SLAYER's KERRY KING says TOM ARAYA is "not the guy I started the band with"
28-04-2025
In a new interview with Luiz Cesar Pimentel of Brazil’s Cucamonga, SLAYER‘s Kerry King was asked how the 2013 death of the band’s founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman affected his relationship with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Kerry responded: “I think Jeff‘s passing weighed harder on Tom than it did me. And I don’t mean that from any kind of friendship perspective. It’s just my taking wasn’t as bad as Tom took it. Of course it was horrible, and no one ever wanted that to happen, but it really weighed on Tom. I think that’s what led to him wanting to retire earlier than me, because I think he felt the band was different. But then, out of nowhere, Tom decided he wanted to play some shows last year, and I went, ‘Well, I never wanted to stop playing shows. So, yeah, let’s try it out.'”
King continued: “Just like it was in the earlier years of SLAYER, Tom and I don’t talk on the phone. We rarely text each other. And that’s just because when you’re together for 40 years — he became a very different person. He’s not the guy I started the band with. Not personally — just him; he’s a different person. I basically stayed very similar to who I’ve been in my twenties. And I like Tom. We’re cool. We got together (last year to rehearse for the SLAYER reunion concerts). It wasn’t weird. We did those two shows (at Riot Fest in Chicago and Aftershock festival in Sacramento). He was super happy. We got together after the second one, had a shot after the show. He’ll drink tequila and I love tequila, so that’s what we had. And I think the first idea to play (with SLAYER again) this year was for the (Louder Than Life festival) show we missed last year ’cause of the hurricane. So we rebooked that and (I) said, ‘If we never play another show, I wanna make that right with the promoter,’ because it wasn’t our fault. But he wanted us to play. So we’re playing there this year. And this year we get to play that BLACK SABBATH show (in early July in Birmingham, United Kingdom). I can’t fucking wait.”
Earlier this year, in an interview with SPIN, Kerry King revealed that SLAYER will perform a BLACK SABBATH cover at Ozzy Osbourne and SABBATH‘s final concert on July 5 in Birmingham, England.
“That’s an important day,” King said, adding that he and SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph have already been rehearsing the SABBATH tune SLAYER will perform. “I think that’s going to be a huge moment for the fans, but it’s going to be a huge moment for me. It’s a huge moment in rock history.”
Kerry King and his new band will hit the road in Europe next summer. The trek will launch on July 29 in Frankfurt, Germany and will include appearances at Czech Republic’s Brutal Assault festival, France’s Motocultor festival and The Netherlands’ Dynamo festival.
Kerry King 2025 European dates:
Jul. 29 – Zoom Saal – Frankfurt, DE &
Jul. 30 – Simm City – Wien, AU &
Aug. 1 – Rockstadt Extreme – Transylvania, RO &
Aug. 4 – Komplex 457 – Zürich, CH &
Aug. 6-9 – Brutal Assault Festival – Jaromer, CZ
Aug. 7 – FZW – Dortmund, DE &
Aug. 8-10 – Alcatraz Festival – Kortrijk, BE
Aug. 12 – Academy 2 – Manchester, UK &
Aug. 13 – SWX – Bristol, UK &
Aug. 14-17 – Motocultor Festival – Carhaix, FR
Aug. 17 – Dynamo Festival – Eindhoven, NL
Aug. 19 – Tauron Arena – Krakow, PL *&
& Newly announced shows
* Supporting GOJIRA
King‘s debut solo album, “From Hell I Rise”, was released in May. All material for the LP was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.
Joining Kerry in his new band are Mark Osegueda (vocals; DEATH ANGEL), Phil Demmel (guitar; MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE), Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and drummer Paul Bostaph (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS).
“From Hell I Rise” contains 13 tracks that were recorded with longtime LAMB OF GOD producer Josh Wilbur.
King told Rolling Stone that the title track, “From Hell I Rise”, is one of two songs — along with “Rage” — on the album that he has carried over from SLAYER‘s “Repentless” sessions. “It was finished, we recorded it,” he says. “I wasn’t happy with the performance part of it, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll put this in my back pocket until the next SLAYER record.’ And that didn’t happen, so it’s now on my record.”
Asked why he decided to call his band KERRY KING, the guitarist said: “I didn’t. It was going to be KING’S REIGN for a long time, which is really cool. But even with that one, I went to the guys, like, ‘I’m not a vain dude. I don’t want my name to be a part of it.’ We talked about BLOOD REIGN for a while, but it didn’t work. Every time I came up with anything remotely cool, it was taken by some obscure band in Eastern Europe. It became KERRY KING because I love that logo.”
Regarding how he put together his solo band, Kerry said: “I knew Paul was going to be with me. My original intent was to have (SLAYER guitarist) Gary Holt but the farther I got away from SLAYER, the more I thought people would call this band “SLAYER Light” or “Baby SLAYER.” They’re going to say that anyway, so I didn’t need to fuel that fire. There was no falling out between me and Gary.
“Demmel came out with SLAYER at the end of 2018 to fill in for Gary for four shows,” he continued. “What he did for us, I don’t think I could do for any band on the planet. He had basically two days to watch (SLAYER) play so he could know where the pyro was and the tempo of our set. I couldn’t do that for JUDAS PRIEST, and I’m a giant PRIEST guy. With this, Bostaph said, ‘Hey, what about Demmel (for the new band)?’ I texted him. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I just got done with MACHINE HEAD the day before yesterday.’ I went, ‘Well, that’s kind of perfect.’
As for Osegueda‘s addition to the band, Kerry said: “With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Say for instance, (JUDAS PRIEST‘s) Rob Halford calls me and says, ‘Hey, I would love to be your singer,’ I’d have to go that way.”
King also confirmed that PANTERA‘s Philip Anselmo was “considered” as a possible singer for his new project. “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil,” Kerry said. “Phil‘s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.
“I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play PANTERA, we could play SLAYER, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the PANTERA thing came up.
“I saw Mark a few years back singing covers of MINOR THREAT and cameo in THE WEDDING BAND with members of METALLICA. It was different from what he does in DEATH ANGEL, and he sounded great. He’s super versatile. He took steps to make this different than DEATH ANGEL. I don’t touch on probably 50 percent of what he can do on the album.
“Mark knew how I expected the songs to be performed. On my demos, I sing with very good conviction, but I don’t have pipes; that’s why I don’t sing. With ‘Residue’, he sounded so good I had to ask him, ‘Is this sustainable? I don’t want you to blow your load on this record and then blow your voice out every third show.’ And he swore up and down he could do it. He went on to some of the harder ones and did the same thing on those, so I went, ‘Okay.'”
“From Hell I Rise” track listing:
01. Diablo
02. Where I Reign
03. Residue
04. Idle Hands
05. Trophies Of The Tyrant
06. Crucifixation
07. Tension
08. Everything I Hate About You
09. Toxic
10. Two Fists
11. Rage
12. Shrapnel
13. From Hell I Rise
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