Slayer guitar hero Kerry King is pulling double these days as dates and tours continue to pop up as he supports his debut solo, From Hell I Rise, which is available via Reigning Phoenix Music. Kerry King and his all-star solo band – drummer Paul Bostaph (Slayer), bassist Kyle Sanders (Hellyeah), guitarist Phil Demmel (Machine Head), and vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) – have hit the road for their twenty-eight date North American Headline Tour 2025 and BraveWords caught up with him recently while they were battling the winter elements on their Canadian dates out west.
BraveWords: How has Canada been treating you?
King: “It’s pretty cold. We went from – not last night, but the night before – we went from Vancouver to Calgary, and that was a pretty shitty ride. But we made it.”
BraveWords: Now, before we kick in here, I wanted to get your comments on John Sykes’ death. Were you a fan?
King: “I was a fan. And I didn’t know anything was wrong with him. But you know, being on the tour, I haven’t had a lot of time to do any research on it or anything.”
BraveWords: Yeah, he was a little bit of a recluse in the last few years. Anyways, it was very shocking. So, like a young band that Kerry King is now, right? Gelling on the road, it must bring you back to when Slayer was a young band, and the road makes it happen, right?
King: “Yeah, you know, it’s not completely like starting over. It’s definitely got a starting-over vibe, regardless of my career and how long I’ve been doing it, you know? But I’m having fun like I had in the beginning with Slayer. I love all the guys, we’re already a family. I got a lot of my crew from Slayer working for us. It’s starting over with some old friends, really.”
BraveWords: Now, aside from the obvious, what are some of the differences between a Slayer tour and a Kerry King tour?
King: “Well, the amount of money being spent, the amount of money being earned. You’re putting on a bigger show, for bigger crowds. These aren’t complaints, but since you’re asking, I’m answering. I’m digging this, seeing as I have done this for a long, long time. We don’t have to, like, not have any bells and whistles – we’ve got more production, we’ve got a totally new band. So, we’re in a good place. It’s a good spot for album one.”
BraveWords: When you were choosing Slayer songs, did it feel weird when you heard Mark (Osegueda) sing a Slayer song? And what was the first song you jammed? With him.
King: “Oh god, I have no idea. When he came down the first time, before he had this gig, so I don’t know, that would’ve been like 10-12 months before he had this gig, I gave him a list of Slayer songs, and I said, ‘Pick a couple you like, and come down and we’ll record it, see what it sounds like’. And me and Paul had a super long rehearsal day on the new KK stuff because we were recording and trying to get new things for us to dwell on, then we got to the end and we were both shot. Both recordings were shit. We were so beat, and I said, ‘Come back next time, I’ll send you some of my lyrics and see how they sound on the new material’, because we were so beat that day. It doesn’t seem like you’d get to the point where you’re tired of playing guitar, but our brains were fried. As far as songs we did that day, we did an odd one, we did Cast The First Stone, Raining Blood, we did Captor Of Sin – we did five or six.”
BraveWords: I’ve been going with family reunions to Michigan for decades, and in the ‘80s I went to one and I found this station called Z-rock. And I heard Abigail for the first time, Appetite For Destruction, and The Ultra-Violence by Death Angel. When did you first hear Death Angel and Mark’s voice?
King: “He opened for us, Slayer, when he was 16.”
BraveWords: Wow!
King: “He would know. It was someplace in the Bay Area, obviously. I don’t remember the venue, but I heard him off and on over the years, and we became close friends in the 2010’s, and basically right after Slayer was done, or right before, I can’t remember, I saw him somewhere and he said, “I’m gonna throw my name in the hat, King’. And I always kept that in the back of my mind. He’s the only one who came down and demoed for me and Paul, even though he didn’t have the gig, he was down there a number of times and we started working on things to make it better.”
BraveWords: Tell me about the challenges of trying to make this record, not sound like a Slayer record. And how many times did you have to rewrite things?
