Last year, Slayer guitarist Kerry King revealed that he and singer/bassist Tom Araya rarely spoke to one another. Surprisingly, shortly after that comment was made, the band announced its first run of reunion shows.
In a new interview with Cucamonga, King addressed his current relationship with Araya, and said that the death of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman played a role in how things changed.
“I think Jeff’s passing weighed harder on Tom than it did me,” King said. “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 early on in 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 (for the shows). It wasn’t weird. We did those two shows. He was super happy.”
Slayer is set for another run of shows later this summer including Black Sabbath’s/Ozzy’s farewell. “(Tom and I) got together after the second one, had a shot after the show,” King said. “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 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. I can’t f*cking wait.”
King’s full interview can be viewed below.
