SLAYER Guitarist On MUSTAINE, Fear Of Flying, Death And Forthcoming Album

Francois Marchand of the Canwest News Service recently conducted an interview with guitarist Kerry King of Californian thrashers SLAYER. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On his fear of flying:

"I like to think I'm pretty well-rounded, but one thing that worries me, especially if we haven't gone on tour for a while, is flying. You get a good section of turbulence and go, 'Well, did I just play my last show?'"

On the concept of death:

"I told my wife, 'Don't waste money on a coffin, the worms are going to eat me.' Burn me and put me in a little box — I don't give a crap. I'm not coming back!'"

On his well-publicized feuds with MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine and MACHINE HEAD's Robb Flynn, both of whom will be touring with SLAYER as part of the Canadian Carnage in late June:

"Robb and I are fine now. But with Dave, who knows what's going to happen?"

On the lyrical direction of the band's upcoming 10th studio album, "World Painted Blood":

"We are called SLAYER. It's not like we're going to be writing about how nice the weather is. We have war, anti-religion, devils. The trick to making new records and being successful with them is saying similar things differently so you're not ripping yourself off."

On a possible release date for "World Painted Blood":

"I stopped worrying about that stuff years ago. Somebody will tell me a date and then I'll say, 'All right, probably two months after that.' If I don't sit and expect things to come out, I can't be disappointed when it gets delayed."

On the serial killer-themed single "Psychopathy Red", released on seven- inch vinyl for Record Store Day on April 18:

"That song in particular is very punk. It touches on as far punk SLAYER goes — because we don't usually cross the line and say, 'Yeah, it's a punk song.' The other 11 or 12 songs we've done all have a kind of 'retro' feel to them. We didn't sit down and plan that — nobody said, 'Hey, let's try to make records like the '80s.'"

Read the entire interview from the Canwest News Service.

The members of SLAYER were interviewed by Eric Blair of "The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show" on the "black carpet" of the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which was held on April 7, 2009 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. The two-minute chat has now been posted on YouTube and can be viewed below.