In a recent chat with Metal Blade Records CEO Brian Slagel, Kerry King shared how he chooses Slayer songs to avoid backlash.
“I wanted to focus on things I had written or co-written because I didn’t wanna fuel anybody’s fire for ammunition that might hate my band and hate me or whatever,” the guitarist said while discussing the Slayer songs he and his solo band played at their recent shows. “Those people do exist out there.”
He continued his words, “So I’m, like, how can I do this the most straight-up way? So I’m, like, ‘Nobody can pick on me if I play songs that I co-wrote or wrote,’ so it started there. ‘Raining Blood’ has to be played, because if I’m playing one song throughout the history, it’s kind of gotta be that one. And ‘Black Magic’ pairs really nice with it.”
“Plus it’s a killer song from our first record ever, so there’s history there. And I wanted to definitely hit some nostalgia points because basically all the stuff we’re playing is brand new K.K. [Kerry King] material, but to throw in stuff that people have liked for decades…” King further explained.
The musician lastly added, “And if we play a longer set, yeah, sure, then we’ll play ‘Disciple,’ then we’ll play ‘Chemical Warfare,’ we’ll play ‘Repentless,’ but we only had 40 minutes on [the Lamb of God/Mastodon] run. So I think we played nine songs. So to have two from Slayer, I think is a nice representation as well as playing a sh*t-ton of our new stuff.”
In a Q&A with Metal Hammer in May, King said he avoided playing songs only written by Jeff Hanneman so fans didn’t think he was using Slayer’s legacy. He explained, “For this coming summer in Europe we’re gonna do like nine or 10 tracks from the album and depending on set length fill it with stuff I’ve done – something I wrote in Slayer or co-wrote.”
The rocker also noted, “So nobody can say ‘he’s playing Jeff songs!’ because although I love Jeff songs and he was such a big part of my life, I don’t want to rely on it this year, this album cycle. At some point, I will play ‘Angel of Death’ but there’s so many f*cking faceless haters on the internet I don’t want to give them ammunition.”
In October, King announced his first solo North American headline tour for January and February 2025. The tour will start at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on January 15 and visit 28 cities, ending at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on February 22.
