GARY HOLT Was 'Absolutely' Surprised When He Found Out SLAYER Was Returning To Live Stage

During an appearance on the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt reflected on the band's two reunion performances last year — on September 22, 2024 at the Riot Fest in Chicago, Illinois and on October 10, 2024 at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California. Holt, who is also a longtime member of EXODUS, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it [had] been years, but we rehearsed really hard for those shows. We put in the effort. I never stopped. I was on tour [with EXODUS] a month after the final SLAYER show. Only the pandemic slowed me down. So, my chops were up. So, it was just refamiliarizing yourself with the material a little bit."

Asked if he was surprised when he got the call letting him know that SLAYER was planning on returning to the live stage, Gary said: "Absolutely. People say, 'Oh, this and that. You planned this all along.' I'm like, look, I knew a little while before everybody else, but I didn't know forever. I knew early enough to sit down at home and start studying the songs, 'cause I wanted to be really prepared. But, yeah, I was surprised."

Holt continued: "I'm sure there were offers for the band forever, but they felt like it was time, and I'm more than happy to do it. And at least as of now, the current method, which has been [for SLAYER to play] a brief, minor, small little couple of shows [every year], that's fine because I'm fully committed to EXODUS. And so it allows me to do that and then go out [with SLAYER] and play with fire, which, that shit's expensive. EXODUS does not get pyro."

Last October, Holt told Chuck Armstrong of Loudwire Nights that the SLAYER performances at Riot Fest and Aftershock were "surreal. It was awesome," he said. "We rehearsed really hard for it, like full production rehearsal. In the past, when I did rehearse — SLAYER rehearsed in this tiny little music studio room with little half stacks. This was cool 'cause I got to play with the entire rig — three amps, six cabs all on. I got to redesign the rig based on my EXODUS rig. So it was the exact same identical thing tone-wise, just three times as large, which was awesome.

"We were nervous," Holt admitted. "Tom [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] was nervous, and he sounded amazing. Sometimes you've just gotta forget about the time and how long it's been and just let muscle memory kick in and just do it. I mean, I only played one song I'd never played, and that was '213'. And 'Reborn' I'd only played, I think, once, so that was almost a new song — once or twice. Everything else was just refreshers."

Gary added: "I started working on the songs a long, long time ago, when the shows were first announced: 'All right, I'd better make sure I know how to play this shit still.' And I literally had to like dive into Internet tab on songs I'd played a hundred times. But then I'd [go], 'Man, I'm playing it wrong.' Then I just forget about it and just play, and then all right, my hands remember where the notes are.

"But it was spectacular," Holt said. "Losing the second show [at the Louder Than Life festival] due to the weather, the tail end of the hurricane, was a real, real bummer, especially for all the fans who flew in. I met people at the airport who flew in from England for it. And they had the best attitude about it. Obviously, it wasn't our fault. We tried everything we could. You can't control 50-mile-an-hour gusts. The crew had to evacuate, like, three times that afternoon. We never left the hotel.

"But it was amazing. It was surreal. It was like this moment. The crowd was just very happy. And we were happy, and everything was good."

At Riot Fest and Aftershock, SLAYER ran through a 20-song set that included opener "South Of Heaven", "Seasons In The Abyss", "Angel Of Death", "Hell Awaits", "Raining Blood" and the title track of SLAYER's final album, "Repentless".

SLAYER was also scheduled to play at the aforementioned Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 27, 2024, but that performance was canceled due to severe weather.

In a separate interview with Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone, SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph also reflected on the band's two reunion performances. Asked how he felt now that the gigs were behind him, Bostaph said: "How do I feel? Um, wow. That's a really good question. I'm kind of a bit drained. Sacramento was a lot of guests there, a lot of friends, not to mention the show. So it was a lot of energy just put out. But each one of the shows kind of felt that way because it was kind of overwhelming because I never thought it would happen again. So, yeah, it was a lot of relearning songs that you really thought you did know, but you hadn't played them for five years. So, I don't know — it was great. I feel like it was probably one of the best live experiences I had because the fans were really into it. They were hungry for it, and that kind of made it special."

