The Jericho Network on Westwood One Slayer Slayer Slayer It used to be the chant that you hear every time you go see a local band at the pub, people always be yelling Slayer, play some Slayer. Well, today we're going to be playing some Slayer. We're talking to Slayer, the creator of Slayer, Kerry King is on Talk Is Jericho and the new Slayer record repentless is out today.
This record without guitar player Jeff Hanneman, who passed away back in 2013, first in many years without long time producer Rick Rubin, first in many years not American deaf American records, but don't worry, repentless is still 100% Slayer at full throttle. Slayer! Slayer!
It's head banging loud and fast loaded with killer riffs, Tom Reyes vocals are filled with explosive rage, he's just a nutcase, and of course the amazing guitar solos of Kerry King, so good to talk to Kerry, I've known him for years, actually a really nice guy, that's a secret, don't tell anybody that.
We're going to talk to Kerry about all things Slayer, including some great stories about the big four they do with Metallica, Megan Ethan Anthrax, here members his friend and bandmate and partner Jeff Hanneman, and introduces us to the newest members of Slayer, including Gary Holt from Exodus, another great guy. Welcome to talk is Jericho, it's the Pot of Thunder and Rock and Roll, the Remedy for Boredom has arrived, the people's podcast is here, let's go for a ride, because it's for Friday.
We got Kerry King from Slayer, so let's play some thrash from Fuzzy, this is Blood Happens kicking it off right here on Talk is Jericho. I'm a cool breaker facing, I'm a bit in the quake, but I gotta stop till I die. The time is gone to raise the place to the ground, the time is coming out the hallowed bells, it's time to run when the fist starts to fly, the time is gone when you're here to know that you can't deny.
I'm a grave robber, shell of a crimson shaded heart, stop aware in the crest of a tree, I'm a nance stuck in a tree, walker to the end, and back to you will never see me again. The time is gone to raise the place to the ground, the time is coming out the hallowed bells, it's time to run when the fist starts to fly, the time is gone when you're here to know that you can't deny.
I'm a grave robber, shell of a crimson shaded heart, stop aware in the crest of a tree, I'm a nance stuck in a tree, walker to the end, and back to you will never see me again. The time is gone to raise the place to the ground, the time is coming out the hallowed bells, it's time to run when the fist starts to fly, the time is gone when you're here to know that you can't deny.
I'm a grave robber, shell of a crimson shaded heart, stop aware in the crest of a crimson shaded heart, stop aware in the crest of a crimson shaded heart, stop aware Alright, get some crazy killer growling death vocals from Rich Ward in the Slayer Spirit. Slayer! Slayer! We hear that sometimes. Slayer! Actually, we don't hear it so much anymore, but most bands that you go to see in a club, I used to love that. Slayer!
Carrie King from Slayer makes his talk is Jericho debut, and we're going to do some serious head banging with the King, but before we do, if you're looking for something to do in Los Angeles on Friday night in LA, head out to the Roxy on the famous Sunset Strip and check out my boy Paul Stanley's new band Soul Station. Alright, this is not Kiss, there's nothing to do with Kiss. It's a ten piece Motown band that pays tribute to soul music from the 60s that Paul loves.
He is going to rock this thing. I know Eric Singer from Kiss also on drums, but Paul won't be playing a guitar. You want to hear a single Kiss song, it's just Paul singing Soul Music. You're going to love it. He's been rehearsing his ass off for this. It's a passion project for him. I can't wait to see it. I'm really excited to check out Soul Station. If you can't check out the Roxy gig, I believe it's probably almost sold out at this point.
He's going to be taking this on the road doing sporadic gigs. It's always cool when you get guys doing something different outside of the box. You could go check out Blood Divisions. I knew a supergroup that I put together with David Austin from NASA Savage, Greg Gaw from Six Feet Under, Terry Butler from Abituary and Death and Ralph Santola from Death, a Florida thrashed metal, death metal supergroup. We have a two-song EP out right now called Blood Divisions.
We reworked NASA Savage's The Morgue and the Scorpions top of the bill. We covered that. Very, very cool. Proceeds from that go to the charity, go to the Humane Society in Tennessee. If you're looking for some new Chris Jericho vocals, if you've been waiting a long time to hear something new from Fuzzy, we're working on it. Working on some stuff right now. I got about seven sets of lyrics written and Rich has a bunch of song ideas.
He's currently doing a new Stuck Mojo record, but it will be out. It'll be finished soon. We start working on the Fuzzy record. If you want something tied to you over, go check out Blood Divisions. It's on iTunes now. Love, Kerry King. Good dude. My favorite King story is we were playing Sound Wave with them a few years ago. Slayer and Metallica was on it. Anthrax was on it. It was just a Blink 182. It doesn't really fit. One of these things is not like Ziaza. One of these things is Nazasame.
But it still was a lot of fun. For whatever reason, King likes Fuzzy. He likes our attitude and our energetic stage presence and the fun that we have on stage. Because like I always say, we try to be Van Halen from 1979. I think Kerry digs that. So whenever we play with Slayer, which is quite often, it seems like we're kind of always around those guys. Sometimes I look over on the side of the stage and there's the King. He's right there.
So I was getting ready for the gig in Perth, which was the last show in Sound Wave and King and Gary Holt, guitar player from Slayer and Exodus, another heavy metal legend in his own right. Came over to the side of the stage and they're like, yeah, we're going to check out your show. So great. You know, you want to put on a little bit of an extra show.
It's always cool when you look over the side of the stage and see, you know, Kerry King and Gary Holt, or when we did Heavy Munch, Rale, Randy Blie and Corey Taylor, both talk as Jericho, alumni standing on the side of the stage at, you know, 12 o'clock in the afternoon watching us play. And the whole show too. They're not just popping over for a second. So Kerry is over there with Holt and I want to put on a good show. It's, you know, they want to see Fuzzy Rock.
So I go up on the drum rise and I jump off the drum rise for the end of one of the songs. It's a trick I do quite often. You know, not doing the Davily Roth double split. I'm not that physically adept, but I do a little, you know, toe touch, jump up in the air, touch your heels, type of a thing and always those good in pictures and always those good for the live, live crowd. I jump off the drum riser and I land on the stage and just totally bail.
I fall like I fall right on my ass, right on my ass and kind of roll into my stomach. And I'm like, oh, shit. Like not only do you fall in front of all the fans who know that you've fallen, but I got Kerry King on the side of the stage who, you know, he's been a bro for 15 years. He now has the lifetime right to bust my balls because I fell down on stage. You know, had he fallen down on stage, I would have that on him for his entire life. But I'm like, I can't let him have this.
I got to steal this back. So I kind of all in one motion, you know, time moving slow. The minute seemed like hours if I can quote head field. But I land on my ass and I kind of roll on my stomach and then like forget it. Screw it. I'm going for it. I push myself over kind of like in a handstand on my feet. As I'm doing this, I'm unhooking my wireless pack from the back of my pants, throwing it on the stage and taking out my inner ears and holding them in my hand.
As I'm rolling on my feet and then I just launch myself into the crowd, hoping that someone will catch me and hoping that no one will steal my inner ears because inner ears are expensive to make. You got to get them molded. You got to get them fitted in your ears. It's a long process. And if I lose my pack, which is inner ears is like it's an inner ear monitor system for singers or musicians. So everyone wears them now. You use to put the inner ears in. You hook the microphone pack.
It's like a microphone pack onto your belt or in your pocket. And then that allows you to hear better when you're singing. You can hear your vocals better and it just works better. But if you lose that, it's expensive. So I took it off and put it on the stage and I stood up and I jumped into the crowd. And thankfully people caught me and I did a little crowd surf and they brought me back on the stage.
When they brought me back on the stage, I landed like a cat right on my feet and I looked over at King and I gave him the finger. It was like, you know, F you man, you almost had me but I snatched, you know, victory from the jaws of defeat. And he was so angry and after he's like, you son of a bitch, I had you. I had you. There was nothing you could have said. There's nothing you could have done and you pulled it off. You got out of it as a yes because I am, you know, I am Jericho.
But man, I was so terrified when I fell because I was like, this guy is going to stick it to me, man. You know, you got to be careful when you're a stage and you're jumping up and down and doing that sort of thing. We were with Steel Panther in Australia. Again, it seems like it happens to me in Australia the time back in December of 2013. And I had a couple cocktails after the show.