King: “I didn’t rewrite anything based on that. Number one, I think it’s going to sound like a Slayer record. I mean, I wrote maybe 95% of the last Slayer record. I mean, if you were expecting something that didn’t sound like a Slayer record, I could’ve told you from day one you’re not going to be happy. I don’t try to make it sound like that, I’d rather have it not sound like that, but I have a distinct style, and that’s not going to go away.”
BraveWords: I see you’re also doing some Di’Anno covers, and I’m a huge (Iron) Maiden fan, particularly those first two records. How did that death affect you. I hate to keep talking about death, but that was a major death too.
King: “Well, you are talking to me (laughs). You know the funny thing about that – long, long story me and Jeff talked about that, about 35 years ago. Because we always thought it was a cool song. He didn’t play it that long but you know me and Jeff got sidetracked making Slayer records and touring a lot, and me and (Phil) Demmel started talking about it. I wanted to start doing covers in this band because I only got one album. If I’m headlining, I have to. So I said I want to do cover covers by bands that either don’t exist anymore, or bands that do exist but don’t play these particular songs. So that’s what I’m basing that kind of thing on. And right now the only covers we’re doing are the two Maiden ones, but we have more on the horizon when we get a chance to rehearse.”
BraveWords: How many Slayer offers are you getting inundated with daily?
King: “I don’t know. My manager doesn’t tell me all of them. They just forward ones to me that make sense because we are adamant that we’re not going to tour anymore. But we’re making up that Louder Than Life that got skipped last year. We’re making that one up so we’re gonna do something else around that. There’s a couple shows in other territories and that’s it.”
BraveWords: How do those discussions go with Tom (Araya)?
King: “I don’t know. I don’t have them.” (Laughs).
BraveWords: Tell me the process of doing this (holds up a Funko pop doll).
King: “Oh my little Drunk-o pop?”
BraveWords: Drunk-o pop. I love that.
King: “Well basically, they asked if I’d be opposed to it or into it. Then they send you the art ideas, and I was cool with mine so I said, ‘Yeah, do it’.”
BraveWords: I call this the BraveWords Rapid Fire. Some left field questions. And the obvious first question is, what’s your favourite song on British Steel?
King: “We were just talking about British Steel last night so I’ve got a few of them in my head. Rapid fire- there you go, man. You gave me a rapid Fire question and I gave you a Rapid Fire fucking answer!”
BraveWords: There you go! When was the moment you decided music is your life, and did you have family support?
King: “Probably around the time we did Show No Mercy, because then you got something to show for what you’re trying to do. My dad used to come to our shows when we were nobody, because he was proud. But then, around, I think it was somewhere around Haunting The Chapel, Hell Awaits, he kept poking at me to go because they had openings where he worked. He was an aircraft parts inspector, and he wanted to send me to school to be an x-ray technician, which would’ve been a great career. And I remember, I said, ‘Well, when I on tour, can I just go and do this thing?’. And he was like, ‘Now you won’t have to be an x-ray technician’. No thank you.”
BraveWords: Well speaking of Show No Mercy, that’s my original flag. 40-plus years, dude.
King: “Cool.”
BraveWords: Have you ever asked for an autograph?
King: “Oh fuck yeah. I’m into sports figures and I’m into, of course, my heroes. I’ve got a bunch of stuff. It’s funny my wife got a bunch of things signed for me because I’m never home. And one time in 2004 when Halford came back to (Judas) Priest, it was Black Sabbath reunited, Priest reunited, and Slayer, which was one of the coolest things I’ve ever played in my life. I had like 30 of my albums from when I was a kid. And I know Rob, it’s just he was still a hero, and I couldn’t bring myself to go ask him to sign everything, so at the last show, my wife went. She’s the only woman that’s ever been on Rob’s bus, I think. And she had Rob sign everything. And he’s like, ‘Why didn’t Kerry ask me?’, and she was like, ‘You know how he is’.”
BraveWords: Dude I was backstage with you at Camden, watching you put nails in your arm band, I was interviewing. Lombardo. That was the show where Halford stood in for Sabbath.”
King: “Yeah I remember that.”
BraveWords: Crazy history there. Who is your rock star or metal god?
