SLAYER Frontman Talks About Family Life

Cullen Hendrix of San Diego CityBEAT recently conducted an interview with SLAYER frontman Tom Araya. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On his kids:

"My son sits behind Dave [Lombardo] and mimics his drum playing. He gets all into it. [My kids] are 8 and 11. They think it's crazy how some of the fans are — the pits and everything. But it's good. They get to see what I do when I'm away."

On his ranch in Texas, where Araya spends his days away from the band:

"I've got nine head of cattle — Black Angus. They're not much, but they're growing. They're like big dogs. I walk out and there's this huge, 2,000-pound bull that'll come up to me and nudge me, asking me to pet him.

"I get a lot of pleasure in knowing that they can trust me with their lives. [Listening to] the subject matter that I write about, you wouldn't [expect] that. But what I get out of them is the trust they have in me. I hold their lives in my hand."

"Where I live, there are a lot of people that live with very little means, and they're happy. It just blows my mind how people are in the country. They don't look at you before they help you — they just help you. In the city out here, they'll look at you before they'll decide to help you or not."

On being blamed by parent and music-watchdog groups for teenage tragedies: (In 1996, the murder of Elyse Pahler resulted in two lawsuits against SLAYER that were ultimately thrown out of court.)

"Everybody's pointing fingers, and no one wants to take responsibility. It's hard to look in the mirror as a parent and realize that you could have been so blind, so unaware."

On TAKING BACK SUNDAY:

"I like that band. We went and saw their show in Dallas and got to hang out and meet the band. They were all excited to meet our kids. That's it for the modern day bands — there just doesn't seem like there's much happening."