This was not in Perth. This was in Adelaide and I walked onto the stage for their final song where they have all the girls come on stage and everyone's dance. It might be death to all but metal. I can't, I can't remember what song it is that they do last. Same thing. I walk into the drum riser and I jump off and do my big patented Jericho toe touch, heel touch. But when I'm flying off the stage, I realize that the drum riser, this isn't a fuzzy drum riser which goes straight down.
The Steel Panther riser goes like a pyramid, it kind of has this angle. So when I jump off it, I'm like, I have to clear this pyramid. Problem is when I clear the pyramid, I got to go extra far and I land on my feet and then just totally fall on my ass. And as I'm falling, this one, I don't know if there's strippers or just chicks at one of the good times, she's wearing a nurses outfit and just total body checker, man.
Just jump off the stage, try to avoid the edge of this pyramid drum riser, get the ground, hard, fall down and just totally take out this nurse. And it wasn't a sexual thing. It wasn't like, hey baby, how are you? It was like, you know when you hear that sound, like, that's the sound she made. So I apologize to the random nurse if you're listening to this. You wore your fine nurse outfit to the Steel Panther show and then you got taken out by Jericho.
And then the other time I download in England, this is not Australia. It was in 2005, the first time we ever played download and I was super excited. Download is the biggest festival that you can play in England. You know, you're talking 100,000 people. This was like the little small stage on the side, which still had probably 10,000 people there. Most people we've ever played for with Fuzzy. And the beginning song was nameless faceless. This was on the all that remains to her.
So right off the bat, I was super excited and I just ran straight off the stage and jumped into the pit. And there was a big area. It's probably about, I don't know, a six foot stage and then a big pit area. And I was just like, you know, I'm jumping right. I don't know what I was planning on doing jumping in and slapping some hands, you know, old boy, big deal. But I jumped into the pit. But when I landed, I landed with both my feet.
I could feel them as if it was a cartoon and they were suddenly made of rubber bands. Or they kind of both turned in to where it seemed like my inner ankle bone was touching the ground. That's how far turned in my feet were. And I was so lucky to not break both my feet, you know, break both my ankles because I was like, first of all, boy, would that suck breaking both your ankles? You couldn't walk. You wouldn't be able to do anything. I'm in a foreign country. I don't know what to do.
I'm in the middle of the field. But even worse, it's the first song of the set. I haven't even sang anything yet. I just right off the bat, we come on stage, big crashing bird. I just jump into this pit. And I'm like, you know, if I can't get back on stage, I'm going to have to sing this whole show on the muddy ground, you know, on my knees singing this song, singing this set. You know, we got 30 minutes to play. And thank God I didn't break my ankles.
And I was able, you know, to just stand up and sing the song. But then of course, I turn around. It's a six foot stage. I'm five foot 11. How the hell do I get back on the stage? You know, there's a staircase there for me to get back on. So eventually in a very unrock and roll matter, I climbed back onto the stage and continued singing. And that's the thing. Like when you do stuff like that, you know, what goes up must come down. But when you're coming down, it never looks as cool.
It's like Andy Beersack when he was on top of his chair or go back and listen to him. He was a great, a great guest. When he said that he climbed up to the top of that statue in the middle of Hollywood. And once you climb up, how do you get down? He tried to jump off and broke all his ribs. And that's the same thing to me. I always climb the scaffolding on the side of the stage. You can go looking, see most downloads are scaffolding. And there's Jericho climbing up.
And it's always cool to climb up because I stick the microphone in my pocket and I climb up the scaffold. But once you get up there, you sing a couple of verses. But people can't really see you and you can only move so much. You've got to hold on for dear life. You know, I'm 15 feet in the air. And coming down is the problem. Because once again, you got to stick the microphone in your pocket.
And then when you're climbing up, you're looking up and you can see the next step in the next rung in the ladder that you're supposed to be climbing. But when you're climbing down, you got to kind of look down and slowly find your footing. So you can climb up there like a like a like a banshee. Like, all right, Jericho's climbing to the top of the stage. Here he is. And then you got to start climbing back down again. And that's never as rock and roll as the way up.
So be careful when you're rock and don't fall down. Don't take down nurses and don't bust your ass in front of thrash metal legends like Kerry King who will be on talk as Jericho. Did he got a great conversation? So in the illustrious trailer dressing room of Slayer with my old buddy, Kerry King. And another, it's like you're the social butterfly man.
And it's like it's hard to get you to come in here because everybody's in there and they're having shots and you're like, come on, have some shots. The problem is is Gary Holt a little under the weather. So he's not hanging that much. So I pretty much got a hold court. Yeah, right. And, you know, the tour manager from Manson, Sully is a good old friend of mine. Steve Everett, a good old friend of mine who used to be in the NFL.
And it just hanging with people, making sure they're having fun, making time for them and making time for this, which was kind of tough today because of the weather. Well, and that's the thing.
But when you come to a festival, it's almost like old home week, like a summer camp reunion because you walk, I like walking around like the catering area and just seeing, like you say, oh, dude, I haven't seen you in two years since the last festival or every time you play a festival, it's always kind of fun to see who's going to show up. It's gotten for me a little weird to where I'll send people to get catering for me because it just becomes not fun, you know. It becomes not fun.
You want to eat. Everybody wants pictures. I get it. I want to take pictures with them. But, you know, if I'm eating, that's one of the only times in the day that's me time. Right. So I do, I got to do this, but I don't do this right now. I can't eat before I go on because, you know, when you're head banging, let me put it this way so people get it. When you're head banging, you know, and you're on, yeah, head banging. And then it's burp, burp, meat. It's just coming out. I don't know.
So there's a window when you can eat. There is. Yeah. And if I don't hit that window, I got to like, wing it and have like granola bars or chips or whatever, you know. It's a stupid problem, but it's my problem. But it is hard though because, like you'll say, like I'm going to grab a bite and it might take you 45 minutes to get to catering because you see so many people that you haven't seen. Yeah, man. I did.
Used to be, I could eat like an hour and a half before a show, then it became two hours and became three hours. I'm about three hours right now. Just that's part of getting old, you know. Yeah. So you mentioned head banging. I watch it. You guys are always like, always head banging, always. Like you're, you're, you're, and it's like kind of like if you took Angus Young and put him on fast forward, that's kind of you. It's always thrashed. I appreciate that. And I like that.
And that's what I, you know, I don't, I don't set myself to be like Angus, but he's a good icon to be like. There's nothing wrong with that. Good broader. And I want to, you know, that's all I know is head banging. Like if you, if I was like Tom, and I'm not taking away from Tom, but if I was like Tom and couldn't head banging, I wouldn't know what to do. And he didn't either, you know, when that happened to him, when he was, it was problems and bad. And it was, it was hard for him.
And like one of the, I think it was not the first show, but the second show, and he came back from that. I saw him head banging. I'm like, what are you doing? And he caught himself because it's, it's so natural. You know, that's what we do. Right. And that was taken away from him. So he had to learn, he had to learn how to have swagger without head banging. So it's almost relearning. It's, it's weird for, for a thrash band, it's head banged for, at that point, 25 years whatever it was.
It was, I saw it. It was hard for him. And I felt bad for him. Is he, is he feeling better now? He looks a little bit better. Do you have some kind of surgery? You just can't head bang anymore. Tom, he had, we back then, we're back then, two years ago. No, no, no, no, no. It's when, um, Chrysler's you came out. So, uh, seven, I think. Okay, right. Yeah. Yeah. That's 2007 yet. And, um, he had pretty much stone cold surgery. Like he had some metal put in his, in his vertebrae.
And he came back and it, I saw it being weird for him. And I, I tasted it a little bit because right after that, I don't know, maybe two years after that, I canceled my only show ever. Really? Ever. And, and I was at, dude, I was sitting in my bed in the hotel talking to my tour manager. I'm like, how far can you push this back? And he said, I don't know. I said, well, keep telling me, man, because I can't get out of bed. I had some sort of vertigo for lack of a better thing.
Mm-hmm. I don't think I had vertigo, but I had something to wear. When I got up, let me, let me preface this. We played download or Nebworth with Maiden had a day off the night before. I'm partying with Dave Murray, Armin, my, um, deceased guitar tech. Yeah. Um, and we're just having a good time. And, you know, it gets a hang with Dave Murray that often. I'm like, this is pretty cool, man, one of my heroes.
