King Is In Competition With Slayer
A few days ago, King sat down with Classic Rock to chat about his old band, his new band, his new solo album and the pressure of going solo. In the chat, the guitarist was asked if he competed with other bands and whether or not he is now as a solo musician. He replied by stating his only competition was with Slayer now:
“I guess it’s Slayer, because that’s my career. People always expect you to fail, no matter who you are. It’s up to me to either be consistent with or beat what I’ve done in the past.”
Why The Solo Project Doesn’t Include Slayer Members
Kerry King didn’t pick his Slayer bandmates for his solo project, and he has a strategic plan for why he did not.
The guitarist explained in another interview why he didn’t hire Gary Holt for his project. Apparently, it was because the project would sound like a second Slayer:
“At that point I was probably still in the Holt camp, as far as having him in my next band. But I started to realize that the more pieces I take from Slayer, the more it’s gonna be called ‘Slayer Lite.’ I mean, of course it’s gonna sound like Slayer; I wrote 90 percent of the last record. But if I take less with me from Slayer, there’ll be less for people to stand on, as far as making lazy comparisons.”
Though Holt was ‘the right guy,’ there was something King didn’t want to deal with:
“If I had to do Slayer over again after Hanneman 110 times out of a 100, I would pick Gary Holt. He was the right guy. But the perception of people, it weighs on me, and I don’t want to deal with that.”