In a new interview with Scott Lipps, Kerry King talked about the chaos with early Pantera.
The guitarist remembered the first time he met the band, saying, “When I met them, it must have been on the ‘Power Metal’ album [1988]. We were coming through Dallas, I think they were playing someplace local, and we ended up there on the day off.”
He revealed the rest of the story, “For some reason, they talked me into going on stage with them. I’m like, ‘Okay, we could pull this off.’ I could tell they could play. We’re doing ‘Raining Blood.’ And they decided not to tell me they changed it, like, the key, or whatever.”
“We get towards the end of the song, and they went in a different direction. I’m just like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing!’ I’m standing there, holdin’ my d*ck. I don’t know what’s going on,” King recalled.
The rocker went on to say, “We kept in touch. I played with Pantera a million times, probably right around when ‘Cowboys’ came out. They would play a place called Joe’s Garage right back then. I would fly out, and we would do Slayer songs, Priest songs, Pantera songs…”
“When we did Pantera songs, me and Dime would go guitar geek-out and make a harmony. So we play things that didn’t have harmonies on the record. It was a cool time. It’d be fun to find those tapes. I’m sure they exist somewhere,” Kerry also shared.
In a 2012 chat with Revolver, King reflected on his favorite Pantera song, saying, “My favorite Pantera song? That’s tough, man. As much as I’ve played ‘F*cking Hostile’ with them live, I’ve got to go with ‘Becoming.’ That’s just one you turn on and you’ve got to turn your radio up as far as it will go.”
King is currently on a North American tour with his solo band. They will be playing in Calgary, Canada on January 22.