Um, so we're hanging out doing all that, and we play that day, like, you know, four or four thirty. So I'm probably still a little hungover going out there doing my thing, have a couple waters, party starts again. Mm-hmm. So after that, we ended up going to Tilburg. So we had a bus ride, we had a ferry, bus ride, gets a hotel, I feel great. I'll wake up like two, three in the afternoon, and I'm like, man, something's wrong.
Hmm. I go to the bathroom because I'm like, I don't know if I got a hurl, I don't know what I got to do. And so I made myself hurl, and I'm like, do I got food poisoning? I'm like, no, I don't eat anything that gives me food poisoning. I don't do anything like that. So then I put my hands on the porcelain god, and I tried a head bang. I'm like, can I head bang? And I wish this was video because I wish I could convey this to the people.
Like if I would head bang, my head thought I was doing this like moving all of it. So it would be down. Instead of up and down, it was a down half circle down. Wow. And I was going like a curvy straw. Yeah, dude. And that's what was making me sick. And I figured that out. And I went, man, I don't know how to fix this. So I went back to bed. Like I said, I was in touch with my tour manager. And I'm like, dude, I don't think I could pull this off because I can't stay out of bed for 15 minutes.
And that was my first show I ever canceled. It was weird. Well, did you have some kind of a vertebrae problem or? No, no, no. I think at the end of the day, I think I don't think I had vertigo. I think I had a little bit of exhaustion and a little bit of dehydration from my arm all the liquor. Right. Because like a year later, we went to Australia. And Tom had something similar to me. And I looked at him and he was wise at ghost. And he's a big coffee guy. So the caffeine will dry him out.
And I'm like, man, I think you and I had a little bit of the same thing. My mom was a lot harsher than his. But yeah, we had to cancel a show in Sydney because of him for that. I think that was Gary Holt's first show. Well, I was going to say that. I mean, we're talking today about you mentioned, you guys had a great show. And you said it's the second show of the tour. But you feel like it's mid tour.
But this lineup that you have right now, the new lineup with, that's what happens at a live show. Strong people come in. It's funny. Because I mean that guy. Yeah, he made him strong so you win. But you're talking about this lineup that you have with Gary and with Paul now. And it's, you know, purest will say it's half slayer. But to me, and I say this, and you know, I've gotten to know you pretty well. We've run into each other quite a bit of last three years at shows.
And I've seen Slayer more than I ever have in my life. And this lineup, it could be the best one you've had in my opinion. No disrespect to the any lineup of any time. Man, it's Guns Blazing. It's Guns Blazing. Gary Holt is a guitar hero. And I used to say that about him when me and Jeff were playing, he was in excess. I'm like, this is a guy that, to me, is like Glenn Tipton. He got, he got, as far as guitar players go, he got left behind.
Like I compare him to Tipton because in my eyes, Glenn Tipton was an innovator. And nobody gives him any innovator respect. And to me, Gary Holt's that guy. But he just wasn't in a popular enough band to get that respect. So of course, he was my first choice. And both staff has been here before. And if both staff never quit this band, he would still be in this band. There never would have been a genius. But he always quit for whatever reason. And he was always my friend.
There's never any weird thing which is weird in itself. Because somebody quit, you're like, oh, I hate that guy. No, Paul's always been my friend. And the oddest thing is, when we went to Australia, right before Paul came back. In 2013, we were there together. When you had John Deady on drums? 13 or 12. Yeah, maybe, I don't remember. But Deady was drumming. Right. When Lombardo, Dave Lombardo quit. Yeah. Yeah, and Deady covered us, which he killed it. And I admire him for that.
This was when, just for people that don't know, as Dave had left the band or had an issue, we can talk about that. But John Deady was already, tell us the story. John was drumming for anthrax. He was drumming through anthrax. And he had already played with us. And when that all went down, we had like eight days to get a drummer. To go to Australia, which to have a visa is another whole issue. So you don't even have time to get a visa. Yeah. So I know John Deady's there.
John Deady's always been my friend too since he's been in the band. And I hit up John, I'm like, dude, well, actually I asked Tom first. I said, hey, are you cool with this? I said, because John Deady can bail us out. So I hit up Deady. I'm like, hey, man, I don't know where you are in the world. But we're going to be in Australia together. And I said, I kind of need somebody to play our set. And he's like, hey, man, I'm home. So me and Deady actually got to rehearse for three days.
You guys kind of live close to each other. Pretty close. Yeah. I would have thought he was OK with it anyway, because he's so anal about his playing. It would have been fine. But I'm glad I got to play three rehearsals with him. And it was golden, man. It was you and him woodshedding. Yeah. Yeah, it was golden. And he played that round and that's how it went.
Did you call like Scottie in it all or anybody in the anthrax camp and say, hey, man, do you mind if we borrow your drummer for this or just kind of like, I think I might have text. I'm pretty sure I texted Scott. And he's cool. Yeah. You know, I mean, we go back to it. We're all good friends now. Slayer and anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica. Love all those dudes. And there is, it's funny, because a lot of people don't understand.
They like to think that there's some big animosity sometimes, but we're all doing the same thing. And it's like, dude, I needed some help. Like, you know, like, I lost my guitar. Can I borrow your guitar? Dude, here you go. You know what I mean? There's a lot of camaraderie like that. If it's somebody that you know and respect. Of course. You know, it's no problem at all. Of course. I know, am I in taking that shit to guitar? Yeah. I'm taking it.
Well, and the crazy thing with Soundwave was, Daddy was the star of the tour because he was playing in Slayer and anthrax at the same time. And you guys even had a show or maybe two shows together, Slayer and anthrax. Yeah. I know there's one. There was one sort of into. Daddy played the whole anthrax set. Yeah. Dude, he's an animal. He had 45 minutes off, changed his shirt, and played his funny. I saw, I was talking. I feel sorry for his drums. He hit so hard. Right. I remember. I've seen him.
I'm like, Goddamn, man. I feel sorry for the drums. He's being the shit out of them. I remember Lars, remember Metallic had a party the first night of Soundwave for all the bands? I don't know if you went or not, but they had kind of a barbecue sort of thing. I didn't, but I did that with them before the big four in Europe. Okay. So, Lars is there and he's like, who's this guy's playing drums for anthrax and Slayer?
That's like, yeah, he's John Dady's over there because he's taller than me and he's got better hair. Yeah, Lars is a little bit hair deprived. And he's like, he's like a golden god in Lars and Sid. Maybe he could be the drummer from Metallica too. He could. He probably could. Dude, he could have played all four sets. There's everybody. There's everybody. There's everybody. There's everybody. He could have done all of them.
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a little bit more than that when that came to be. I guess it's a little more years apart. You know, when they came up, so when they came, it's longer than that, man. We have no concept of time. Yeah. I don't either. Was that a month ago? No, it was 10 years ago, Karen. You know, I went into that thinking, this is going to be really cool for the fans. And I came out of it thinking, man, I'm glad this happened because I reconnected with Metallica.
We were never at odds, but we just ran in different circles. And it seems odd, but that's exactly it, dude. Were you friends with them back like in the early 83, 84? We were friends with everybody. Right. Because we're all trying to do it. All kind of from the California, South of the world, California. We were all camaraderie. Let's do this. You know, and then when Clash of the Titan's happened, I think it happened because Metallica was so big, they didn't need a part of it.
So we all got together to try to make the three of us as big of Metallica. Right. You know, I guess, so to speak. But you know, that was fun, too. Clash of the Titans was more, I'm better than you and I'm going to show you how I'm better than you. So it was an interact, an interact, maybe that's the slayer. Right. Yeah. But that was a really cool tour. And I was talking about this the last two days, Allison Chains opened. And that was really cool because I knew them from Man of Box.
I hated Man of Box, it's a radio song. But all the other stuff they played was so intensely rock and roll. I don't even want to call it rock and roll. It was so heavy in some form. I don't even know how to describe Allison Chains heavy. Yeah. It was so good. Almost Sabbathy, like 71, 72 really. I don't really call it Sabbath, man. It was them. It was just them. And 20 years from now, there's going to be somebody doing what they did.
10 years from now, you know, and you're going to say that's the Allison Chains heavy. Because it wasn't Sabbath like we touch on Sabbath and people that do what we do, you know, reference Sabbath. I don't, I'm not sure Allison Chains would have been part of that. Just heavy equally, but I can't relate it Sabbath. It was a little more haunting too with the double vocals, you know, with Jerry and all man.
