PAUL BOSTAPH On How He Approached His Drumming On KERRY KING's Solo Debut: 'There Was No Shadow Hanging Over My Head'

SLAYER guitarist Kerry King has launched the fourth in a series of interview videos to promote his recently released debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise". Check it out below.

Asked about the writing process for "From Hell I Rise", drummer Paul Bostaph, who previously played with Kerry in SLAYER, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was pretty interesting — a lot different than any other record I think I've done, because, obviously, we had… everybody had the pandemic hit. And that put Kerry and I… We planned on getting together a lot sooner in 2020, but for obvious reasons, we couldn't get together. So that kind of put us back a couple years. And during that amount of time, Kerry kept writing and we kept communicating. He would send me drum charts and stuff, which is the way we usually work anyway, but there was just a lot more material. And when we finally got together, I think the first seven days we were together, we demoed ten songs. Not all of them are on this record — hopefully some of them will be on future recordings — but I think the way it was different in that sense, in terms of rehearsing, was I think because of the time away and the fact that there was so much material written, it kind of streamlined how I work with Kerry. I know what he wants. And we work together really well. And I think that was the thing that we leaned on. And that's the thing I leaned on. We were kind of on fire. It's like we wanted to get music done. We didn't wanna sacrifice quality at all but it was that we were working in such an efficient manner that… In prior years, we still worked hard but I wish we'd have found this early on in our career together because now it's like when he writes something, I know what's coming. And it's not predictable, but it's kind of just a streamlined process that I'm really confident with."

Regarding his approach to his drumming on "From Hell I Rise", Paul said: "There was no shadow hanging over my head. And I mean that because of SLAYER. I mean, there's always the legacy of Dave [Lombardo, original SLAYER drummer], and that's a standard that needs to be met, in my opinion, as a drummer, and I respect that. But on this project, I just went, 'I'm just gonna do me all the way — all the way.' And I never didn't do that with SLAYER, but with this, it was just there wasn't that legacy hanging over my head in terms of that; there was just this new path."

Bostaph continued: "Kerry writes how he writes, and I play how I play, and it's still always gonna be the same, and that element, it's continued on, because we've gotta be us; that's what we are. But there wasn't anything to prove. It was just we were on fire because it had been so long, I think. And we were dying to get back to it. And I think that's the same thing with all these guys. It's new, it's exciting, and the group, the core group of guys are so cool. I mean, we've got three [San Francisco] Bay Area guys in the band, and we all know each other, and Kyle [Sanders, bass] — everybody's super cool. They're professional, super motivated, and the material's there, and we're all psyched."

In a recent interview with Forbes, King stated about Bostaph's contributions to "From Hell I Rise": "I think it's the most prepared Paul as a drummer has ever been. Because I know for a fact that working in the SLAYER environment, a lot of times, we didn't have all of the vocals done. Probably none of the leads were done when we went in to record. And they just kind of got done on the fly. So, as a drummer, on this one, he knew where all the vocals went because I did scratch vocals on everything. He knew where all of the leads went, and what they sounded like, because Phil [Demmel, guitar] would send in demos that he played leads to. I did demos with leads. He heard all of the songs with all of the vocals. So, there was no real gray area there for him. He didn't have to say, 'Okay. This is verse one to chorus one — I've got to make some glue to make it work...' This time, he knew exactly what was going on and could actually play off what he knew was going to be there."

The KERRY KING band lineup is rounded out by Mark Osegueda, who has fronted DEATH ANGEL for the past four decades.

In early May, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).

The KERRY KING band launched a European tour on June 3 — King's 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.

All material for "From Hell I Rise" was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

KERRY KING will be special guest on the upcoming LAMB OF GOD/MASTODON North American "Ashes Of Leviathan" co-headline tour. The six-week run will launch on July 19 in Grand Prairie, Texas and will wrap on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska.