Slayer’s Tom Araya says he can’t wait to hit the road with Anthrax and that he admires Scott Ian and co for never changing who they are.
The singer and bass player recalls meeting Anthrax for the first time on the 1990⁄1991 Clash Of The Titans tour. The two bands will tour together again later this year.
Araya tells the Metal Hammer Magazine show on TeamRock Radio: “They’ve never changed, they’ve always been the same guys. Which is a rarity because a lot of people change. It will be great to see them and do another tour with them. They have good humour, it’ll be fun.”
Amaya adds that he has also stayed pretty much the same, other than that he tends to avoid the spotlight when he’s not on stage.
He adds: “One thing that has changed is that I shy away from publicity. I don’t make appearances. I won’t go to a club, I feel uncomfortable. I’m a bass player and I play in this band called Slayer. And that’s the extent of how I feel about what I do.
“I’ll buy tickets to a show, but I’ll see if there’s a way that I can avoid the public and just hang out, watch it and then leave immediately. I don’t even hang out at our shows.”
And the frontman also backed his bandmate Kerry King over his public spat with Mayhem festival organiser Kevin Lyman, who said fat, old, bald metal bands were to blame for the event’s decline.
Araya says: “My take on that was that’s Kerry speaking his mind, and I was a little taken aback by what Kevin had to say. It was half truths that he spoke. My hat’s off to Kerry, because he has a tendency to speak his mind. I was feeling the same thing Kerry was when I read that. I was thinking, ‘You’re an ass.’ In my opinion, metal’s not dead.”
Slayer release 11th album Repentless on September 11. Hear the full interview on the Metal Hammer Magazine show on TeamRock Radio from 9pm on Friday.