They said, man, I wish so much that a lot of our friends hadn't died, but Lane Staley was such a joy. Really tell us like no one really knows much about Lane. Lane, dude, he can, for a singer to be able to control his treble to bass, you're new sing. You probably can't do that. I know exactly what you're talking about. You'd Lane. He would, he would, it would be like, if I'm playing a lead on a, on a lead pickup, then switch to my rhythm pickup. Lane could do that with his voice.
And that's really hard for people that don't know. He was a singer's singer. Yeah, good, his singer's singer exactly. I mean, I, I, I don't know, I'm usually not without words. Lane is that good. Was he like as a dude? Did you ever hang out with him on those stories? He was cool. And you know, on, on Clash of the Titans, he wasn't out of his mind yet, you know, so you still got to see Lane. And they were, they were, they had, um, what's the, I can't remember what the first album's called.
We die young on it. Yeah, it's called, uh, I think I see the cover in my brain. Lane was, yeah, what is it called? Headspace weird. Because all I do is go to dirt because dirt's such the record. Yes. Um, but Lane, dude, he was, he was that cool dude that I, I would aspire to be him if I was a singer because he was so good.
And then after Clash of the Titans, I think next time I saw him, I think they were on Lollipalooza and they had the cargo net in front of the stage, which a band like us can't do because people are going to climb it. And he had his hair slick back with shades on and it really reminded me of Jim Morrison. Um, big time. I'm like, dude, this is his Jim Morrison phase. It was really sick. And then he kind of fell off and it was unfortunate.
But dude, the singer of our, one of the singers of our generation, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. And they're first big tour because he would think like if it's the Clash of the Titans, it would be Exodus or Death Angel or Testament. You guys kind of went outside the box to take a band like that. Yeah, I don't remember how that happened, how it went down. Um, and I probably wasn't happy about it because of Man in the Box.
But after I met them and watched them, there was such a badass rock and roll band. I mean, you can call it Grunge, whatever you want. They were a badass rock and roll band, a dark rock and roll band. Um, and it was, they were great. And I remember seeing them. I remember, we were talking about this earlier. I remember seeing them at Red Rocks when we played in Red Rocks. And I'm out there watching them. I was always watching them. They became friends of mine and I admired them.
And people are just throwing half gallon jugs of piss onto the stage and Lane sent something to the rockatory. So they got more half gallons of piss thrown at them. And I admired that they kept doing their shit. They played their set and they won everybody over because they didn't say, hey, stop throwing stuff at me, you know, believe it. It was awesome. It was, it was a magic moment. It was great. So we kind of touched on the big four before. How did that come to be in your wheelhouse?
Because I'm assuming when there's the slayer offers or decisions, they're coming through you or at least you're hearing about them with, with Tom or whoever else. Of course, yeah. That depends who you ask. I know Lars takes a lot of credit for it and maybe he should. I don't know. Because in the business part of it, I don't pay attention. I know our manager takes a little bit of responsibility for it. But when it came up, I'm like, hell yes, man. This should have happened sooner.
And I think it goes back to an Iron Maiden show that was at the forum in LA. And I went, I was there too. Do we hang? We did hang. I was pretty wasted. So was I. Here's why I know this is great. I'll tell you this quickly. I have a great Lars and Steve Harris. We're talking to each other. And I was like, I have to get a picture of these guys, but I don't want to interrupt them. I just have to be there. So I went and stood behind them and I gave my cousin my camera and said, take the picture.
You might only have a second. So I walked behind them, stood, turned around and looked and he took the picture. There's a mirror. In the mirror, your head is in it. I was like, here's Lars. That was hilarious before you mentioned me. He's Lars, Stephen Chris. And if you zoom in, you can see Carrie King over there. That's funny. So I was talking to Lars and I never really had a problem. It was just press banter we had between each other. And we're just hanging.
Me and Lars, I think Trujillo was there that night. And I've known Trujillo since suicidal. So we're hanging. And like, I don't know, a couple months later, the big four came around. And I think it was Lars saying, hey, King's all right. He don't hate us. There's no weird shit going on here. And it came to be. And I'm like, absolutely, I wouldn't do it. I would love to do more. But I think there's things that happened with another band that probably squashed that. Yeah, right.
Another band that may or may not begin with the letter M. But how was that the first thing? Because the big story is that you guys all kind of had a, you mentioned it, kind of a dinner. Yeah. Yeah, and I can't remember what city that was, Poland, Bulgaria, one of the two. I'm like, yeah, I'm into this. Sure. I mean, I got nothing against these guys, but he haven't talked to them in 15, 20 years. Which is so crazy. Because as I said, different circles.
Yeah. So I go in, I go in late, because I didn't want to really be there at a mingle, you know. You're not much of a mingler. And well, I am, but I didn't know what to expect. So I went in and we're in this place. Was it just band guys allowed? No management, no family. Why? There's no tour managers. That's pretty cool. No roadies. So there's four. I mean, I got taken there and I'm like, all right. So whatever we're done, come get me. Right, right, right.
So it's four, twelve, there's 17 guys there if you want to. Yeah. Which is really cool. Which is really cool. And I find this bar where there's bottles. Everyone I'm like, wow, this is way more awesome than I thought. To Kila Vodka. To Kila in Europe is a hard find. And it was good to Kila. To Kila Vodka, gin, rum, whatever. And from A. Bronca, I'm like, Scotty in comes up and like, dude, who the fuck's drinking this from A. Bronca? That's the nastiest thing I ever drank. It's a digestive.
Oh, that's all you need to know or something. No, no, no, no, no. A digestive, it's nasty. Okay. Kirk Hammett loves it. He loves like Corvassier. So it's that type of stuff. I'm like Kirk loves his. And then Scott's like, yeah, I can tell him like, what's wrong with you? But they dig it now. Frank Below loves it. But dude, the first time I told my wife, my girlfriend at the time, I loved her. I was trying to make her half-friar in A. Bronca. I'm like, you gotta try this. It's so nasty.
I'm like, I love you. We drank it and we got married. Been married 12 years. So you guys, that was the thing. That was a name. That was what worked. That's the Aphrodisiac gentleman. If you're looking to tell your lady, you love her. Yeah. No, it worked. But you found all this kind of really cool alcohol and then there's dudes there. And you guys just sit down like at a giant table, like the round table. There was a bunch of tables and I came in late.
So I think I sat with Broderick and maybe Ellipson because it was the closest table to where I came from. So I just joined into that table. And like I said, you know, I haven't seen these guys in a while. So I don't want to just jump in and say, hey, I'm your best friend. Yeah. I'm just going to feel it out. And we did that. And it was cool. We ate and we did our thing and the big four shows are great. Yeah, there was some classic stuff. Yeah, man. I had a good time and I would like to do more.
That's good. Cool. And did you get a chance to talk like it's funny because I know that with Lars and you know with with Mastain, do you have a relationship with head field? You talk to him at all. Is he a guy that you just go up to and say, what's up, man? I talked to head field. Head fields a little bit like Tom. And he doesn't make himself available. But head field, head field taking time to come and see you at least once a week. You know, and if that's who he wants to be, that's cool.
You know, it's like I was on that middle show and I know it aired recently, not from when this airs, but they asked me about Zach Wilde because Zach Wilde was playing guitar. And they said, not care. You still drink. Do you miss drinking with Zach Wilde? And I'm like, yeah, I miss drinking with Zach Wilde, but you know, whatever Zach needs is my top priority. Is Zach not drinking? I'm cool with him not drinking. You know, I don't need him to drink to have fun with him. And that's just how it is.
Right, right. Because James is the same way. That's he. Yeah, and he, if you want to be himself, that's cool. I admire when he comes in. So hey, James, it's good to see you. You know, we've been friends for a million years. And, you know, I appreciate you coming. It's amazing to think what you guys, you know, created along with Exodus and, you know, a few other bands overkill.
But you started a whole new movement in music, the same way that the Beatles and the Stones did or, you know, Nirvana did or whatever. It's like you started a whole genre of music, basically. Yeah, that's the thing that's hard to talk about because I'm in it. I'm part of it. Mm-hmm. And to embellish on it, it makes me an asshole. You know? But from an outside, like, for example, today I was watching your set from the side of the stage and it, like I said, it's been- That's a good set today.
