Slayer’s Kerry King Comments Further on the Tom Araya/Donald Trump Controversy

Perhaps feeling that yesterday’s band statement on the matter wasn’t enough, Kerry King has now released a second statement pertaining to this week’s brouhaha surrounding Tom Araya, a Photoshopped Instagram photo of Donald Trump, and some really insensitive comments. You can read that statement below, via the Instagram account of King’s wife, Ayesha:

For the Slayer fans who follow me and are aware of the post on the Slayer Instagram, there’s an official statement out on many websites. However, Kerry also wanted me to post this for him to you. If you’re just here for the animals, you can skip this post haha! ????????

A photo posted by Ayesha King (@slaywhore) on Jan 26, 2017 at 9:43pm PST

King makes some valid points, and his statement is definitely superior to the one the band released.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any way to shove this guitar back into the case, if you catch my meaning. None of this changes the fact that Araya made a very uncool joke about gay conversion therapy (which is basically torture), or that Araya’s position undermines the band’s status as super-rebellious badasses. In those regards, the damage has been done.

The good news for Slayer is this: I’d bet 98.5% of their fans are willing to put this aside and keep supporting ’em. Again: if Jeff Hanneman dying didn’t cause people to turn their backs on Slayer, I don’t think Araya’s ignorance will, either.

[via Metal Injection]