SLAYER Recount VENOM 'Pissing' Incident

Decibel magazine (web site) has published an exclusive "oral history" of SLAYER, featuring interviews with all four original members, former drummers Paul Bostaph and John Dette, and various other associates, including label personnel and members of other bands. A few excerpts from the feature follow:

After getting kicked out of METALLICA, Dave Mustaine forms MEGADETH. Kerry King plays MEGADETH's first live shows in 1984.

Jeff Hanneman: "I thought [Kerry] was an ass for doing that. [laughs] I remember talking to Tom [Araya] about it, like, 'I guess we're gonna get a new guitar player.' I thought he was kissing Dave's [Mustaine] ass or something, and I thought it was kinda fucekd up. I think he was gonna join. Kerry will probably tell you something different, but why do that if you're not thinking about joining? I'm a loyalist, you know, and I thought SLAYER was the best thing going. Why go hang out with somebody else? If Dave would've asked me to do it, I would've told him to fuck off."

Kerry King: "I did it because I admired Mustaine — I'd seen him play with METALLICA. He'd be up there drunk off his ass, just ripping, not even looking at his fingers. Me and Jeff didn't know how to do that yet. [laughs] When he got kicked out and was sniffing around for a guitarist, I figured I'd do it because I thought I ould learn something. The other guys in SLAYER were probably unhappy, but we weren't really known back then, and the way I looked at it was that if people saw me playing in Dave's band, it'd be more publicity for SLAYER. Now you look back and you think 'supergroup,' but back then, absolutely not. I played their first five shows, and then I was like, 'Man, this is taking too much of my time.' I can't speak for Dave, but I don't think he would've been unhappy if I stuck around."

In 1985, SLAYER, VENOM and EXODUS embark on the "Ultimate Revenge" tour.

Dave Lombardo: "I remember Tom getting punched by Cronos [VENOM]. We were in the back of the bus drinking, and we were just totally hammered. It was our first time on a tour bus. I remember VENOM started the tour with these extravagant tour buses, but by the end of the tour, they were bankrupt and driving around in cars. So Jeff and I were drinking in the back of the bus with Cronos — I think we were playing 'Hell Awaits' for him. Tom came in, hammered out of his mind, going, 'I gotta take a piss! Where's the bathroom in this thing?' And Cronos goes, 'Right here — right here in my mouth!' And Tom took him literally. He pulled down his pants, whipped it out, and went to the bathroom on Cronos' hair. Cronos got up, grabbed Tom, and punched him in the face. They spent the rest of the night blaming each other, and Tom did the rest of the tour with a black eye."

Kerry King: "I still can't believe Tom pissed on his head. I was still star-struck by Cronos at that point, and I was like, 'Holy shit!' That's definitely a Tom claim-to-fame; I gotta say. [laughs] I'm not sure I would've handled it that way."

On the upcoming album, "Christ Illusion":

Kerry King: "It was originally supposed to come out on 6/06/06, which was a great idea, but we didn't wanna be part of the parody. There's so many half-ass, stupid fucking loser bands putting their records out on that day, we didn't want anything to do with it."

Tom Araya: "The record's gonna come out minus one song — which sucks — because I had my gall bladder out before I could finish the vocals. It's called 'Final Six'; it's a song that Jeff wrote, and musically, it's great."

Kerry King: "Nine of these eleven songs we demoed two years ago, with Dave. 'Catalyst' was almost on the last record. I've got a version of it with Paul playing drums. It's about 90 percent the same, but Dave did some different stuff on it. Some of the riffs are ancient, though — the intro to 'Cult' has probably been around for 10 years. We just couldn't find the right song to plug it into. There's another song called 'Supermist' on the new record, and I haven't told anyone what it's about. I'll wait 'til people make their stupid fuckin' opinions, then I'll clear the air, but it probably won’t be good enough for them."

Tom Araya: "Now, there's a whole new crop of kids out there getting into the band. We have all the older fans, who are now parents, and they've passed their SLAYER CDs onto their kids. That's what keeps us alive, to some extent: there'll always be some kid who hears a band and goes, 'This is heavy!' And then another kid will go, 'You wanna hear something really heavy?' And they'll play SLAYER."

The entire "oral history" of SLAYER is available in Decibel magazine's August 2006 issue, available on the newsstands now.