It was a good set. And like I said, I've watched probably, probably 10, we've probably done 10 or 12 shows over the last couple of years. And my favorite was one of the ones in Australia when it was so sunny out that your poor bald head was red. That was my pink, pink red. I'm not sure if that was a burn or just blood going through the melon. But I'm listening to a song like, you know, Warren Sombler, something like this or, you know, even Rain and Blood or whatever.
And I'm thinking this 1986, hell awaits 1985. And I mean, nobody. I mean, you know, nowadays you hear, there's a lot of bands that play fast. Love bands that play heavy. But in those days, nobody did anything close to that. There was a kill them all. And then you guys came along and made it even more evil, you know, heavier and faster. What's the mindset? Like, what was going on? Like, why? The mindset, I think amongst us was, let's just take this in the next one.
Next level, I was a gigantic Venom fan and Venom Motorhead, Jeff with Punk, kind of forged its way into making Slayer what it was. Like, what kind of punk was Jeff in you? Like, DRI or was it like dead candidates? I probably wouldn't have been DRI yet. It's a little bit early, right? Yeah. I'm trying to think who was punk. You know, I would have been into minor thread. Gotcha. Adolescence. Okay. I love. But at the time, I didn't get. Yeah. Because I was a singer guy.
I was a Dio, I was a priest and yeah. I was into the singer. And Punk didn't have the guitar players. So I was into metal. That's why I was into metal. That's why I didn't understand punk because it was just anger and aggression and it sounds funny for me to say that right now. That's what we are. Right. But at that point, I'm like, I don't get this man. You know, it's just shitty guitar sounds and some dude just screaming crappy lyrics. And it took me a minute. And I'm like, oh, I get it.
It's angst. I get it. And that's what we became, you know, kind of a crossover between metal and punk of some sorts. Were you listening to like a record like Kill'em All and Going We Want to Be heavier than that? I don't know. You know what I want to be more heavy than was rat and motley crew. You know, it wasn't about being heavier than my friends. It was about, you know, just having that.
It was about being extreme and, you know, I knew Metallica and my brothers, Megadeth, I mean, I played their first five shows, they were my brothers and Thracs weren't my brothers yet, but they became my brothers, you know, and one about that is about, you know, just expanding what was happening. Were you, did you, were you a fan of Exodus at the time? You know, like, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Exodus's first record is one of the most priceless records ever. Exodus.
It's kind of underrated when you're talking about the big four and that is the big four. But there was like a big five. Totally. People have overkill or death angel. It's got to be Exodus. And it could be Testament too. That's true, right? That's true. There's a lot that aren't in that big four and none of us named us that. That's just what people called us. Yeah, that's the press, right? So you got to Testament Exodus. Maybe not death angel. They were came a couple years later, right?
Overkill from the East Coast. Well, yeah. And then machine head came Guns Blazing in the early 90s. Yeah, I guess you're right. But different, different decade though, right? Of course. If you talk about 83, 84, that was kind of. They had a weird section. And it seems like America haven't forgiven them for that. But in Europe, they're right below us. And I love machine head. Right. Yeah. Rob Flynn's one of the greatest singers of our era. Have you toured with them before?
Dude, I demanded they did our 94 tour. Really? Yeah. On Deobos. Deobos, please. Oh, bleed in my, burn my eyes. Burn my eyes. Thank you. I, please, thank you. Is there other bands like that you've demanded to have on tour with you? I think it's the only machine head. Really? Because me and Paul were sharing a room, because I lived in Phoenix at the time. We were sharing a room in Orange County. We're working on, um, uh, Divine Intervention. Or might have been done. I don't know.
And I played the CD. And I'm like, I want these guys. I heard the first thing and all you hear is, whoa. Oh, my God. Man, it's another death metal singer. I don't want to have this. But that record's awesome. Mm-hmm. And I said, I want these guys on everywhere we go. And I demanded it. And that's the only time I've ever said these guys need to be on the tour. Wow. That's cool. And they were. We took them in the States. Uh, we took them to Austria. I think they're in Europe too. Mm-hmm.
Um, but that's how much I went. These guys need to be seen. Is it weird for you, like you're talking about machine obviously, some slayer influence there? I mean, you could go play in a crappy little pub and in between your songs, some guy is going to be yelling, Slayer, Slayer, like you hear it all the time. Like, Slayer has become like this iconic entity. Is it weird for you to think that? Because you're, and this is something that it's funny, but you're carry king and on stage, you're carry.
So backstage, you're one of the most laid back dudes. You're the sweet, sweet guy. I should be able to say that. Hey, stop it. Stop it. Right, right. But I mean, how is that for you when you see and like Slayer shirts and people yelling Slayer and it's become something that's bigger than just the guys in the band? It's a brand. It's a brand. And I'm a very lucky person that people think of it like that. Because I mean, I've heard friends do it at a Britney Spears concert.
They'll say, hey, I heard somebody say Slayer to Britney Spears concert. And I'm like, oh, that's odd. Everywhere. It's free bird and slayer. That's the most chanted thing at any gig. So I guess I did good, you know. What do you think it is about your band that made it get to this point? I think, and I said this a million times, I think, I think metal has the most fans that are so tuned into it that it's just, it's part of their life.
And I think Thrash and especially Slayer is that much more above that. And I think, I think that they feel bond with us because I'm just like them. If I wasn't in this band, I'd be where they are watching whoever it is. I mean, not Slayer, whoever. And I think, I think it just translates more than anything than any other band, not band, any other music genre. Because you see me, you see me in my house. This is what I wear. Yeah. You know, I dress up for the stage, I put on my letters. Right.
You change. You know, this is how I am. I'm just like the fans. When I went to your house one time, you gave me a funny hat. You had a bunch of funny, star-holed hats. Yeah, Halloween hats. So it was like a big giant styrofoam mohawk or like, we had tons of shit. You got to put this on. That was around home. Unless it was around home, but we had the whole thing. We made it anyways, man. Exactly, exactly.
All right, let's get back to talking about the new Slayer album, Repentless, with guitarist Kerry King. When you're talking about, you know, a Slayer being like this entity and creating it in 1983, and then now it's time for new Slayer record. And it's the first record you've ever done without Jeff Haneman. Yep. Now you've been touring for years with Gary. Because Jeff basically was bitten by a spider and had his arm was had like flesh eating disease. Dude, his arm was fucked up.
I saw pictures of it. Jeff sent it to me and he didn't look like an arm. And this is a crazy thing because people talk about it and Jeff's obviously a legendary guy. But he was bait. Was he sitting in it? Like, I'm just hearing who's sitting in his hot tub. That's the same story I got. That's his arm. Yeah, I don't know where he was, but he was in some jacuzzi somewhere and that's the story I got. And that is not a lie. I have no better story.
The spider bite caused this arm to start deteriorating. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Jeff's the kind of guy that wouldn't have addressed it. You know, he would have just been like, eh, whatever, you know, that was who Jeff was. And you know, this time wasn't the time to say whatever and actually his wife made him go to the hospital. Really? Yeah. And the dude, the doctor said, hey, man, first, I'll have this go. This is one of, this is a great story that I don't think I've ever said.
Said, first I want to try to save, first I'm going to try to save your life. Then I'm going to try to save your arm because that's how messed up he was. Wow. Yeah, it was serious. So that's like that's so crazy. And his thing is, I'm not saying it's any type of humor. It almost sounds like a slayer lyric. You know, it's weird, dude. It's weird. And that's that's how far Jeff let it go for someone to try to save your life. I love something out for someone to try to save your life.
They'll try to save your arm. They're going to try to save your career. Oh, to still play guitar. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, he was messed up. And that was super weird, dude. But the funny part about it was Jeff's a guy that would let it get to that point. That's just who Jeff was. Like obviously, you know, he's a rec loose. Everybody knows that. And the poor dude just was sitting in his house, letting his arm deteriorate. I'm not saying anything about it.
Yeah. So when you finally find out, I'm 50, what are you? 44. You know, we're invincible, right? Yeah. We're invincible. We don't want to go to the doctor. Yeah. That's how Jeff was. Jeff didn't want to go to the doctor. He's like, man, I got this. And he didn't. Did you have any inkling that there's anything going on? Or do you just call him on day? No, no, no, no, no, we're off tour. I remember that. I remember that. Yeah. We scatter. So how do you even know he's like an hour away from me?
