by a band, an art form and and they are using it against people like in 1984?

 

Souza- I remember that. Al Gores wife, Tipper Gore, she start this thing called the PMRC and they had gone off on us. I remember I was on tour and there was people who were picketing our shows and they were saying Steve S lyrics are appalling and all of this stuff. It was just unbelievable. Honestly it was a double edge sword for them. They were stupid because once they had started stickering the albums kids were like “ Hey I think I want to check this out. It says it has some explicit lyrics,” They should never have done that at all. Then the whole Judas Priest trial in 88' when they tried to put Priest on trail because these two kids committed suicide and there was a Judas Priest album on the turn table when they did it. The parents said that they were listening to the record backwards and it was telling you to it. My sons name is Mick Souza but when you say it backwards it says Sick Nouza so any words can mean something backwards. You know Judas Priest had a great point, they said “ You know when we recorder that record we were broke, we didn't have any money. We barely had enough to put the record out let alone trying to record something and putting it on backwards.” It all came from the Beatles when they put something on the record and when you spun it backward it would say Paul is dead Paul dead Paul is dead. And then there was this paranoia that Paul McCartney had died, this was in 69' or 70'. So they had took it from that. They always run with this delusion in their eyes. You know what parents need to look at their own self in their own eyes and not look at the bands or the forms or entertainment they are listening too. Look at your own face and see what you are doing as a parent.

 

H.S.- What difference is it between what you are doing and lets put out a pop star let's go with Katy Perry. She is writing lyrics about fucking people and all of these other explicit lyrics, lets go with Dark Horse, I like to look at pop star lyrics to see what the difference is between pop stars and metal lyrics and there isn't any. The only difference is that she sings it with a happy beat. What is the difference? There is none really.

 

Souza- It's not. Lyrical content is lyrical content. Heavy metal bands, well we just don't sugar coat it and we are very politically inclined. Even in my other band, I have another thrash metal band called H, and it is the same thing. I have a song its called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and it deals with the same subject manner. There is nothing different from the Exodus songs as my other band. It is the same thing. It is the same lyrical content and there is nothing pretty about it. It isn't pretty and we never sugar coat it.