SLAYER's KING On Touring Australia With MEGADETH: 'They're Like Ghosts To Us'

Tom Valcanis of The Metal Forge conducted an interview with SLAYER guitarist Kerry King during the band's recently completed Australian tour with MEGADETH. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On touring Australia with MEGADETH:

"It's been great. I mean, I've been so fuckin' busy. I mean, we've been so busy we haven't even been hanging out after the shows. After we're done, everyone [from MEGADETH has] gone. I've never toured with them before; I'm not sure about their m.o., but yeah. They're like ghosts to us."

On rumors that SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya said in a recent interview that the band's new record, "World Painted Blood", would likely be their third last album before SLAYER hung up their boots and rested their necks permanently:

"I don't even know where that came from. Tom must have said something because I keep fielding questions about it. I don't even know what that means. We don't sit down and talk about shit like that; I hear stuff from the press, but who knows. It could be three; it could just be this one and the next one. It all depends on how long it takes between records. If it takes too long then yeah, the clock's ticking.

"I think it stemmed from [previous record] 'Christ Illusion', because it took us five years to make. I mean, I even said if it takes another five years to make a record, it'll probably be the last one; I mean it'll be ten years with only two records done. But this one was done in three and the next one will be done in hopefully two or three. I'm having fun, and the live show's awesome and we're making up great tunes, kids are coming and having a great fuckin' time."

On the fact that "World Painted Blood" features four different "panels" of a world map on each individual CD, each sold separately (due to pressures from American retailers for "exclusive" content):

"I know fans are crazy and they'll go out and buy them all, but I'd be like, Oh, I got one, it's got all the songs on it, it's all I need.' But a lot of the retailers in America wanted exclusives on songs. Instead of wasting songs in my eyes, Dave [Lombardo, drummer] came up with this idea of why don't we take [the artwork] and split it into four. I mean, what have we got in America; [alternative/underground store] Hot Topic wants their own version, [electronics retailer] Best Buy wants their own version; you know, I'm not going to waste songs like that. I mean, if people are buying songs they should be able to buy the collection. I mean there are two left over though and I'm sure they'll end up on a deluxe edition or a video game or a movie soundtrack somewhere along the line. It was a way of not wasting songs and keeping the retailers happy."

On the claim that they were "responsible for the creation of death metal":

"Well, the thing that I am more proud of than that, well, in my history anyway was bringing the metal and the punk crowd together. I think we were instrumental in that. I remember if you were at a metal show, there were no punk kids there. We were a kind of band that both 'factions' liked. It was trying to get them to co-exist, you know. D.R.I. was a big part of that too, and I think that's important. I mean it might be important to death metal fans and that's great, but I'm not a huge fan of death metal. It's just not my thing."

Read the entire interview from The Metal Forge.