He's an hour in a direction. I don't go. And you know how that is? People know how that is. I mean, I haven't seen my dad in a long time because he's a direction. I don't go. And that's my dad, Jesus. Right, right, right. So how did you finally find out that his arm was messed up? Oh, did you have a tour coming up and say, here we're going out? No, no, we didn't. Oh, we might have. It might have been, it might have been that sound wave that we brought a hold onto.
I think actually, I remember seeing that. Well, yeah, I saw it the big forward end of go in California. And that's where Gary was playing. And Jeff came and played a couple songs. Yeah, do you remember that? Yeah. And he was wearing a shirt that showed off his crazy, weird, red swollen arm. So that was the last time he performed. Right. So when you find out that you're going to be playing, is the first guy you're thinking is I got to get Gary Holt in here?
Or did you talk to Jeff and say, can you play? I mean, how did that come about? I knew Jeff couldn't play. And I already had Gary in my back pocket for any future thing I ever do. I mean, that's a hard conversation. I called Gary Holt. I had probably early 2010. I said, hey, man, if I ever do anything, would you be into doing it? And he's like, man, I was hoping if this day ever came, he'd hit me up. So we just kept it in our back pocket, you know, there was nothing. There was no music.
There was nothing. Then the Jeff thing went down. I called Gary Holt again. And these are hard conversations, man, because even though Gary's my friend, I don't know, you know? And he grew up to the prom kind of. Yeah, right? And if you could turn down, you're like, oh, man, we saw. Well, because that's always the thing, like you and I should do something, dude. And then when you actually get the call, yeah, and I already had that okay.
Right. And I said, hey, dude, we're going to Australia and Jeff's not going. And I said, would you like to play in Slayer? And he said, absolutely. And we've been going ever since. Did you, did Jeff say, did you guys have a conversation? Or like, dude, I got to get someone to replace you for a bit? I didn't have a conversation because he was in the hospital. And if we're scheduled to be somewhere, I have to cover our ass. And I did.
And after the fact, Jeff and Gary took pictures and Jeff's like, man, it couldn't be a better pick. And he's my only pick. I mean, I had it back up, but he's my only pick. So you had the blessing. Yeah, that's cool. Absolutely. Absolutely. But the thing is, that's understandable. I'm sure Jeff would even agree with you on that. Like, dude, I mean, Jeff and Holt go back 30 years, well, 25 plus. But it's cool because I'm not begging on priests when I say this, but he's from our era. He's our age.
I've known him all my life. He's in the scene, right? Yeah. And he's the one, if anybody got left behind, he's the one that should be brought into prominence because he's that good. Like you said, he was underrated and was just wasn't in the right band for it or whatever. You know, did you ever talk to Jeff about coming back? Or did you just knew that he just, did he ever talk to him a lot about it?
And every time, and we had sporadic tours or a couple shows here and there to where our manager would say, hey, man, let's get Jeff involved. I'm like, yeah, let's get Jeff involved. And I would bring him around. And I would watch him play. And it was good. But I said, Jeff, you got to understand Gary's playing this stuff. And he's playing it note for note. I said, there's no room for gray area here. And I hope you understand what I'm saying. And he's like, yeah, I get it.
And I'm like, man, I want you to be there. And I want you to be part of what we are. But you got to understand if there's somebody doing your gig, I don't want to say better. But if there's somebody doing your gig and you're not up to par with what he's doing, you got to get better. And that's the hardest thing I had to say. It was tough. How did he react? He said, I know. I mean, that's the thing is a professional, man. You and I, whatever it is we're doing.
If you know that you're not up to snuff, you don't want to, I'm not going to say embarrass yourself, but you don't want to go out there and be second rate. Well, when he came out for the big four at Coachella, he was supposed to play four songs. And we rehearsed a little bit and I said, listen, man, because I knew he wasn't where he needed to be. And I didn't want to make him as spectacle. I said, listen to you. You're going to play two songs.
He's like, well, I got the four songs you're rehearsed. I said, I know you got the four song rehearsed, dude. I said, I don't want people to focus in on what you're doing because I don't want them to think you're not as good as you are because you are good. And I'm sorry, but I think if you go out there for two songs, they'll notice it less. And I don't want people to have a bad memory of you, not even knowing that was going to be his last gig.
You know, I said, you're my bro, man, I want to protect what you are. And at a respect, you know, like you said, the longer that someone's out there under par, you're going to notice it more. Yeah, you're going to focus on it. Yeah, exactly. But that being said, when we're playing Coachella, when you're in Jeff's backyard, I can't let him not be on stage. I'm like, yeah, I want you on stage. And it was a great moment. I don't know what two songs you played.
Maybe it was Angel and Rain or something. But it was a cool moment because no one had seen him for a year or two years or whatever it was. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, but at the end of the day, it was me protecting who Jeff was. Right. Now Jeff passed away a couple of years ago or whatever it was. I remember we were at Golden Gods that day when it was announced that he was on stage. And that we decided to change that whole, I remember I talked to you about it.
Like I said, hey, man, do you mind if we turn this into a celebration and you're like, absolutely, you came out there, shot a jagger and a jagger and all that stuff. How was it making a record without him? The weirdest part was him not being there because musically, me and him write everything. It's your teammate. Yeah, your partner, right? So for 30 years. I mean, I took it when he got bit in 2010, 11, wherever it was.
I took it upon myself to start writing a ton of shit in case Jeff came with nothing. I didn't know. I didn't know if he was going to come back and have tons of shit or have nothing. So I wrote a bunch. I'm like, hey, man, if I write half a slayer record and I got a bunch of other shit, I can play with a bunch of my friends. I got tons of friends that want to have been, they've been wanting to play me for years, you know?
Yeah. And it turns out I wrote an entire slayer record plus half the next record. And we did use one of Jeff's songs on this one. Oh, you did? Yep. Did you send you some tapes or did you find them? This is one we did at the end of the World Pain of Blood session. So it's been done, but it was kind of an afterthought then. So it wasn't polished. So in this session, we took that recording, had Paul play to it, Tom Rees sang it. The only lead on its mind, so there's no Jeff guitar on it.
Oh, so, okay. So you played the rhythm on it? I played the rhythm officially, but it's his... I played, yeah, I played both rhythms since like the 90s. Yeah, okay, gotcha. So unfortunately, no, Jeff is not on the record, but that's his song. His riff is on it, yeah. Now how was it with Gary? Did Gary write anything on the record? Just contribute so little? No, I thought the best thing for slayer historians and fans.
Was there's ever... I thought the best thing historically for slayer and fans was for Gary to play leads as the dual guitar thing. Right, right. Because you can have dual guitars if there's no two guitars. Yeah. But as far as writing risks, I didn't think Slayer fans would be as acceptable to it. Exes fans, of course. And sure, there's a crossover there. But I didn't think Slayer fans would be stoked if Holt wrote on this record.
So maybe the next one, if Holt wants to, and I mean, I think it would be cool, but on this record, he has played some leads. Well, because he just put a new Exodus record. So it's kind of like, where does the line get drawn for him? Like, oh, this is a slayer riff and this is an Exodus. Because there's a lot of things that cross the difference. Because there is a bit of a difference and I think he would know that. What do you think the difference is?
Um, Exodus is just thrash and Slayer's got this doomy thing. Doomy is just dark. I think it's just dark. It's dark. Are you, are you, or was Jeff, ACDC fans? I'm big AC's fan. Because my favorite bits of Slayer songs or parts of Slayer songs are the groove parts. For example, Angel of Death. Everyone knows the classic rip round, they could dig a dig a dig a down, but it's the drums. Boom, you could dive, take a boo, you could dive. South of the head are a season of the bits. Boom, duh, boo.
It's like, there's a real groove to it. Sure. And that's where I find it's like, you guys almost swing, which in thrash metals, like in Slayer, Slayer doesn't swing, but there is... No, just dark, that's all I can call it. It's dark, but there's a groove to it. And I was wondering, like, I wonder if he digs DC because that's a total ACDC vibe to it. Which makes a great balance to the blast beats. ACDC, to me, I mean, I love the early ACDC.
