Slayer singer/bassist Tom Araya didn’t listen to metal until he joined the band.
The fire-spewing thrash metal frontman made the revelation during an interview on Canadian TV network SuperChannel in 1988. When the interviewer asks him to name his influences, he laughs and answers, “You don’t want to hear my influences!”
He adds that he grew up listening to classic rock bands, naming Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Animals and Jefferson Airplane.
“The only time I recently started listening to [metal] music was when I joined the band with these guys,” he continues, gesturing to guitar player Kerry King next to him. “I didn’t even know metal existed.”
“That’s for sure!” King corroborates with a laugh.
Araya continues: “I didn’t know this shit existed until he [King] said, ‘Hey, what do you say you join the band? These are the songs that we’re learning.’ I said, ‘Who’s this? There’s a band called Iron Maiden – who’s that?’”
Araya talked further about his early influences in a 2011 interview with Wikimetal. “Growing up I always used to listen to hard rock, acid rock in the 60s,” he remembered, “so I really liked hard rock music, so that’s what influenced me to be a rock bass player I guess. Heavy metal would have to be Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, those were the bands I kind of favoured, growing up and listening to.”
Despite not being a metalhead at first, Araya become one of the genre’s most recognised figures, fronting Slayer nonstop from 1981 until their retirement in 2019. He once again started screaming behind the mic in 2024, when the band announced their return for a series of festival shows later in the year.
Initially, King said that fans shouldn’t expect Slayer concerts to become a “yearly event”, but the thrashers now have five concerts set for 2025. Three will take place in the UK this summer, headlining Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields on July 3, appearing at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show in Villa Park, Birmingham, on July 5, then headlining London’s Finsbury Park on July 6. Support at the Cardiff and London dates will come from Amon Amarth, Anthrax, Mastodon, Hatebreed and Neckbreakker.
Araya recently commented on Slayer’s appearance at Back To The Beginning, which will feature the last-ever live shows from Sabbath’s original lineup and frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
“I am a Sabbath fan, and doing this show is an honour,” he said. “I was hanging out with my brother and his friends during my junior year in high school, and we would play Sabbath all the time, so I am a big fan.
“Black Sabbath were the originators, people call them ‘the godfathers of metal music’. I think it’s going to be an amazing experience, from the beginning to the end. I’m really, really honoured to be a part of this, it’s going to be great.”
