On the eve of renowned thrash metal band Slayer’s first ever live show in India, the band’s guitarist Kerry King has sat down with Rolling Stone India to talk about what the performance means to him.
King said that India wasn’t the only country not yet visited by Slayer, which will get the chance to see the band soon: “I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for 30 years and we’ve never been there earlier. And a couple of weeks later, we’re doing Paraguay. There’s still a lot of places in the world that we haven’t been to.”
The guitarist added that he hadn’t spoken about what to expect in India with Slayer’s Big 4 counterparts Metallica and Megadeth, who both have toured the country in recent times. However, he maintained he has been well informed by other sources: “…I hear from crew people. I actually talk more to crew people than I talk to bands because, you know, crew may work for Megadeth and they may work for us. So they have stories to tell.”
King went onto explain that Slayer very rarely conversed with Megadeth and were almost always on a conflicting schedule to Metallica: “You know, it’s funny. About Metallica, the funny thing about the two bands is that we never really talk. Not because we are at odds with each other. Simply because we were in completely different circles. When we were touring, they were home. When they were touring, we were home. So aside from a couple of shows early on in Orange County like you said, we played maybe five shows in 25 years at random festivals.”
After three decades in the business, Slayer has cemented their place as one of the all-time great metal bands. King recalled how it all began: “…we got into music to get beer and chicks. And luckily, somebody found us and we got to make a career of it. I think for a lot of bands, their first record is their shot at getting famous. Their second record – they gotta repeat that.”
Slayer will headline Rock ‘N India in Bengaluru on October 20th.