King: “It’s probably Halford. I mean, I made a list on my phone of my top 10 singers a while back. And they’re not in any order except for one and two. Number two is Ronnie James Dio and he’s only number two because number one is Rob Halford.”
BraveWords: Aside from your passport and phone what do you always travel with?
King: “Liquor.”
BraveWords: That’s a good one. I like that answer. What do you think about the vinyl craze? It’s absolutely crazy. Given – we’re almost the same age, right? I mean we grew up with vinyl. What was your first vinyl purchase?
King: “Originally?”
BraveWords: Yeah, roughly.
King: “I don’t know, because cassettes were pretty hot when I started buying. I think one of the first ones I bought with my money would probably be Van Halen three, Women And Children First.”
BraveWords: Wow. Love that album. Amazing album. What album or song do people talk to you most about?
King: “I have no idea. I just had a long conversation with Brian Slagel, because he was doing a podcast, and it was about the importance of Black Magic. So, since I’ve done that recently, I would say Black Magic. But I mean, in any other perspective, I’d probably say Raining Blood is probably a big thing to talk about. That’s a tough question. Because you know fans – if I’m signing things for a fan – not the ones who are gonna sell them on eBay – those fans have no idea what to say because they are just so blown away that they’re standing next to me. And I was the same way with my heroes, you know? So I try to make it easy and I say, ‘Here, do you want a picture?’, you know. Enjoy this moment because if you don’t, you’re gonna fucking go home and then remember something you wish you’d fucking yakked at me about. So make sure you get it all out. Get your questions in when you can.”
BraveWords: You’re sitting at a bar with an empty chair. Who would you like to sit on it, past present?
King: “Ronnie James Dio. I didn’t get to know Dio as long as I would like to. I met him in ’06 and he was just a joy from the minute you meet him. He was awesome. That’s not to discount any of my other friends, past or present. You’d be surprised at how much sports knowledge Ronnie James Dio had.”
BraveWords: Wow. What do you gravitate towards? Sabbath, or his solo material, or even Elf?
King: “I’m gonna fucking go off the board and say Rainbow.”
BraveWords: Yeah of course. What would you be doing if you weren’t in the music business?
King: “I won’t say that (laughs). That’s hard to say because I’ve been doing this 40-something years. I don’t know, maybe I would’ve been in the sports industry. But I’m not good enough to play any sport, I wouldn’t even be on the fucking B team so, hard to say. But maybe something having to do with sports.”
BraveWords: What was your worst job while playing in a band?
King: “My early childhood, they were all stupid teenage jobs. I worked in a pet store. I worked at a mini golf place. You can pick either one of those. I only worked at the mini golf place for like a month, and then my hair got too long and they told me to cut it, and I said, ‘No, later’. And now I have no hair.” (Laughs).
BraveWords: Speaking of Funko, or Drunk-o – I will quote you on that. What’s the weirdest merch idea that Slayer, or you personally, have been pitched? That you either went with or turned down?
King: “I don’t know offhand. I mean, we get all kinds of action figures, the KnuckleBonz, or the Funko Pops, and stuff like that. The weirdest thing would be some of the artwork. It gets negated, like when we see all the art for potential shirts. Some of them were like, ‘What are you thinking? Who did you make this shirt for’? It ain’t Slayer.”
BraveWords: Do you have a hand with, or can you tell us about the anniversaries, or any re-issues? What’s going on with the catalogue?
King: “Stuff like that, everything is sent to me to approve, I do look at everything. It may not be my idea to do it in the first place, but if I don’t want it to come out there’s nothing I can do to keep it from coming out, because the rights are owned by the record company. So that part I have no control over. But how it looks, I do.”
BraveWords: Give me your short and long-term plans for the rest of the year.
King: “Well, like I said, there are a handful of Slayer shows. My band is going to South America in May. My band is going to Europe in July and August. And that might be the last thing, but there’s another thing on the horizon that I’m hoping comes through. So, either it’s the end of summer or sometime in the fourth quarter we’ll be done.”
(Photo credit: Jim Louvau)
Source: bravewords.com