Five years after SLAYER played the last concert of what was being billed as the band's farewell tour and just weeks after SLAYER guitarist Kerry King unveiled the details of his solo project, Kerry and his longtime bandmates announced that they would play at Aftershock, Riot Fest and Louder Than Life.

The lineup for SLAYER's comeback was the same as the one which last toured in 2019: King and Araya, along with Holt and Bostaph.

In September 2024, Bostaph told the Los Angeles Times that he was surprised when the reunion dates were lined up. "I'm, like, 'You're kidding, right?' I really put that to bed," the drummer said. "When something like that ends, I'm not going to do that to myself: Gee, someday it'd be great to get back together again. Life is life and this is how it is, and I'm moving on to whatever the next thing is. I put that to bed and then all of a sudden the call comes."

Last July, Kerry told Guitar World magazine that he "was very surprised" when Araya agreed to play three SLAYER shows in 2024. "I made my comments [about SLAYER being finished] based on [Tom] not wanting to play anymore. As far as I was concerned, we were done and never going to play again. To be honest, I don't know what switched.

"We've been turning down offers to play shows for at least three years. So, one came up that, I guess, enticed Tom to the point where he wanted to roll the dice and try a couple. I don't know, but that's all it is."

King previously told Total Guitar magazine about SLAYER's reunion shows: "It caught me off guard too. Do I wish the timing was different? Absolutely, but that's completely out of my hands."

In June 2024, King was asked by Jonathan Clarke, host of "Out Of The Box" on Q104.3, New York's classic rock station, about how SLAYER's reunion shows came about. He responded: "I'll put it in the perspective everybody can understand. We've been turning down offers since beginning of 2020, pandemic and all. And then it started getting near the five-year anniversary of us stopping playing, so I'm, like, 'You know what? This is a three-show package. I think it would be fun to do.' It's kind of a five-year anniversary of our last tour. We're never gonna tour again — it ain't gonna happen. We're never gonna record again; that's not gonna happen either. But to do commemorative shows, I think that's kind of fun. I don't have to be married to it for a long time. Kids don't have to worry about it coming around on tour because we said we wouldn't. There's not a whole lot of weird diabolical shit going on here. I think people have just gotta say, 'Hey, it's anniversary celebration shows.' That's gonna be the end of it."

Days after SLAYER's reunion was announced, Tom Araya's wife wrote on social media that she "harassed him for over a year" before he "agreed finally" to play more shows with the band. "We shared that news with SLAYER's awesome managers and they did the rest!" she explained. "So yes without Tom it wouldn't have happened.. without me BUGGING HIM it wouldn't have happened."

Kerry's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", arrived in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music. All material for the LP was written by King, who was accompanied during the recording sessions by Bostaph and the rest of Kerry's solo band, consisting of guitarist Phil Demmel, bassist Kyle Sanders and singer Mark Osegueda.

Earlier this year, SLAYER announced headline performances for the U.S., Canada and the U.K., marking the band's first U.K. and Canadian concerts in six years. The U.K. and Canadian dates will see SLAYER headlining at some of the countries' biggest venues, including the 35,000-capacity Blackweir Fields in Cardiff, London's 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park, and the 100,000-capacity Festival D'été De Québec in Canada.

In addition to the band's international headline dates, SLAYER will help celebrate BLACK SABBATH's incredible career at SABBATH's sold-out "Back To The Beginning" final concert, set for July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. The "Back To The Beginning" concert will mark only the third time SLAYER has shared a stage with BLACK SABBATH, following Ozzfest in 1998 and in 2004.

Marking the band's only U.S. East Coast performance in 2025, SLAYER will headline Hershey, Pennsylvania's 30,000-seat Hersheypark Stadium on Saturday, September 20.

Photo credit: Ryan Segedi