Bons gots my hero, and I wish I could've seen them live other than on screen. Right. So much, so much. And Brian Johnson's a bad ass too. Probably the best replacement singer ever. Yeah? Are you talking about replacing a singer that passed away or just in general? Ever. Bruce Dickinson? Oh, that's tough, man. That's a tough one, man. Yeah, right, yeah, right. But, okay, so let's do this. But they're there. They got to be identical. I agree. Like, better than Brian Johnson.
Yeah. I agree with you on that. Dickinson sings like a bird. For sure. Yeah. Brian Johnson sings ACDC, and it's awesome. I agree. But I wish I would've seen ACDC of Bonscott. And I can't remember the being. What was the being of this conversation? Oh, we were just talking about, we talked about Slayer Riffs. It'd be different between Slayer and Exodus. And I said, Slayer has a bit of a groove. You said it's do me, and I said, but there's a groove to it.
And I was wondering if ACDC might be a band that you dig because of that. I do love ACDC. Oh, I know where I was going. One of my favorite late ACDC records is Razer's Edge. Because it's dark. Wow. Those riffs are dark. That's what I wanted to talk about. Dude, the song Razer's Edge, very dark. Super dark. I mean, really weird for Angus, because Angus is a bluesy guy. Bluesy rock and roll guys. That's right. And that album is dark. Love it. You know what's cool?
I'm sure you know this, but it feel like Rod got in his trouble. So they brought Chris Slay back in the band. The ball guy. The ball guy. 20 years later. Which to me, it's like pretty cool, because I think he's 68 or something. Wow. I mean, out of the band for 20 years, and here he is playing clubs. And then the next week, he's in the big spin world. Let me tell you something, man. I could play drums for ACDC. You could play drums for ACDC, dude. I can keep time. Then it ain't fast. Boom tap.
Boom. I got this. Maybe ACDC is your tire of me. There's that groove to it, right? So we're talking about the new record. And you said that you kind of, so you basically wrote the whole record. Does Tom ever write anything at all? Musical, you know. So lyrically though? He, um, me and him worked on one song and all the other ones. I pretty much brought to him and say, here you go. Mm-hmm. Do your thing. Mm-hmm. So how do you feel about the record? And you're first without Jeff? Man, I'm stoked.
And Paul is in the band, Gary's in the band. Like, this is the first, this is like a rebirth almost in a lot of ways. It's really awesome. Yeah. It's really awesome. I mean, there's heavy. There's fast. There's spooky. It's... I would play any of these songs live. Wow. And that's usually... You don't usually get that on them. No. People say, like, yeah, I mean, I'll play this one. It's good. You're gonna like it. Okay. Fans are gonna like it. You're gonna dig it. Did you feel any, um...
Not responsibility, but I'll use the word responsibility to Jeff's legacy. Like, did you feel like I want him to be proud of this? Or are you that type of guy? Did you just... It happens like... Well, I've never written... I've never written a clean intro. That's always been Jeff. Oh, okay. And the clean intro... Like, a season of the Abyss type intro type thing. Yeah, I think, okay. That's Hanuman. The clean intro to Stillness Combs, I've had that for 20 years.
I just never had any friends to marry it to. And I wasn't sure. You know, I've never done a clean intro. And then I made that song. I'm like, this is a good song. And then when it was finished, I went, Ben, I nailed it. You know, and you don't know, because I never contributed that to Slayer. And on the album, there's another clean intro. And it's the same. And it's cool, because I kind of... I didn't pick up for Jeff by any means. But I kind of took on what he did and made it Slayer.
And it still sounds Slayer. And that's all I can do. Exactly. Keep the legend going, you know. Yeah. It's a good machine. It's still a badass machine. And we're going to rip some shit up. Is there a difference between the way Paul plays in the way that Dave Lombardo played? A little bit. Did you miss Dave at all? Dave's input at all in any way? Dude, I love Dave. Dave's still a friend of mine. Dave made some bad choices. And unfortunately, it led to him not being in the bin.
Paul is a guy. Dave's a natural. Dave will stretch like five minutes for a dawn. He'll do like a dawn stretch and go on stage. To where Paul, Paul's a guy that works every day to be as good as he is. It's really weird, because there are opposite ends of the spectrum, but they end up in the same place. I could play with either one of them, man. They're both my friends, and I admire what they do. Right, right. But like we said, man, the new lineup that you have is pretty smoking.
I, yeah. I'm stoked. When we first met years and years and years ago, you were a big, I don't know if you're a big wrestling fan, but you're a big stone cold Steve Austin fan. I was, dude, because back then wrestling wasn't as gazed at as now. I don't mean, I don't mean you're fenced to gay people. You're just a turd gay, not that guy. Back then, stone cold was badass. The undertaker was badass. The rock was badass. There was just people that took names, you know? Right.
And then it became that cutie thing again. PG-13, right? Yeah. But used to where, like, I remember seeing you wearing Austin 316. Oh man, I wore that for an entire tour. Did he use the only other podcast I've done? That's right. Yeah. Were you, were you into wrestling as a kid or just turned the TV on one day and see Austin go this guy's great, or how did it come to that? I think I had a amusement with it. And then when I saw people like stone cold, it just came in and said, no, this is my show.
Right. And I'm going to kick the shit out of you. That's when I went, this is really cool. Yeah. You know, cane back then. Hey, you're talking about late 90s, early 2000s. Yeah, because I went to WrestleMania 2000. Okay, so I was out that one. Right, yeah, so I was, that was my first WrestleMania. Yeah. I still got my chair, because I was in the lower level.
See, and that was the cool thing when I first came to the WWE just to see, like I remember you came one time, I remember Lemmy came one time, I remember we were in Houston and Billy Gibbons is in the front row. And you'd see like, wow, there's a lot of dudes that I love that are here watching this. It's really cool, you know? Yeah. I mean, of course we know what it is. Yeah. But when it was more realistic, that was awesome. Yeah. And I had good times then. You know, I went and saw a lot of it.
But I had, you know, the paper views I went to, the 2000 WrestleMania, and I went to one of the, there was no way out, maybe? Yeah, one of the, and silly, everyone. And I still have those chairs. So all the ones that were in Anaheim basically, you went to? Yeah. And some of the offsuits I went to. Okay. I used to have the chairs. Yeah. It was a great souvenir, man. Totally, man. You know, you couldn't do that in a rock show, because people don't really want to see chairs.
No, you don't want chairs. But at the, yeah, at the very thing. The last thing I want to talk about is I text you today, because I know you're a big snake, aficionado. Oh, yeah. Still, because I know slash, I had to sell all his snakes. Do you still, are you still a snake guy? I'm the biggest carpet python breeder, probably in this continent. So I came to, I went to your house that one time, you didn't have the snakes in there. No, we used to. But not when you went. When you went to your house.
Do you have any, with their order of warehouse? So a carpet python breeder? Yeah. What's a carpet python? Carpet python is one of the most common snakes in Australia. And the carpet python name comes from, they're like carpet, they're everywhere. A carpet of pythons. So, so what do you do when you breed them? Do you sell them to stores or do you? Ideally, I just took on a dude that's kind of an online broker who's got, you know, a big, I don't know, what do you call it, a big following?
Because I don't have time to put them online. My dude that takes care of them, don't have time to take them to put them online. This guy has a following and he puts them online and he's moved 20 snakes in like two weeks. Two other collectors or other people that just... I don't know. Right. Collectors. I mean, if I'm in a show, if I'm doing a snake show, people will come and buy something because it's mine. Right. And I assume they know how to take care of snakes because they're there.
And I hope they know how to take care of snakes. But some people just like, oh man, this is a carry king snake, you know, I'm going to buy, you know, not the cheapest one, but something a little about that. But there's people that, you know, they just, one of times online though, they'll pay for something and pick it up at the show. So there's no shipping. So, but why snakes? Because when I get into snakes originally, they're the kind of animal that doesn't take daily care.
So in the early days, when I would tour like a week or two at a time, I could just put some water in there and be fine. You know, it's all like a dog and I have my dogs and, you know, it's a burden if I leave a dog with somebody. It's a burden if I leave a cat with somebody. I don't have to leave a snake with anybody. Yeah, snakes, and that's the thing. Like, I know, actually, you know, the rest are William Regal, the guy. Yeah, I'm a big snake. I think you told me that. Collector as well.
