SLAYER Frontman On Receiving Key To Birth City: 'I'm Speechless'

SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo took part in a press conference on Thursday, June 2 at Hotel Ritz-Carlton in Santiago, Chile prior to the band's performance that night at the city's Movistar Arena.

Video footage of the 41-minute question-and-answer session (courtesy of radio Futuro) can be viewed below.

During the press conference, Araya who was born in Via del Mar, Chile was asked about the plans for him to return to his birthplace at this end of this past week to receive the key to the city from Mayor Virginia Reginato. "I think it's awesome," Araya who left the country when he was five years old and moved to the U.S. with his family said. "I'm kind of speechless; I don't what to say. They're probably gonna change the locks when they give me the key. [Laughs] It's an honor. I think it's great. I don't have a reply. I'm more speechless than anything. It's not something I expected. That's never happened before. You see other people receive rewards like that, but it's usually people of political status or someone that's really done something for the community or done something important. I'm excited. I don't know what to expect. . . All I can say is: thank you. That's about it."

Regarding his 50-year-old sister Jeanette Araya's plans to release a "tell-all" book about their family life and how it was affected by her brother's role as the frontman of one of the most influential and controversial heavy metal bands of the last 25 years, Tom said, "She is writing a book about my father, who was pretty courageous to take a family of five to America and not know a word of English and try to make a better life for us. He allowed me the opportunity to create SLAYER, although he didn't know that's what the end result would be. But she is writing a book about my father's story, and it will include us because we were part of that story; when we first started the band, we used to rehearse in [my parents'] garage. He was a part of that when the band together."

SLAYER's setlist for the Santiago show was as follows:

01. World Painted Blood
02. Hate Worldwide
03. War Ensemble
04. Postmortem
05. Temptation
06. Stain of Mind (first performance since 2005)
07. Disciple
08. Dead Skin Mask
09. Dittohead
10. Americon
12. Not Of This God (first live performance)
13. Mandatory Suicide
14. Chemical Warfare
15. Ghosts of War
16. Payback
17. Seasons in the Abyss
18. Snuff

Encore:

19. South of Heaven
20. Raining Blood
21. Black Magic
22. Angel of Death

Fan-filmed video footage of SLAYER performing its classic song "Angel Of Death" during the Santiago concert can be seen below.

Gary Holt of EXODUS is once again filling in for SLAYER founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman who in January contracted necrotizing fasciitis, likely caused by a spider bite, and has been undergoing surgeries, skin grafts and intense rehab since.

Press conference:

Performance: