Slayer guitarist Kerry King admits he doesn’t have a close relationship with singer/bassist Tom Araya.
During a new interview with Brazilian YouTube channel Cucamonga, King – who co-founded Slayer with Araya, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo in 1981 – says he’s “cool” with Araya, but that the two have grown apart over the years.
“Just like it was in [the earlier years of] Slayer, [Tom and I] don’t talk on the phone,” says King (via The PRP). “We rarely text each other. And that’s just because when you’re together for 40 years – he became a very different person. He’s not the guy I started the band with. Not personally – just him; he’s a different person.”
The guitarist adds that he’s “stayed very similar to who I’ve been in my twenties”. However, he reveals that he and Araya shared a personal moment after playing a Slayer show at Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California, in October.
“We got together … had a shot after the show,” he remembers. “He’ll drink tequila and I love tequila, so that’s what we had.”
Elsewhere in the interview, King talks about Slayer’s retirement in 2019 and their comeback last year. He says their initial split was in part due to Hanneman dying of liver failure aged 49 in 2013, which weighed heavily on Araya.
“I think Jeff‘s passing weighed harder on Tom than it did me,” he reflects. “And I don’t mean that from any kind of friendship perspective. It’s just my taking wasn’t as bad as Tom took it.
“Of course it was horrible, and no one ever wanted that to happen, but it really weighed on Tom. I think that’s what led to him wanting to retire earlier than me, because I think he felt the band was different.”
The guitarist adds that the call for the band to reactivate came from Araya “out of nowhere”: “Tom decided he wanted to play some [Slayer] shows last year, and I went, ‘Well, I never wanted to stop playing shows. So, yeah, let’s try it out.’”
After Slayer’s reunion was announced in February 2024, Araya’s wife Sandra claimed she “harassed” her husband for more than a year to get the band back together.
She wrote on social media: “Tom was done with playing. I have harassed him for over a year. He agreed FINALLY. We shared that news with Slayer‘s awesome managers and they did the rest! So yes without Tom it wouldn’t have happened.. without me BUGGING HIM it wouldn’t have happened.”
Last year, King gave an extensive interview to Rolling Stone and spoke about his personal differences with Araya.
“Me and Tom have never been on the same page,” he said. “Like, if I want a chocolate shake, he wants a vanilla shake. ‘Kerry, what colour is the sky?’ Blue. ‘Tom, what colour is the sky?’ White. We’re just different people. The further on in years we got, it just became more.”
He added that the pair hadn’t exchanged as much as a text or an email since Slayer called it quits almost five years prior.
Despite King and Araya’s differences, Slayer have quite the busy year ahead of them. They’ll play at Black Sabbath’s farewell show in Birmingham on July 5 and host their first headline concerts since 2019 in Cardiff on July 3 and in London on July 6.
The band’s only North American headline show will take place in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on September 20. They’re also set to play at Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky, the same month, following their planned set there last year getting cancelled due to adverse weather.