And so was slash. And like I told you the day, I went out to my dog. I live in Florida in Tampa. We were on the lake and there was, you know, people are in the springtime. There's nobody on the lake. And finally, summer is coming. We go with the lake and I walk on the dog and the dam. Snake jumps out from underneath and walks over top of my legs and really aggressively. And it goes in the water and it stays there. And then it starts swimming. So I chased it on my jet ski and I'm looking at it.
And dude, I was, I honestly, I swear to God, I wish King was here. I wish Regal was here. That could tell me if this is a watermockison or not. Of course, my wife is like, it's a watermockison. And I'm like, I don't know if it is for sure. But I've had issues with snakes before and I've killed a few. And I told Regal, he's like, why would you kill a snake? Like, how would you deal like, are snakes as scary as we think they are? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not.
Snakes aren't hunting you by any means. Okay. Snakes probably are looking to get away from you more than you're looking to go away from you. Even like the poisonous watermockison. They're not looking to get you, man. Yeah. They don't have a vendetta against humans. They're looking to get out. They don't want any part of you. That's why when you told me that story, I said, and you told me you didn't have a lance head. No, yeah, I didn't have like a shovel head.
Like I went and googled it afterwards. A lance head, yeah. Yeah, it's. I'm guessing like I told you, it's like a whatever kind of racer you have in Florida. Because that kind of thing is fast. And I've seen them and they're astonishingly fast. And they will get in the water and they will jam. Yeah, I need to do it. This guy split. And I don't see a cotton mouth or watermockison doing that. But, you know, we would like, we would a watermockison do. I just kind of hang around.
I think it would just chill and not jump in the water. Gotcha. I'm not positive because I'm not from this area. Right. But that's my opinion. Yeah. Well, like I said, because we don't understand them. You see a snake. It's creepy. Oh, yeah, dude. And I got a lot of friends in Australia. And I love Australia. And Australia's got, I think, seven of the ten deadliest species in the world. Yeah. Which is ironic and weird. And I think in spiders too, like the most poisonous spiders in the lab.
Oh, yeah. And I got a lot of friends there in the zoos and all kinds of stuff. Whenever I go there, I get to go see all kinds of behind the scenes self, which is really rad. What's your favorite type of snake? Carpet python. Other carpet python. Yeah. I mean, I got a guilty pleasure for South Brazilian boas. I got a handful of those. I'm doing some random stuff. What do you feed a carpet python? It depends how old it is, you know. It starts with baby mice. It ends in big rats or rabbits.
How big are they? Carpet's... I mean, I think a reasonable average is seven to eight feet. But I've seen freaks that are 13. And that don't really happen. That's a freak. What are the indigenous two? Are they a bee? Australia. Okay. So you bring them to the States? Well, not from there. I mean, they have to be here or come from Europe because we can't get anything from Australia. Do you hatch like to do? Is there a hatchery with eggs in the... I got a bunch of eggs right now.
How long does it take for a snake egg to hatch? I believe... I haven't done it hands on a couple years. I think it's 55-60 days. So would you have to put like a blanket on it to keep it warm or...? No, dude. I got incubators that are set at about 88-ish. And you get a... Like a fluorescent light deal. Yeah. If you had a cover that was like the... I don't know, quarter inch grate. I said that on top of some kind of substrate to keep them moist and that's where they live.
Wow. And then they just kind of break open and they're there. Yeah. Pop out one in time. I always think of Indiana Jones when they cut this egg. Oh, yeah, he hates it. Yeah. Last question, man. You're getting ready to do this tour with a new record. What's your favorite slayer song to play live? And what's your favorite slayer song that you wrote that you'd never play live? Like kind of a more of a obscure one. Favorite song to play live probably be raining blood. It's just fun.
Yeah. It's always fun. It will always be in the set. And it doesn't matter if it's in the beginning of the end, people just light up. Like it's electric. Once again, the groove at the beginning of that song is incredible. Favorite song? I wrote... Did I? I wrote? Did we all play? Yeah, I mean, is there a tune that you always thought would be bigger than it was? And it just kind of fell by the wayside? No, it's just... At this point in our career, it's fitting shit in. You know, because...
But I mean, just on the record. Like any song that you wrote that you thought was really cool that you kind of never played. I like... I like in the name of God. And I also like American. And sometimes there's your not room to fit them in. Because there's so many things we have to play. And then, besides that, there's so many things we have to play different than we played last time. In my eyes. So you can't do the same set.
Yeah, I mean, you have to have five to eight of the same songs every time. Yeah, you got your lips. Yeah. So it's just... You know, fitting stuff in. I mean, I would really like to play Gemini. But there's not a whole lot of room to fit that into any set that we were playing. Yeah. For free. Yeah. And if you played it, the Slayer die hard as a freak. And there are probably a lot of people going... And that would have to be a Slayer headlining to our period. Right, totally, totally.
What... One more thing I want to ask you. I always wondered this. At the beginning of Hell awaits, there's this killer backwards thing. And I was like, sin-yot. Sin-yot. Sin-yot. You don't know what that says? What does it say? Join us. Join us. Join us for what? You know where I got that? Where? Evil Dead. Nice. That's some cool shit. Yep. Because they say that in Evil Dead. Join us, right? That's where I got it. And we get backwards. Do we say join us and put it backwards? Join us for what?
A pizza or a Jagger shot or...? No, fuck you. Join Slayer. I'm joined the Slayer Army. Yep. Dude, thank you so much, man. Cheers, man. I'm a new record and let's have another shot. Oh, it's going to be good. Thanks again to the King. Such a sweet guy. A really dig-him man. Very, very cool. Glad I got to talk to him in his dress room at Welcome to Rockville. And the new Slayer album Repentless Drop 2 Day. If you want to buy it, you know where you can get it. And you know what you want to do.
If you buy it on Amazon, use the talk as Jericho links. Just go to podcast1.com. Click on the supporter of ShowSpotters, Bandit Up, the Page, Uagey, then hit talk as Jericho. I got links for Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada A. Every time you use them links, Amazon will kick back a little money to the show to help with production costs. Easiest way to support the show by anything you want. Buy the new Slayer album Repentless. Buy the new Iron Maiden album, The Book of Souls. Buy Kiss Alive.
I've had a great string of Rock and Roll guests this week, haven't I? It's been amazing. These are Rock and Roll icons all on talk as Jericho. One after another, Bruce Dickens and Paul Stanley, CarriKing, nobody is giving you guests like this. Anywhere, nobody. All right. If you go buy those records, do it on Amazon. You won't be disappointed in any of them. You won't be disappointed in me. It's starting tonight. The Y2J WWE Fall Tour, yay! We are in Edmonton, September 11th tonight.
Calgary on the 12th. Then we head over to Toronto, a lot of Canadian shows. Then Syracuse and Rochester, 25th, 26th, 27th. October 2nd in Trenton, October 3rd, the Y2J 25th anniversary. Exactly 25 years that I've been in the resting business at Madison Square Garden. Come check that out. I'm also going to be in Saudi Arabia, October 8th, 9th, 10th. Mexico, 16th, 17th, 18th. You know what shows in cities, those are if you live there. October 30th, switch over to Fosie.
We're going to be with the Kiss Navy on the Kiss Crews. Then we're taking the Cinder Block Party to our back to the UK in Europe with non-point Sumo Psycho and Toe. November 13th, it starts in Rotterdam, go to FosieRock.com for all ticket information, all getting your information. And get some VIPs, man. Come and meet us. We have the best VIP program in the world today. I want to come hang with you. Come hang with us. Come rock with us.
Thank you guys for being here and rocking with me here in Talk is Jericho. Thanks for downloading this show twice week for free. And thanks for the great sponsors, Mian D's. Use my promo code Jericho. Get 20% off your first order. Draftkings use my promo code Y2J to play for free. Uber, Choucar, Recovery Max. You can get that at drugstore.com. And of course, Seat Geek use my promo code Chris J. Get 20$ rebate off your first ticket purchase. All right, stay hard. Stay hungry. Peace, loving hugs.
Thanks to Kerry King for being here. Thanks to you for being here. And next Wednesday, taking it back to the WWE. I got Dana Warrior talking about the Ultimate Warrior. That's right, Ultimate Warrior's wife will be here to talk all things Ultimate Warrior. And what a sweetheart she is and what a great conversation. It's the Warrior. He's gonna be talking about on Talk is Jericho. Dear boy! You can download new episodes of Talk is Jericho every Wednesday and Friday at podcast1.com.
That's podcast0ne.com.