In a recent chat with Q104.3, Kerry King got asked about how Slayer’s upcoming reunion gigs came to be, five years after they wrapped up what they called their farewell tour. He explained the real reason behind the reunion and said:
“I’ll put it in the perspective everybody can understand. We’ve been turning down offers since beginning of 2020, pandemic and all. And then it started getting near the five-year anniversary of us stopping playing, so I’m, like, ‘You know what? This is a three-show package. I think it would be fun to do.’ It’s kind of a five-year anniversary of our last tour.”
He then explained more by saying something that will upset the Slayer fans.
“We’re never gonna tour again — it ain’t gonna happen. We’re never gonna record again; that’s not gonna happen either. But to do commemorative shows, I think that’s kind of fun. I don’t have to be married to it for a long time. Kids don’t have to worry about it coming around on tour because we said we wouldn’t. There’s not a whole lot of weird diabolical shit going on here. I think people have just gotta say, ‘Hey, it’s anniversary celebration shows.’ That’s gonna be the end of it.”
‘Don’t Get Used To It’
Kerry already talked about the Slayer comeback last month in an interview with Andrew Daly over at ClassicRockHistory. When Andrew asked him about his thoughts on the reunion gigs, King responded with:
“It’s not really much different at all. It’s the same heads, same cabs, same pedals, same guitars. You know, there will be a lot of fire when Slayer plays, and I think, yeah, those shows will just be fun. It’ll be fun to play with Gary Holt for a few gigs; I haven’t seen him in almost five years, so that will be cool. And it’ll be cool to get together with Tom Araya and spit some hate out at people, but don’t get used to this being a yearly event.”
The guitarist also made it clear to his solo band that the Slayer reunion shows were just a one-time thing. He assured them that his solo project wouldn’t be constantly changing members and that they would be part of the band for as long as they wanted to be.
Slayer is set to perform out at the Aftershock, Riot Fest, and Louder Than Life festivals this September and October.
See the interview below.